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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5 Reasons Why You Should Grow Mushrooms

In my previous post I was talking about reasons why you shouldn't grow mushrooms. Now it's time to discuss the advantages of mushroom cultivation. Personally, I consider that discussing advantages and disadvantages of mushroom growing is very important especially because builds up motivation or does the opposite. Anyway, it's important for someone starting this to be informed and to know few thing before getting deeper into this.

Learning how to inoculate logs with mycelium. Photo: www.milkwood.net

1. You grow your own food. This would be the best advantage that is on my mind right now. You can grow great tasty mushrooms that you cannot find in the supermarket. And growing your own it brings you truly fresh and healthy food on your table. By contrast, supermarket mushrooms are different because most mushroom producers are using various types of chemical substances designed to get rid of competitors when the substrate is freshly inoculated with fungus mycelium. This is important for them in order to get a high yield in terms of mushroom production. Such chemicals are not a healthy choice, especially that some fungi species (e.g., Pleurotus ostreatus) have the ability to accumulate toxic substances into their fruitbodies (such as heavy metals, etc). After years such toxins accumulates in your body and you don't know how did you got sick. However, best is to grow your own food the healthy way.  Go organic and you'll be happy!

2. Mushrooms are healthy. Many cultivated mushrooms species are considered 'functional foods' this means that  they provide nutrients to your body and act as a therapeutic force too (e.g., shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, ear mushrooms, etc). Among other important nutrients and therapeutic substances, they are rich in proteins, have no cholesterol, contain polysaccharides with medicinal value, vitamins and minerals. The best choice for those that want to live a healthy life.

3. It's a source of income. Many people are thinking about mushroom cultivation as a powerful choice to achieve financial freedom probably because they believe that mushrooms are able to turn plant waste into food that may be sold in the market. It's a way to practically turn garbage into money: recycling (if you wish).

4. Hobby. Doing what you like is rewarding. Simply by watching the mushrooms growing under your own eyes it's an amazing feeling that I recommend you to experience. If you will feel pleasure then you will want more and more, this is the reason why some growers cannot stop growing mushrooms :). They are simply happy and pleased of what their doing.

5 It's a way to make new friends. A hobby reunites people enjoying the same feeling or people who would like to get to this feeling (newbies). Making friends and sharing your experience as a grower with them it's important because this may be a way to learn from others.. It's a mutual help that makes everybody happy.

Ok, this is for today, please add some comments, probably there are lots more reasons that I didn't cover up here, so feel free to add some of yours -it would be greatly appreciated.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Not Grow Mushrooms

Yes, there are some disadvantages when growing mushrooms and you should be aware of them before starting as a mushroom cultivator. I will lest them below and I will discuss a bit about them. Now, it's up to you if it will make you 'run or it will make stay' :)

1. Because you are not made for this;
2. Because you don't have a place where to grow them;
3. Because of basidiospore formation in the grow room;
4. Because growing mushrooms takes time;
5. Because in order to grow mushrooms you need to provide them special conditions.

1. Why grow your own food? Are you motivated? probably you should think about this aspect before starting with mushroom cultivation. Motivation is very important. If you are not interested and motivated then is better if you try something else.

2. Do you live in the countryside? Do you have a farm? Excellent! this is the ideal place where you can actually grow mushrooms. Well, now Do you have a room where to grow them (basement, tunnel, cave, or any other empty space)? If yes, then you have the basic conditions for growing mushrooms.
O..you are living in the city, and you would like to grow mushrooms for yourself and your family? well, it's possible only if you have a balcony or some other type of space designed for mushroom cultivation. In order to grow mushrooms for yourself actually you don't need much space.

3. Mushrooms when mature they release billions of spores that spread all over the grow room. This is a real concern among cultivators because this may affect their health in time. At first symptoms are very similar to coldness (fever, general body weakness, cough,..)
Measures to be taken: Use a mask that covers your nose and mouth each time when you enter the grow room full of mature mushroom fruitbodies. You should wear a suit design only for this purpose and a hat on your head.

Harvesting mushrooms: the right way.
Photo:  http://www.kombuchakamp.com

4. Another cause why newbies give away on cultivation mushrooms is time. You actually have to wait form 2 to 4 weeks until you get mushrooms (this is the case of bag cultivation of wood inhabiting fungi) and about 8 to 14 months in the case of log cultivation. Most people would like to see results right away; however this is not the case when cultivating mushrooms. But the good news is that growing mushrooms is faster then growing vegetables in your own garden. In addition you can harvest mushrooms nearly everyday if you cultivate them twice a week.

5. As a newbie probably you don't have equipment designed to provide proper conditions for mushroom development . However, you should know that you can grow them without any type of equipment. Just think about why do they grow in the forest? Do they have there any equipment? No
Equipment is for those wanting to get a higher yield of mushrooms compared to what would they get when growing them without equipment. So, no big deal, try without and you'll see the results by yourself, later if you want to make a business by growing mushrooms then you should think about proper conditions to grow them.

If you have any doubts on cultivating mushrooms, see 5 Reasons to Cultivate Mushrooms and try to apply the following tips regarding your decision:


'The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live'

Flora Whittemore

Decision is a powerful tool that has the ability to change your life anytime. Wise decisions are always needed; however, sometimes people aren't able to make such decisions and this is a reliable problem because bad choices can get you down and make your life miserable. As I know, most decisions in life are taken emotionally, intuitively, or logically. Although I'm not an expert in psychology I will share with you some of the tips I use that proved to be very helpful in many important life decisions.

Prior to making a wise decision you have to know what you want, in this case what you expect from your relationship. Is this decision going to satisfy your needs? Will you be happier?

Wise decision making steps

1. Take a blank paper and a pen
2. Split the paper in two parts
3. Write down on one side the pros and on the other side the cons. Simply, list the advantages and disadvantages of every option that you have in mind.
4. Take a look over your options and weight them according to your interests and goal. You may give them grades (let's say from 1 to 10: the best option should get 10 in this case).
5. Finally do a simple count
6. Compare the results.

Obviously when the results are close to each other [or equal: 24(+)=24(-) points], then you have to make a hard decision. In this case what I'm doing is to tease the problem somehow or to allow it more time. If considering the above example to discover more advantages or disadvantages of being in such a relationship.

Now, think how your decision will influence your future. Therefore another important step is to connect your decision results to past and future. The past may tell you exactly how hard was it living with such a person, while your intuition can give you a hint about how your life is going to be if you'll continue your relationship.

A final decision should be taken after you apply the above presented choice making steps several times in a certain period of time. If you get the same results several times [e.g, (-)34 to (+)14] then obviously you have to give up to your relationship and continue with your life in order to find happiness.

Ok, guys and girls this is for today, hope you enjoyed this article, I'm trying to show you what are the advantages and disadvantages of mushroom cultivation, and the power of decision so you can see by yourself what means this all. If you liked this please give it a "like" up there and share it with you friends, maybe it will help some of them out there wanting to start with mushroom cultivation.

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Why Grow Your Own Food? Are You Motivated?

Before getting into mushroom growing probably you should know if is suitable for you or not. Simply think about why do you want to do this. Is it going to reward you somehow? If yes, then how? What are the benefits of it? What about disadvantages? As I think most people are growing mushrooms because of some reasons, basically are three:

• because they are passionate about it (1) 
• because they are looking at it as a business opportunity (2) 
• because of both (passion and business) (3) 

 1. Being passionate about growing mushrooms in terms of satisfaction is very rewarding. However, you have to be aware that growing mushrooms is not suitable for everybody. Before starting to get into this, probably you should ask yourself the following: am I a nature lover? (do I love plants?, mountain trips? do I believe in the healing power of herbs?, do I agree with the concept of environmental protection? (especially recycling), am I a deep person, sensitive one or rather a superficial one? do I like how to cook? I know that the last question sounds weird but in fact the mushroom cultivation process it's like cooking our favorite meal. I put these questions into focus because as I noticed most people with respect for nature are more likely to understand and to be interested in mushrooms. Of course I cannot generalize this but is just an impression of mine.
 Another aspect important to discuss here is that passionate mushroom growers are informed and therefore always know why they are growing mushrooms (reasonsons are plenty but here I will talk about few of them):

• it's a way of life; 
• brings lots of satisfaction (pleasure, growing mushrooms it's fun); 
• it's relaxing (get rid of stress by growing mushrooms); 
• growers know that mushrooms are healthy; 
• they believe in their healing power as functional foods; 
• they encourage waste recycling habits; 
• they know that this activity builds up strong relationships with other people and this is an easy way of making friends, etc. 

Are you ready to be passionate about growing mushrooms? 

Oyster mushrooms growing on toilet paper.
Photo:  http://lastoneeating.wordpress.com 

2. Mostlikely people that are looking at it as a way of making money won't succed without putting some heart into it. The mushroom market has ahuge potential out there and success stories of people getting rich by growing mushrooms are plenty. As someone used to say:'future is in the hands of those providing food for the masses' For those of you thinking about making money out of mushrooms without thinking about the passion part I have a message: don't loose your time and energy with growing mushrooms, but seek in other places and find other solutions in order to satisfy your financial needs. You have to know how to take care of them. The principle is simple: if you take care of them, they will take care of you.

3. Respect and compliments for those ablte to mix pleasure with business. Such people are aware of all beneffits that mushrooms provide and they exploit them bringing benefits on two levels: first they satisfy you because you buy their product, and second is their own satisfaction because they are doing what they like, they are getting from it material satisfaction and they are happy to know you being pleased with their product. As you can see the latter has lots of satisfaction on board by doing what he likes.
Which one of them are you? or which one of them would you like to be? Please answer these questions bellow and feel free to comment.


Growing mushrooms is fun and relaxing. If you wish to start this activity and you'll like it, it can become a very rewarding hobby that keeps you active from time to time and gives you the opportunity to grow your own organic food. To be honest I'm growing my own mushrooms and I'm very pleased with it, and I recommend it to people any time I have the chance to do it, even now. I liked it so much that I even started to blog about it.
If you're thinking about doing a business with it then you'll find a good way to get income. Now, doing something that you like in order to earn money is a powerful way to increase your life quality because it gives you not only lots of personal satisfaction but you can also earn from it.

But why to grow mushrooms instead of doing something else?
In order to find out probably you should read 5 Reasons Why You Should Grow Mushrooms. On my other blog you'll find all necessary step by step instructions on how to grow them. You'll find also a free portable document file (PDF) entitled: 'Beginner's Guide to Oyster Mushroom Cultivation at Home' that you can download if you wish. However, if you prefer professional instructions of a worldwide specialist then perhaps you should check out Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets. I have this book on my shelf and I'm very happy with it. I've found so much useful information in it that I personally consider it the 'Bible' of mushroom growing.

Success stories on growing mushrooms for profit are plenty. Mushrooms Grown on Coffee Grounds: The Back To The Roots Story is one of them. It's the story of two students that found a smart way to make a full time living out of growing mushrooms on coffee grounds. An ingenious way to recycle used coffee grounds twice: once to grow food out of them and second to sell the used substrate as premium soil amendment. Their story is inspiring and probably some of you out there will find this a great way to increase your life quality.

This article highlights ones motivation in order to grow his own mushrooms, if you liked it I appreciate if you would share it with your friends or people you know being interested in starting with mushroom cultivation.

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