A Mushroom Growing Giveaway
One of the reasons I thought it would be fun to have a food blog many years ago is that I figured companies would send me cool products and foods to try out for free.
I very quickly realized that this is more of a curse than a blessing.
These days I get a lot of emails about new products. Way more than I can try out especially considering I don’t want to try out 95% of them.
I try to be very picky about the products I accept for free and also even pickier about the products that I actually post on.
But, when I was given the opportunity by Back to the Roots to try out their oyster mushroom kit, I couldn’t pass it up!
Let me start by disclosing that the company obviously sent me this kit for free. Trust me though… this doesn’t really affect me at this point in my blogger career. I get sent a lot of stuff for free and most of it never sees the light of day.
Plus I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves.
The Kit
So this kit is kind of a crazy thing. The first thing I noticed when I got it was how heavy it was. The company uses recycled coffee grounds as food for the mushrooms and they really pack them in tightly.
The instructions are pretty straightforward. They say to cut a large plus sign in the plastic which is easy enough and then to soak the bag (not the box) for 24 hours.
After I soaked mine, I must admit that I was a bit skeptical that this would work. This is mainly because I have no idea how mushrooms work. I figured that all the little spores were maybe washed away while the soaking was happening.
But no!
About 24 hours later, I noticed some little spores sprouting on the surface.
Spores!
The only maintenance that’s required from this point on is just to give the mushrooms a quick spritz twice a day with a spritzer that they even include. I, of course, immediately lost the one they sent me so I just used one I had in my kitchen.
And so began the mushroom explosion. Mushrooms, it turns out, grow faster than anything I’ve seen.
This was after another 24-36 hours.
So cool.
And then another day or two later…
Getting big!
In total, it took me about 7-8 days to get my full mushrooms.
You can grow mushrooms from both sides of the kit, so you get at least two crops out of the kit. That said, I noticed that I already have a few new spores growing on my original side. On their website they say that you can occasionally get 3-4 crops if you’re lucky!
One key thing that they don’t mention on the packaging is to harvest the mushrooms quickly. If you let them sit on the box, they will start to wilt a bit. So cut them off when they get really big and store them in the fridge.
A Mushroom Galette
The galette
Once I had my mushrooms, I decided to bake them in a homemade pie crust with some leeks, butter, and swiss cheese.
So delicious.
For the whole recipe, click the Print the Recipe link at the bottom of the post!
Giveaway and Other Stuff
The Kit!
Okay. So there are three cool things that Back to the Roots is doing:
1) A giveaway! If you leave a comment on this post, you’ll be entered to win your very own mushroom garden kit! I’ll pick a winner randomly at 7PM Eastern Time tonight.
2) Discount! If you don’t win, you can get 10% off a kit by using the code: mushrooms4me10. You can check out the kit on their website.
3) School Giveaway! I can definitely see how this would be awesome for kids to do. If you take a photo of your kit growing and post it on the company’s facebook page, they’ll send a free kit and sustainability guide to an elementary school of your choice!
So cool. So leave a comment, grow some mushrooms, and eat some mushrooms!
UPDATE: Reader Sonja won the mushroom kit giveaway! If you didn’t win, remember that you can order one for 10% off and if you take a photo of it and post it on their facebook page, they’ll send one to a school of your choice! Congrats Sonja!
129 comments on “A Mushroom Growing Giveaway”
So cool! I love food that you can grow anywhere, even in a tiny apartment.
Hah, curses, I've been doing this for almost two months, where's my kitchen full of free junk?! =P
Been eyeing those mushroom kits – would love to win one!
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This looks great! I would love to win one.
This sounds like fun, and so rewarding! Count me in, please.
This would be great my daughter would love to do this with me as she is fascinated with mushrooms!
Oh man, look at that thing! MUSHROOMS! IN YOUR KITCHEN!
(Actually, when I was a kid, we had a flood in our basement and did have mushrooms growing out of the carpet for a while, which was weird and very "Alice in Wonderland"-y to a 6yo girl. This is definitely a less distressing way to have fungi in your home.)
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Comment! If I win, I will bestow upon you my semi-secret recipe for mushroom turnovers (aw, hell, I'll send it to you anyway if you want it. Three words: cream cheese crustiness.)
PS DC misses you. The cupcake bakeries are taking over. Send help.
Mushrooms look so cool, yet creepy while growing! I think my kid would love to see these grow :)
These are So. Cool.
That is the coolest thing! Perfect for condo living!
That is Neat! I L-o-v-e Mushrooms of all kinds, but don't have a yard to grow them. . . I would love to try this technique!
I have only very recently converted to a lover of mushrooms and would love to grow anything in my tiny apartment kitchen.
A friend of mine is using a similar kit, so I was just looking at the options out there the other day! This is awesome, and I sure love me some mushrooms.
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That looks really cool! I love mushrooms and never thought of growing them on my own!
I just saw another post about Back to the Roots recently. I would love to try this kit out!
sounds fun I would love to try that and cook with the mushrooms. Thanks! Love your blog
Pretty unbelievable how simple that seems! Can't wait to try it out!
Looks awesome! My boyfriend hates mushrooms so I'd get the added benefit of freaking him out a bit haha
Ah haha, nothing like a giveaway to convince a person to comment. ESPECIALLY mushrooms. If I could I would put mushrooms on anything.
I wonder how well these ones sautée…. :3c
This looks amazing! Mushrooms are definitely my favorite food, never thought to grow them at home!
Yum those look amazing!
What a fantastic giveaway!
I love mushrooms and would love to win so I can grow my own!
My grandkids would love this! What a learning tool and something fantastic to eat too!!
Sign me up! I would totally like to grow my own mushrooms! Thanks for the giveaway!
What a great grandchildren project! Thanks Nick.
Nick, this looks awesome! Do you throw away the kit when it's done growing, or is it reuseable at all?
I hope I win!
The cardboard part is compostable/recycleable as is the coffee grounds. The only part that I'm not sure on is the plastic bag that the coffee grounds come in.
Even if I don’t win, I’m still ordering one of these. Very cool.
This is so cool! Would love to grow my own mushrooms! Thanks for reviewing!
OK I am sooo intrigues by this! Very Cool!!!
I love mushrooms more than anything! I also love that you included a recipe using them. Either way, I am going to be trying that galette sometime soon.
Home fungiculture(?)! Who knew(!)?
I don't even like mushrooms but I know my boyfriend would LOVE this and he packed and moved us both all by himself while I was away at work, so I think he deserves this :)
I have long wondered how you could grow your own mushrooms at home, as we go through a lot of them. Awesome post Nick! As usual you are teaching me things I didn't know!
I wrote about these guys a while ago on my blog. Love the concept. And they seem like a great company, too. Super responsive.
So cool! Hope to do this with my kids so they can get at kit for their school!
Wow, I have never seen anything like this. I grow sprouts and would love to try growing mushrooms. Thanks!
Sonja! You're the winner! Congrats!
The last time I grew mushrooms, it involved a giant oak log, a drill (and not a few broken drill bits) and about 100 plugs that had to be inserted by hand. This would be much easier! Also, 6 ft long pieces of oak would really reduce the amount of usable space in my apartment.
Oh how fun! Definitely going to have to check out their website =)
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Love mushrooms. Will be checking out their site.
This is one of the coolest things that I have seen regarding farm to table dining.
That is awesome! Checked out their website, I love the logo.
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With an 18 year old who is just starting his food blog this is good news for me. He spends a fortune on food. Free stuff! we can only hope.
This. Is very cool. It also sounds like something I can keep alive. I planted a garden this year and so far it's thriving, but this would be the first year where I didn't kill everything before they even produced food LOL
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Wow this is really cool, would <3 to try and grow my own mushrooms! :) Thanks for the chance to win my very own MUSHROOM GARDEN. By the way <3 your website!
Wow this is really cool, would LOVE to try and grow my own mushrooms! :) Thanks for the chance to win my very own MUSHROOM GARDEN. By the way LOVE your website!
I would love to try this!
These look delicious! I wonder if I could use them on a mushroom and onion pizza :)
This is awesome! I'll be checking out their website and also crossing my fingers!
Sounds perfect for my wife and me!
This looks too cool! Would LOVE to try this with my daughter!
Great giveaway. I love mushrooms. Very nice that they are offering one to an elementary school alsoo.
I know! That's really cool.
Oooh. My boyfriend would love this. He is a mushroom fiend.
Thanks for the opportunity to win a great prize such as this! It brings back memories of when my Father would go hunting in the woods , and come back with bags full of mushrooms found only on Willow tree logs that were decaying. My Mother would then prepare them in many ways, my favorite being Fritters! Once again Thanks! If not but just for the memory!
What a fabulous idea! We live in a tiny apartment, and I thought it would only be possible to grow herbs on our little patch of patio. Never thought mushrooms would be possible…would love to try growing these!
I love mushrooms. So yummy! Growing my own would be very cool!
Free stuff, Yay!
~Dan
Found your site last night, amazing!.. would love to grow my own mushrooms!
I'm a huge fan of shrooms of all types! This also gives me some ideas for using my old coffee grounds. It's time, now, to do a search of the web for spore suppliers! Thanks for this, Nick!
mushroom quiche sounds good to me!
I was just looking at my wilting basil plant, wishing I had more luck with growing things. It looks like even I wouldn't be able to screw this up!
Very cool! I have been intrigued by these for a while. Thanks for sharing the photos and the chance to win!
:)
I've always wanted to try my hand at growing mushrooms. Yummy and fun, what could be better?
Huge mushroom fan here. And I would totally be up to sharing with some friends higher in the comment thread if I win!
That's so cool!
Mushroom garden… Where the calories of the cardboard box outweighs the calories of the 'shrooms. Who doesn't love mushrooms? Thanks for the posting, Nick.
I'd love to win some mushrooms! Its cool that the company helps out elementary schools.
Mushrooms, yum! Sign me up!
This would be great!
I NEED more shrooms
I love mushrooms, great giveaway!
I love shrooms! yumm!
lol. Nice how a giveaway brings out the poster in your readers isn't it?
Anyhow, I've posted before and therefore do not feel bad in asking for freebies. =)
Mushrooms, gods delicious gift to eating raw food. Cooked mushrooms = yucky.
– Liz.
I've been thinking about buying this for about a month or two now as a gift. Great to see that it grows well!
My husband is a 5th grade teacher, and I bet his students would LOVE one of these in the classroom.
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How cool is this!?! Sure would love to win. Thanks for the chance. :)
Unreal! I've got to try this!
These are so awesome! I have always wanted to buy one of these kits – I wonder if they make them for Morels? ;)
I have 3 grand kids for 2 weeks in August, and this would be a hoot! (I'm probably the one who will enjoy it the most, so maybe I should say there will be 4 kids at my house during that time.) I always hated mushrooms growing up but finally realized it was those awful canned, slimy things I got and hated. Once I started cooking real shrooms and adding eggs for omelets, I decided the real ones could be wonderful. Haven't progressed yet to lots of raw ones in salads, but I'm sure that will happen eventually.
I love me some mushrooms. I would love to have this kit!
Ahhh then I could make my favorite tallegio and mushroom pizza!!
Thanks for the chance…
Mushrooms are the "earth's internet" as Paul Stamets says. They are amazingly powerful little wonders. I hope you explore some other gourmet mushroom cultivation kits! Maybe you could do a a dish of "foraged" foods for your vegetarian readers someday?
I've always been a little skeptical about the smaller grow kits, but I'm glad you had a good experience!
Nice! That'd be fun to grow!
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Gotta love free stuff
wow two pages of comments!!
I can't get enough mushrooms. I use them like vegetables.
Very cool! Is it super messy? I have nightmares about how this would turn out!
pick me pick me! i have an incredible mushroom appetizer dish that i haven't made in awhile…
Great give away.
I am a science teacher and would love to grow these in my own home and in my classroom!
My grandmother loves mushrooms and would get such a kick out of this! So cool!
I love mushrooms – It's almost Bolete season in AK!
Neat!! Would love to give this a try. :)
I go through a pack of mushrooms every other day or so. I throw them into everything!
Man, it would be so much fun to have an army of this by my windowsill.
I bought one of these kits a few years ago. (different brand) It didn't work…at all. No sign of life AT ALL. Considering this, I'll let THAT brand go unnamed. But, I'm still a little bitter about it.
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This sounds like fun, Bet a grandparent would like it as much as kids!
This is too cool. Larry grew his own last year but he got a kit where you had to drill holes in a log, put the spores and material in, cap the whole with some plug and then wait weeks and weeks. This kit is MUCH easier!
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I would love to win this! My daughter is 8 and loves mushrooms and food science, perfect combo!
Looks very cool
This is wicked cool! I'd love to try this!
Hooray mushrooms!!
What a great home project for mushroom lovers and I definitely include my husband and myself in that group – it's like dropping one drop of water in the ocean but this is my entry.
I’ve always wanted to try to grow mushrooms!
This sounds awesome!
Way cool! I'll be checking out their site for sure.
So great! I've been looking at these mushroom growing kits for awhile now — would love to try them! Thanks for reviewing this kit, and for your great blog (so far we've tried your cast iron pizza, cast iron macaroni and cheese, pumpkin spice cupcakes, and others — we've loved them all)!
Have never heard of this before – that is why I LOVE to read your blog!!!
Great post! I love a company that encourages education along with offering a fun and useful product and kudos to you for posting about it! On the topic of education, when I was younger my dad picked mushrooms from our yard swearing they weren't poisonous and put them in a gazpacho soup. Everyone got sick except me because I passed on dinner that night. He still insists it wasn't the mushrooms but everyone else believes otherwise!
Wow, this looks so awesome! Mushrooms are kind of pricey, if you can get 2 or 3 crops from this it would be fairly cost-effective!
After reading your post i went on a tangent and read allll about growing your own mushrooms via kits/starters/plugs. Very awesome!
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Wow! That’s all it takes? I can even do that. Good job Nick the galette looks delicious.
Fantastic! Is there any mushroom soup in your future? And isn’t it interesting how things you grow yourself always seem to taste better:-)
Wow! Do they do shiitake, or porcini? This is such a good idea.
New commenter, but longtime lurker. Love the site, have gotten lots of great recipes – thanks!
Wow – Mushrooms!! They seem almost too easy to be true!
Looks great, so much fun for children!
Sounds fun to try growing mushrooms! My dad used to grow them.
always though foraging for mushrooms would be cool, but this looks much easier
My kids would LOVE to do this!!!!!! It is so cool!
Hope we are the lucky winners!
Oh, the things I could do with those mushrooms!
This would be an awesome project to do with my nieces and nephew. Thanks for the idea!
Big fan of the blog, and I'd love to win this!
I am a mushroom!
Curious, were you able to get multiple batches from the kits? I’m curious how it works.