Nikhil and Alejandro, 2011
CC SA-BY Our Oakland
Back to the Roots is an Oakland-based company that sells two innovative food-producing products, the Mushroom Kit and the Aquafarm, which allow people to produce food in their homes.
The Mushroom Kit was their first product, and lets people grow mushrooms on a container of used coffee grounds. The Aquafarm is a self-cleaning fish tank that lets people grow herbs indoors, nourished by the fish tank. In 2011, they were re-using more than 1 million pounds of used grounds from Peet's.
The company was started in 2009 by Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez, with the Mushroom Kit as their only product. Their first space was in a warehouse in West Oakland; now they're at 424 2nd Street in Jack London Square.
winner of a 2011 Oakland Indie Awards
winner of a 2014 East Bay Innovation Awards
Links and References
- Back to the Roots website
CC SA-BY Our Oakland
