The Root of Things

Many years ago, I came across a rather fun sculpture, nothing more than a storm-felled tree root, power-washed clean and left to stand. What struck me was the symmetry of it all: how the underground network mirrored the canopy above, an inverted echo of branches in rootstock. The memory stayed with me.

So when we were milling timber for The Lost Kitchen’s dining tables, I mentioned the story to Billy. His response was immediate: “We could slice the top clean off with the sawmill and make it into a table.”

As luck would have it, a medium-sized tree had recently come down in the valley during a storm, its trunk just the right diameter for a 1.5-metre table.

What began as an observation about nature’s hidden architecture became something altogether more practical, and rather beautiful, sitting in our restaurant today, admired by our customers every day.

— George