“The future of gardening is indoors,” says Back to the Roots co-founder Alejandro Velez.

Back to the Roots is an Oakland company that specializes in organic indoor gardening kits, and Velez believes that helping people grow mushrooms and herbs indoors can inspire a new generation to think about where their food comes from.

The company has formed a partnership with Whole Food (and with Whole Foods’ parent company, Amazon, which also sells the gardening kits). Similar to how the chain gave a boost to kombucha — dedicating a whole section to the fermented beverage — Velez says the vision is to eventually have an entire section of each market devoted to indoor gardening kits.

Beyond Whole Foods, the company has another high profile fan: Ayesha Curry has recently become an investor and adviser in the company, according to Velez. (This follows the announcement earlier last week that Curry has launched her own wine brand.)

Velez and Nikhil Arora started growing mushrooms in their fraternity kitchen during college after learning the process could be done using spent coffee grounds. What started in 2009 as an experimental lark has become a company that has raised $12 million.

According to a 2016 national gardening survey, 35 percent of all households in America are growing food at home and edible gardening is worth $3.6 billion, surpassing the flower gardening market. And, as Millennials — a growing market for indoor gardening — flock to larger urban settings where outdoor space is at a minimum, they’re actively searching for alternatives.

The kits may be popular with Millennials, but the company is also working to educate an even younger audience on growing its own food, partnering with thousands of schools around the country to donate gardening kits to elementary school classrooms. (Back to the Roots also has a line of organic cereal, which last year notably was introduced to the New York City public school system, booting out mega-brand, Kellogg’s.)

On Tuesday (April 23), Velez and Arora will appear alongside Curry, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and 50 kids from local schools for an Earth Month celebration at Oakland’s Whole Foods Market. The cooking demo from 11 a.m. to noon will stream live on Amazon’s home page.

Sarah Fritsche is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sfritsche@sfchronicle.com Twitter/Instagram: @foodcentric