Forty years ago, you could have paid about $2,700 in today’s dollars for a new technology, sometimes sold in a handcrafted wood cabinet that didn’t seem to do much.

If you added a keyboard and a television monitor to your purchase, you had a computer that could run software written in the BASIC language, like a game called “Lunar Lander.’’ A guy named Steve Wozniak provided technical support for your new Apple I whenever you needed it.

This spring, a Somerville company called Grove Labs will start delivering a $2,700 product, also sold in a handcrafted wood cabinet, that its founders compare to some of the earliest personal computers. Grove’s Ecosystem, like the original Apple I, seems like it might only appeal to hard-core hobbyists, people who are interested in growing their own fruits and veggies at home.

But cofounder Gabriel Blanchet, a 2014 graduate of MIT, argues that people are increasingly concerned about where their food comes from — and the environmental costs of sending produce on long truck or airplane rides. How much more of a locavore can you be than harvesting cherry tomatoes, herbs, and strawberries from your living room?

By last December, the conclusion of an online “crowdfunding campaign’’ that solicited preorders for Grove’s Ecosystem, 126 people had plunked down money for a technology “that no one has ever seen before,’’ Blanchet said; another 100 or so are already using first-generation prototypes. (For comparison, Apple made and sold about 200 Apple Is.)

One of the surprising customer groups, he adds, has been “older folks who have time on their hands and want a way to continue gardening throughout the year. Some of them can’t bend over anymore, or kneel down in the dirt, but we designed the Ecosystem to have things growing at waist height.’’

Here’s how the Ecosystem, about the size of a small bookcase, works. The bottom “shelf’’ of it features a fish tank with a small colony of guppies or tetras. Water from the tank, with a smidgen of fish waste in it, gets pumped through a bed of clay pebbles the next level up, where the water irrigates the roots of the plants. Bacteria that live inside the pebbles feed on the fish waste and turn it into a nitrate fertilizer for the plants, which grow in the bed of pebbles. (They also clean the water, so you don’t need to do much maintenance of the fish tank.) There’s no soil at all in the system.

High-intensity LED lighting on the system’s highest shelf helps the plants grow quickly — as does the dearth of leaf-nibbling deer in your apartment. A mobile app provided by Grove offers advice on cultivating different crops and lets you reorder supplies like fish food, seeds, or trellises for growing beans.

While Blanchet doesn’t pitch his 17-person startup as the next Apple, he does say, “Part of what we have to do with the Ecosystem, just like the early personal computer companies, is pulling all these components into something that seems simple, something that people can wrap their heads around.’’

The early users of Grove’s Ecosystems, he adds, are already growing 75 different crops, from shishito peppers to rosemary to lots of lettuce. The company estimates that a single Grove system can produce two or three large bowls of salad greens per week — though some people prefer to use the system as a kitchen herb garden. (Blanchet says his mom grows flowers, and yes, he acknowledges that some customers might buy the Ecosystem to grow marijuana.)

Grove is setting up a production facility in Clinton, just outside Route 495. The company decided not to have a Chinese factory or far-off contract manufacturer build the ecosystem, making it easier to improve the product with each new generation. “Having it close is important to us,’’ Grove said.

In the middle of winter, it’s enchanting to think about a micro-farm in your house. But there are plenty of skeptics who say the Ecosystem will simply be a toy, a way to pursue a hobby year-round, or a badge of “greenness’’ for those who can afford it.

Trish Karter, an investor and adviser to food companies, said it would be hard to grow things in the Grove Ecosystem at a price comparable to organic produce bought from the store — even without factoring in the cost of your time or the electricity needed to run the water pump and LEDs. “It’s a totally charming system for hobbyists,’’ Karter said. “Not that much different than the $10 tomato grown in the home garden. It is a joy to grow!’’

Kenji Lopez-Alt has seen the Grove system but said, “It’s going to remain a niche product. If we have trouble getting everyday folks to even buy more vegetables or spend more time cooking from scratch, it’s a hard sell to ask them to start growing their own food.’’ Lopez-Alt, author of the book “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking through Science,’’ admits that he wants a Grove system — but is having “a hard time convincing my wife that aquariums aren’t tacky.’’

It’s true that there are far more efficient ways to cultivate greens than doing it in your den — or backyard. But in the 1970s, there were more efficient ways to crunch data than doing it on an Apple I. What was interesting about personal computers is they began turning up everywhere — in homes, small businesses, and eventually in our briefcases and our pockets. Their presence over the past 40 years has dramatically changed how we work, communicate, and have fun.

Now, the technology that Grove is developing might do the same for the way we cook and the way we eat.

Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottKirsner and on betaboston.com.