Thursday Giveaway: Grow Your Own Mushroom Garden

Note: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Kristen, who loves using mushrooms in stroganoff (I do too!).

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive when I was contacted about doing a review and giveaway of Back to the Roots Grow Your Own Mushroom Kits. While I love the idea of gardening, I definitely do not have a green thumb (except when I try to grow habaneros and end up with enough to last a lifetime). And something about growing mushrooms in the house weirds me out a little bit (I mean, it sounds like something you don’t want to grow).

But the more I read about this company, the more I started to think that it was really cool. It was started by two friends in their senior year of college who were inspired by a lecture about the ability to grow gourmet mushrooms in recycled coffee grounds. The soil inside these kits is actually 100% recycled Peet’s coffee, and they’re on track to reuse over 1 million pounds of coffee grounds this year – helping families grow over 250,000 pounds of fresh oyster mushrooms (up to a pound and a half of mushrooms per kit).

The other thing that I think is really cool is that if you take a photo of your mushroom crop and post it on their Facebook wall, they’ll donate a kit to the classroom of your choice. What a fun and cool way to get kids interested in food and science!

So despite my initial hesitations, I was really intrigued by what these folks were doing. After being reassured that growing my own mushrooms would be foolproof (and that there was no risk of the kit growing any unwanted molds) I said ok!

My mushrooms are growing now and are doing wonderfully – I should be able to harvest them in a few days. The kit really did make it fool proof – they even included a little spray bottle to help you mist them as they grow. I can’t wait to come up with a delicious recipe using my mushrooms and get my second crop growing (each box can produce 2-4 crops).

Do you want to try your hand at growing mushrooms too? They’ve generously offered to send one of my US readers their very own kit. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite way to use fresh mushrooms. For an extra entry, “like” Back to the Roots on Facebook and leave a second comment letting me know that you did. I will pick a winner on Sunday, August 24.

If you don’t win or if you simple can’t wait any long to try growing your own mushrooms you can use the code mushrooms4me10 for 10% off. Grow Your Own Mushroom Garden Kits retail for $19.95 and replacement bags retail for $7.99. They can be purchased at TheMushroomKit.com and at Whole Foods.

FTC Disclosure: I received a Mushroom Kit to review for free. All opinions are my own.