AOL Cause Team Extends Discount on Organic Mushrooms

Author: Faith Botica   Back to the Roots, which produces a Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden that lets anyone grow their own gourmet mushrooms at home, will be featured on the Cause of the Day module on AOL.com today.  Back to the Roots has offered a 30-day public discount of 10% off all mushroom kits (with discount codeAOLImpact10 at checkout).   Back to the Roots was started by two college friends, Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora. When sitting in a class lecture at UC Berkeley, they came across the idea of potentially growing gourmet mushrooms entirely on recycled coffee grounds. Inspired by the idea of turning waste into wages and fresh, local food, they experimented and ended up growing one test bucket of tasty oyster mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds. With that one bucket, some initial interest from Whole Foods and Chez Panisse and a $5,000 grant from the UC Berkeley Chancellor for social innovation, they decided to forget the corporate route, and instead, become full-time urban mushroom farmers!     The Back to the Roots Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden lets you grow up to 1.5 pounds of tasty oyster mushrooms right out of the box...and you get your first crop in just 10 days! The soil inside is entirely recycled coffee grounds -- safe and sustainable! ..