Meatless Monday: I'm a Mushroom Farmer! (Part 1)

Here's how I got started…

He knew I would love this story. So my night owl husband got me out of bed to see the two “mushroom guys” who were being interviewed by Carson Daly on “Last Call” on June 24th of last year.

Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez started BTTR (pronounced “better,” an acronym for Back to the Roots) Ventures in 2009, after graduating from UC Berkeley. Their dream? To establish a closed loop, zero waste urban mushroom farm, using recycled coffee grounds as the growing medium.

The idea came to them as students in a business ethics class. After some experimenting in a fraternity house kitchen, they successfully grew a crop of oyster mushrooms in a bucket of coffee grounds, and then sold their idea to the Whole Foods in Berkeley. They won $5000 in UC Berkeley's 2009 Bears Breaking Boundaries competition and launched the company after graduation. Soon they were selling oyster mushrooms to all 30 Whole Foods stores in Northern California.


BTTR Ventures currently removes 8,000 lbs. of coffee grounds from the waste stream each week. Since its start the company has diverted and transformed over 260,000 pounds of Peet's Coffee grounds. 

This dynamic duo has gone on to win a long string of awards including being named to the 2010 Business Week list of Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs. BTTR Ventures now employs seven people and sells mushrooms to 90 Whole Foods stores, with the goal of selling to all 300 by year's end. 

These entrepreneurs are also committed to making their community a better place to live. They donate a portion of their profits to charity, are involved in mentoring programs, and hire workers through JOBS NOW! BTTR Ventures also sustains ten school and community gardens through its donations of premium soil enriched by the mushroom mycelia (roots) remaining after their mushroom crops have been harvested.

Alex and Nikhil introduced a line of mushroom kits (sold in some Whole Foods stores and online) in March 2010 with the goal of bringing sustainable grow-at-home products into households across the country. BTTR Ventures estimates that already families have grown some 45,000 pounds of fresh mushrooms with these kits.

I bought several kits as holiday gifts and recently started one of my own. Here is a photo of “my farm” taken earlier today. Look for more on fungi and a farm update next Monday.


I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

A Snowku for You

Feathery white flakes

Large as a tufted titmouse

Swirled through the night sky

The devil appeared in the cherry tree mid-day on Wednesday the 26th, after the small storm, a mere footnote to the big one that followed late that same night. The second image was taken from the same window the next morning. We've been shoveling for days here—steps, sidewalks, porches, roofs, driveways, and passages to the street. The January updates will have to wait until early February…

Meatless Monday: Salsify Makes a Comeback

Happy Monday everyone.

In 2010 celeriac (aka celery root), the chubby root vegetable with a pale and hairy visage, made the jump from farmers’ markets and specialty food shops to the produce bins of large supermarkets (at least here on the East Coast). Perhaps 2011 will be salsify’s year to make a comeback.

Only in Eataly have I tasted this root vegetable. It was early in November, the height of salsify season. Batons of Salsify was the only item that my cousin and I could not identify on the description of the antipasto plate. Rather than admit our ignorance, we decided to go for it. We were not disappointed.

The batons looked like baby carrots, only paler and not quite as plump. They had been braised until firm but not crunchy in texture and had a deliciously subtle taste. We could not imagine what form they had assumed when they were whole, but it was fairly apparent that salsify was a root vegetable.

Let me tell you the story of salsify, gleaned from cookbooks and googling. 

Salsify is indeed a root vegetable — long and tapering. Thomas Jefferson is said to have grown it. Scorzonera has a black skin; there is also a lighter-skinned variety with a grayish tinge. 

Salsify’s season is Fall to Winter. Late last year it could be found at a few green grocers in the New York boroughs, but this formerly favored root has not yet found its way back north and east to New Haven.

Renowned chef James Beard included salsify in his magnum opus American Cookery (1972): “Salsify was a popular root vegetable for many generations and then suddenly seemed to drop into disrepute. It was originally called oyster plant because it was said to have the flavor of oysters— so much so, says Mrs. Rorer [author of a 1902 cookbook often referenced by Beard], that vegetarians made Mock Oyster soups. The claim for its flavor I have never found to be true.” I would agree with chef Beard. I did not taste the oyster. Beard suggested scraping and boiling the roots (in “acidulated water” because the roots turn color almost immediately after peeling), and then provided three suggestions for serving: dressed with butter; sliced in a cream casserole; or puréed, combined with beaten eggs into salsify cakes, and then fried. James Beard is long gone, but his memory lives on at the foundation named after him. On this page of the foundation's blog you can learn more about salsify and see some celebrity top chefs featuring it in their recipes. 

The Joy of Cooking (1973 edition) urged readers to plant seeds for scorzonera if they plan to grow their own and advised that the roots taste best after being stored for several weeks at a temperature “just above” 32°. Once again there was advice about ways to avoid discoloration, including a suggestion to cook the salsify before peeling it. The Joy offered two recipes — one for salsify in cream sauce, the second for salsify fried with a cornflake coating.

A third cookbook in my collection — Fannie Farmer (1981 edition) also gave a brief reference to salsify. In this case salsify was described as a good accent in stews and meat pies and as a vegetable accompaniment to a variety of meat dishes. The recipes are basic — boiled and served with butter, or mashed with cream and butter. Fannie described the flavor as being “a little like oysters.” That’s more credible. 

None of the post 80s cookbooks in my collection made any mention of salsify. I did find this contemporary (in time and in taste) recipe for Damon Wise’s Pan-Roasted Salsify online. It actually sounds quite like what I ate at Eataly.

Now all I need are some roots. It has been suggested that salsify is a gardener’s plant — and that the best way to ensure a supply is to grow your own [or perhaps to get someone with a garden to grow some for you.] Heirloom seeds can be found at a number of sites such as this one. The variety in each case seems to be Mammoth Sandwich Island Salsify. 

The smell of dirt and spring is such a nice thought today. [It’s  2 PM. It’s under 13°. This is way too cold for the Connecticut shoreline…] 

Check back next Monday so I can tell you about my mushroom farm.

I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”