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BACK TO THE ROOTS Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden
GARNERING CRITICAL ACCLAIM with a box of used coffee grounds and mushroom seeds may have once sounded bizarre, but Back to the Roots has shown its Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden is a force to be reckoned with. Fortunately, it's a force for good. "Our whole vision is to make food personal again," says co-founder Nikhil Arora. This low-effort DIY kit, which grows up to 1.5 pounds of edible fungi in 10 days, is having a huge impact. "We're on pace to divert 3.6 million pounds of coffee grounds this year," Arora says, calling out one of the product's key tenets: turning waste into food. Sustainability education has been a huge component of the business, started by Arora and Alejandro Velez, who were classmates at the University of California, Berkeley in 2009 when they came up with the plan. A natural learning tool, the kit has been used to lead sustainability workshops; kits are donated to elementary school classrooms through a consumer-engaging Facebook campaign; and the company has even initiated a school fundraising program to replace candy sales with mushroom kits, ultimately earning dollars more per sale than the unhealthy sweets. "It's a win-win for schools," Arora says. Poised to launch in Safeway and Home Depot this year, the mushroom kit will be relaunched in September, featuring enhancements to the recyclable cardboard box that houses each kit, "making it not just compostable but plantable," Arora reveals. "We're embedding vegetable seeds—tomato, basil, parsley and onion—right into the box itself." Suggested retail price: $19.99. Contact: Jared Abbott, Back to the Roots; 510.922.9758; jared@backtotheroots.com; backtotheroots.com.—E.M.
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DIY GourmetKitchens oils|vinegars Granola Kit Contact: Nairy Balian nbalian@mba-co.com 949.861.8820 arnabal.com
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➋ THE SPICE LAB Gourmet Sea Salt Collection–1001 Contact: Brett Cramer brett@thespicelab.com 954.275.4478 thespicelab.com
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