Buried root cellar for a farm-to-table university cafe

The Seasoned Spoon is a cafe at Trent University offering vegetarian and vegan meals on campus made mainly from locally grown food. To extend the amount of time they can use local produce, they wanted a subterranean root cellar that could store vegetables with minimal energy input.

The 400 square foot building is nestled in the middle of the campus buried discreetly in a small hill. Designed and built with natural materials and techniques, the root cellar features one “dry” room and one humid room for different types of produce.