Get Your Gourmet Mushroom Kit - With money off discount coupon here!

Want to Grow Yoru Own Gourmet Mushrooms? Then be sure to use the following limited time checkout code: Mushrooms4me10 for a 10% discount online on our Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Gardens. Grow up to 1lb of gourmet mushrooms in as little as 10 days right from the box!

It was Spring ’09 and we were fourth years at UC Berkeley. Both of us had offers in corporate America. Investment banking and consulting seemed to be the futures waiting for us after graduation. All that changed one day after listening to a lecture in one of our business ethics courses when we first heard about the idea that gourmet mushrooms can be grown entirely on recycled coffee grounds.

We could really do something with this idea: we discussed the possibilities. America is absolutely addicted to coffee. The world production of coffee is nearly 7 million tons a year. Only 1% ends up in the cup, while 99% ends up in the land fill. The possibility of diverting this waste stream, into something of value, gourmet mushrooms, was something we just couldn’t let go. As the weeks went by, we really dove into first seeing if we could actually grow mushrooms from coffee grounds, and then seeing if this idea could work as the basis of a full scale social venture.

The first plan of action was definitely an interesting experience. We went around to local coffee shops collecting used coffee grounds. Out of the 10 buckets of the mushrooms we planted, only one grew. In that one bucket though, we saw potential. We took that batch to the local Berkeley Whole Foods, and the team members we showed it to took a real interest. We created a plan and submitted our business proposal to “Bears Breaking Boundaries,” an entrepreneurial competition sponsored by the UC Berkeley Chancellor to provide $5,000 in initial funding for a ground breaking project. And that’s really the story of how we got started, giving up the corporate titles to carry a new one: “The Mushroom Guys.”

After graduating, we then started Back to the Roots, a name symbolizing sustainability, innovation and social responsibility. What is so unique about Back to the Roots is its completely closed loop system. We first utilized a large waste stream to produce something of value: gourmet oyster mushrooms. The mushrooms were harvested and sold across NorCal Whole Foods Markets. The leftover coffee grounds, enriched by the mushroom growth, turned into premium soil amendment that was then donated to local nurseries and urban farms, giving back to the community from which we gather the coffee grounds from.

We are on track to divert over 1 million lbs of coffee grounds in 2011 and have helped families grow over 250,000 lb of fresh oyster mushrooms right at the home. Starting off as purely an urban mushroom farm, Back to the Roots has recently transformed into an organization dedicated to letting everyone grow their own fresh food right at home…as local as it gets! We’re doing this first through our Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Garden.

We’ve also just recently launched a new Facebook campaign, incorporating education into our framework. If you post a picture of you fully grown kit in hand on our Facebook Page, we will donate a kit to an elementary school of your choice. We’d love to show kids the fun in growing and eating fresh!

The Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Gardens, sold on our website and at over 250 Whole Foods across the nation, are packaged in post-consumer cardboard and printed on with soy ink, an environmentally better alternative. Our mushroom kits arrive in the mail ready to grow: we wanted to create a sustainable product that is easy and simple, so everyone can enjoy growing & eating fresh (including kids…who love watching them grow so fast!). The mushroom kits yield multiple crops, and you get up to one pound of delicious pearl oyster mushroom in as little as 10 days from your first crop. The soil inside is safe &sustainable too – 100% recycled coffee grounds! And while you may be worrying that the mushrooms taste like coffee, plenty of chefs, like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, can attest to their authentic nutty flavor.

Through our Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Garden, we hope to encourage people to go “Back to the Roots” of sustainability. If you want to try growing your own delicious mushrooms, use the special discount we’re giving just to Container Gardening Magazine readers: just type in Mushrooms4me10 on the checkout page of our website and get 10% off!

Happy Harvesting!

Nikhil & Alex
Back to the Roots, Co-founders

Most of us will simply water our container gardens by hand, and enjoy doing it. However, increasingly people do need to travel during the flowering season and may need to irrigate their plants during their absence. If you have considered irrigating your container garden, read on for our introduction to the systems available.

Irrigation systems are designed to supply an adequate amount of water in a timely manner to plants. Keeping this in mind is important when designing an irrigation system. 

There are two types of systems sprinkler/spray head and drip or trickle irrigation systems. Both can be used for container watering. 

However, drip irrigation systems are a great way to provide constant moisture to container grown plants without saturating. Drip irrigation works by applying water slowly, directly to the soil. This type of irrigation is highly efficient. 

Drip irrigation kits are available at most garden centers. They allow you to water plants separately with emitters, or water groups of plants with micro-spray stakes or tapes that ooze water along their entire length. 

Unfortunately, drip emitters suffer from a handicap as they are easily plugged by silt or other particles not filtered out of the irrigation water. Emitter blockages also can be caused by algae growing in the tape or by chemical deposits at the emitter head. 

As a result, on a farm scale drip irrigation systems usually require more filtration and require higher water quality than sprinklers. If the water source is surface water (for example ditch, reservoir), high quality filtration stages should be used. If a borehole source is used less filtration may be possible. 

However, when for the home and garden, the source is a potable water supply the problem of filtration does not usually arise, so the drip type systems usually work well. 

Emitters come in many different flow rates and styles. Some emission devices are designed specifically for dense plantings and are considered to be broadcast emission devices. 

The alternative for container plants is of course the use of automatic sprinkler controllers. At the top of the range these can include electric control valves, pop-up spray heads and/or the use of pop-up rotors. This can make keeping your landscaping or yard maintained in your absence a simple matter, however, such automatic controls are unnecessary for short absences with drip systems as these can be left to run continually once set up.

By Garden Magaziner 

Hi! I am “Garden Magaziner”!

I am looking forward to the pleasure of introducing “container gardening ” to as many people as I can, and by starting this new “magazine” (or blog!), I hope to introduce many more. There really is no bigger delight than showing people how to grow crops in different kinds of containers (pots, plastic or PET bottles, yoghourt pots, plastic bags etc.).

Anyone can do it, and even the most humble apartment dweller will normally have a few square feet of balcony or windowsill upon which to start a few containers.

It is surprising how many people just have not grown things before, and using the web like this is s great way to guide their involvement for their simple enjoyment of living things, and the reward of watching a flower blossom as a result of your own handiwork, or your container grown vegetables ripen to provide a tasty dish.

Very popular models are wood or wood tone materials that look organic in nature. Also very popular are containers made of stone which give a very earthy feel to any area of your home or even outside your home. If such a thing is possible, then people who live in urban environments can also enjoy the benefits of organic gardening. As a result of this experiment, I have learned that a dozen flowerpots are more than enough to produce a quarter of my vegetable needs. It is an art which deals with conscious arrangement or organization of outdoor space for human satisfaction and enjoyment.

If you are an organic gardener, and you are using worm castings or some other form of compost that is rich, this will help lighten the load as this material is light and fluffy in the beginning. Although you can grow plants of almost any type in your worm compost, it is better to mix it with regular soil or potting soil which will add density and weight to the container that you are placing it in. Few of us have a plot the size of Jamie Oliver’s, but the idea is that you don’t need a lot of space to grow fresh, organic vegetables. Windowsills, balconies and tiny front gardens can all be pressed into service.

It has the fantastic ability to transmute your desires into physical counterparts and create a new reality for you. You can do anything that your mind can conceive, as long as you have the belief and will power to back it up. You can get very creative with container gardening. Containers don’t necessarily need to cost a lot of money either.

For more great information on container and general gardening we recommend a visit to The Container Gardening Magazine web site.