Holiday Gift Guide: Back to the Roots Mushroom Garden

Who ever thought that I would be able to grow mushrooms? I mean I can kill a fake flower if given the chance.  Well with Back to the Roots Mushroom Garden I can do just that.  Back to the Roots is the brainchild of Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez who discovered that they could grow mushrooms from recycled coffee grounds.

We received an Grow Your Own Mushrooms Kit,  which is a  mushroom kit that lets anyone grow up to 1lb of  oyster mushrooms at home in as little as 10 days – all out of recycled coffee grounds!  The kit is very easy to use and is the most no-hassle gardening  have ever in my entire life done. Once it arrived I opened the box and put some slits in the bag that contained the “soil” then soaked it overnight in water. The next morning I put it back into the box it came in and waited. I had to spray it twice a day with the little spray bottle that is provided. It took a few days before we could see anything but then we could see little tiny mushrooms growing. Couple of days later and there was mushrooms. A little tip though if you wait too long to harvest your mushrooms as I did you can put them in a bowl of water and they come back to live, so to speak. Starting in this fall, the kit will also have seeds embedded within its plantable cardboard so that once are done growing mushrooms, you can grow another new garden with veggies including sweet onions and tomatoes and herbs including basil.

This is the perfect gift for any avid gardener on your holiday list but even better this would be the perfect hostess gift for all those holiday parties that you may be attending. It is the perfect way to impress the bosses wife! Plus if you post a picture of your kit after you have grown your mushrooms Back to the Roots will donate a mushroom garden and sustainability curriculum to a classroom of their choice so you can pass on sustainable growing to more kids.