Mushrooms Grown on Coffee Grounds: The Back To The Roots Story

Founded by Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, 'Back To The Roots' it's a great example showing the power of mushroom success. As students of UC Berkeley back in 2009 Alejandro and Nikhil were heading into the corporate world of investment banking and consulting. However, two months away from graduation they came across the idea of being able to grow gourmet mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds. They started to grow oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds in a fraternity kitchen and today in 2012 they collect, divert and reuse 3.6 million lbs of coffee grounds from local coffee shops. Currently they are selling their kits at over 300 Whole Foods across US, help families grow fresh food at home and sustain 10 urban schools and community gardens by donating them premium soil amendment based on spent coffee grounds.

Probably you are already familiar with their famous oyster mushroom kit that sells well even on the internet.

Oyster mushroom kit.
Source: www.bttventures.com

Their story it's incredible! they were practically waking up in the mornings and collecting spent coffee grounds from different local coffee shops. These spent coffee grounds without any value for coffee shop owners were thrown away as garbage. Now, these two guys were collecting this garbage and transforming it into food that was then sold to local supermarkets. While their own garbage was sold as premium soil amendment. To use the same waste twice and to get an income from it it's a brilliant idea. Check out their story:

Their story is very inspiring and probably some of you out there already thinking about local coffee shops and their waste that could be turned into wages. If you like their story please share it with your friends, because this material could change their lives forever.

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