Review: Organic Mushroom Mini Farm by Back to the Roots

It's been two weeks since I started my mushroom kit from Back to the Roots. The first week little activity on the spore surface, and then they appeared like little creatures. Small and now visible to the naked eye, I could see a small formation near the bottom where water was able to pool and keep moisture. From there they grew quickly, and soon I had a massive clump trying escape the kit.

On day 5 I started to see little bumps from the mushrooms forming,
and by day 15 they were 100% larger.

I carefully broke them off and chopped them up, sautee them in fresh butter and added them to my omelet. They have a great sweet taste, pungent but not an earthy scent, very pleasant, not at all gamy or woodsy. They soaked in the butter, herbs and pinch of garlic on my second round of cooking. Raw eating was ok, chewy, but still nice.

They smelled amazing as they cooked... can't wait for round two!

Good Notes:
- They grew quickly filled the entire opening very evenly, and I had enough to cook for 3-4 different servings.
- They tasted great, and I can see new clumps forming for round two.
- The price is right. I think I will get a few rounds out of this bag, so the $13.99 spent will go a long way.
- Smart packing and marketing, it's a great gift for the grower or foodie. Having three or more kits would allow you to stagger starting them for a constant supply of fresh mushrooms.

Bad Notes:
- Watering was an issue, they show the mushroom box being kept facing up the way they are sold, with the mushrooms growing sideways from the opening. When I watered them twice daily the majority of the water slipped off and ran down into the box making a soggy mess... which made the entire thing a risk to my counter-tops and window-sill and less stable. I ended up laying the entire box on it's back watering it and letting it sit for a while and then pouring what hadn't been absorbed. (I wasn't over-watering, just following the directions on the box)
- Humidity was another factor that I didn't catch until it was too late, because of the way I had to water the mushrooms, the largest mushrooms where exposed to very low humidity and had some issues with being dry, exposed to the average house humidity and temperature.
- Because of the way the water sat at the bottom of the bag, most of the mushroom growth all came from the bottom.
- I wish they had more mushroom varieties available, despite my moisture issues, I would buy a bunch of varieties to have at once.

Final Note - Buy and try it, even though it may not be as picture perfect as the website and photos show, you still get great mushrooms and its super cool experience.

Next post on Mushrooms, I'll show you how to hack your kit for more and better mushrooms, and how to make your own kits for less then $12.00. Once you hack you're kit you'll never need a new one for years, if ever.

The Great Suburban Tomato Grow-out List 2014

After weeks and hours of searching and finding dozens of tomatoes I'd like to grow, I've narrowed my grow-out list to 50 varieties. 50 may seem like a lot, and well, it is. This will be the true suburban test of space and ingenuity to grow at least one or more of each variety on my property, this should be fun. 50 plants can produce between 10lbs and 30lbs of tomatoes.... for an average of 20lbs per plant, that gives us roughly 1000lbs of tomatoes. Wow. I'll certainly keep taps on the weight, hopefully I'll surpass 1000lbs by a few pounds and seal the deal.

A great display of heirlooms from Martha Stewart Magazine.
Trust me, I'm going to top this.

Right now the property will be producing 70% tomatoes, 5% eggs, 20% other produce. I can't wait to show you the tomato jungle!

I'll be starting my tomato and pepper seeds mid-ish February, depending on the latest frost reports. They'll be started indoors under LED lights and kept warm by a heating mat. I'll post my seed starting methods later-on and give more detail about the specifications and costs. Right now I'm collecting small yogurt cups, which I will recycle into little starter pots. I'll have extra seedlings to sell in April, which should be super fun as well. Limited numbers available from the grow-out list. The only reason I stopped at 50 is because I still have a bit of sanity and I can save for future additions in coming seasons.

Started tomato seedlings will be priced according to seed prices, 

and only available in limited quantities after last frost. See "Market" for price-list.

2014 Official Tomato Grow List

Ananas Noire

Beautiful Dreamer

Beauty King

Big Cheef Striped

Big White Pink Stripe

Bing Cherry

Black & Brown Boar

Black Krim

Blonde Boar

Blue Beauty

Blue Fruit

Chocolate Stripes

Copia

Dancing with Smurfs

Dark Galaxy

First Mate

Green Copia

Gypsy

Hippie Zebra

Indigo Rose

Japanese Black Trifele

Kaleidoscopic Jewel

Lucky Heart

Michael Pollan

Micro Tom

Ozark Sunset

Pastel Sleeves

Pearls of Wisdom

Piedmount Pear

Pineapple Blues

Pink Furry Boar

Potato Leaf Variegated

Primary Colours

Red Boar

Reisetomate

Strawberry Leopard

Stripes of Yore

Super Snow White

TC Jones

Tim's Black Ruffles

Tlacolula

Topaz

Val's Striped Rib

Variegated

Vintage Wine

Violet Jasper

White Queen

Wildcard Blues

Zapotec Pink Pleated

Zebra Rita

Finally Growing Mushrooms!

Finally I can grow mushrooms and add them to my 100-km diet! I've had my eye on growing mushrooms for a few months and I've been waiting patiently to purchase a kit from Back to the Roots.

Photo provided by the Back to the Roots website.

Unfortunately they don't ship to Canada. However they recently struck up a deal with Loblaws to stock the kits in-store (which I learned by messaging the company on Facebook). You can also buy them online via other sources, but the shipping is fairly pricey. Back to the Roots is a unique company with a great back-story, if you have the time, check out their bio, its actually quite amazing. They started off as an idea on kickstarter and from there they've emerged as a very interesting green company. The mushrooms are organic and are grown in recycled coffee grounds.

A month or so back, I saw the large format kits at my local "Loblaws" brand supermarket. They were $19.99, unmarked sitting sadly at the end of the potato isle in the produce section. They had maybe eight units left and I couldn't find one that wasn't damaged, already growing mushroom or missing the misting bottle packaged at the top. I went over to the customer service desk and asked if they would discount the damaged packages for me, if I bought them all. They said no, and the haggler in me was disappointed, they said I could buy them full price, otherwise they could simply send them back to the producer and have new replaced units sent back at no charge. I think this is great for Back to the Roots to do, but irritating that I couldn't take a discounted product home that day.

Several weeks later I returned, juts before Christmas and I found a big stack of mushroom kits, still from Back to the Roots, but in new packaging. "Organic Mushroom Mini Farm by Back to the Roots". Not much smaller then the original product and retailed for $13.99. I'm not sure if this is a Loblaws formatted package, exclusively for it's stores, or a new introduction from Back to the Roots.

I started my kit the other day (December 28th). It was super easy to start up and now all I have o do is wait and water and wait some more. So far I'm very pleased with the product and I can't wait to review it. I recommend trying this in classrooms and even the most challenged of gardeners can do this. I also think that $13.99 is a more reasonable price for this product. Check back in for updates soon!