Back to the Roots

Back to the Roots was founded by Alejandro Velez & Nikhil Arora during their last semester at UC Berkeley in 2009.

In a college class, Alex and Nikhil learned that mushrooms could grow on recycled coffee grounds. After watching hours of how-to videos and turning their fraternity kitchen into a big science experiment, they eventually decided to give up their corporate job offers to instead become full-time mushroom farmers. What started as curiosity about urban farming turned into a passion for “undoing food” and reconnecting families to it through fun, delicious, and sustainable “ready to grow” and “ready to eat” products.

The Back to the Roots' mission is to make food personal again through the passionate development of tools that educate and inspire, one family at a time.