Reviving the Redwoods of the East: American Chestnut Trees

nat rosasco • July 9, 2015

Welcome to Reclaimed Table’s brand new website and our inaugural blog post! It’s Lori, here, the social media and marketing intern, looking to share some tidbits about what we know best: furniture, design, and sustainability. We also want you to see who we are behind the sawdust masks and staining sprayers. From craftsmen, to welders, to architects, to marketers, we have a lot to share and are eager for you to join us.

We’d like to use this first post to take the opportunity to pay homage to the one and only source for our wood, trees, of course, and one tree species in particular that’s about to make a comeback.

One species of tree, the American chestnut, did just that. Reliable, late-blooming trees, American Chestnuts provided ten times the number of chestnuts as oaks did acorns, offering pools of chestnut feasts for both wild animals, as well as farmers’ livestock. People were also members of the chestnut bandwagon, incorporating the nuts into their meals. Furthermore, the chestnut lumber industry was strong, due to chestnut wood’s lightweight, rot-resistant nature, which makes it easy to work with.

The trees sprawled over 200 million acres of forests, growing from Maine to Mississippi. They were the redwoods of the East, with the largest chestnut tree ever recorded measuring 27 feet across the stump.

If you happen to have ever hiked in the Appalachian mountains or elsewhere along the East Coast of the United States, you may be asking yourself, “Where were the American chestnut trees?” or, at the very least, “Where were the pools of chestnuts? I could have really used a snack.” I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially when it concerns anything food-related, but sadly, when Asian chestnut trees were imported to the United States in the late 1800s, they brought with them a fungal disease. This fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, lethally infected American chestnut trees, nearly eradicating them.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Can we restore these trees and the ecosystem?” Or, perhaps less important, but still a viable consideration, “I just want to make some good, old-fashioned American chestnut bread. Am I out of luck?” Fortunately, it’s becoming pretty clear that the ingredients for your chestnut baking adventures will be homegrown once again. The American Chestnut Foundation, TACF, founded in 1983, is focused on developing a blight-resistant American chestnut tree. TACF created a backcross breeding program, in order for the American chestnut tree to gain the blight-resistance of the Chinese chestnut tree without losing any of its own characteristics. The first potentially blight-resistant chestnuts were harvested in 2005, and TACF is continuing testing.

TACF is confident that blight-resistant American chestnuts will be able to be reintroduced to their native forests and will soon flourish. Never fear, we can look forward to having some local chestnuts roasting on an open fire for many Christmases to come.

References:
http://www.acf.org/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chestnut-forest-a-new-generation-of-american-chestnut-trees-may-redefine-americas-forests/

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Inventory Sale

By nat rosasco • January 22, 2019

Reclaimed Table's huge selection of one-off, custom table tops are being sold at deep discounts at our Villa Park showroom. Find the durable tables you need for your next project, at prices you won't come across again!

Client Feature: Oak Tables & Benches for Navy Pier's Centennial Vision

By nat rosasco • July 17, 2018

Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier has always been a popular attraction since it opened just over 100 years ago in 1916. It currently welcomes 9 million guests per year. As explained on the Navy Pier website, the Pier was designed by architect Charles Sumner Frost and was originally based on architect’s Daniel Burnham’s “the People’s Pier” in his 1909 Plan of Chicago . It was originally known as “Municipal Pier,” but was renamed in 1927 in honor of the World War 1 Navy personnel who were housed there. As we blogged about a couple of years ago , Navy Pier has been undergoing renovations in honor of its “Centennial Vision” to reimagine and enhance the pier. While updating the pier with new programming and a greener landscape, this vision has also been attracting more local eateries ( like Tiny Tavern ) and shops, creating a space that’s more inviting to local Chicagoans. After providing pieces for the first phase of the remodel last year, we were pleased to continue to be part of this project for the recently completed phase two. Partnering with Gensler, we provided white oak tables and benches near the main entrance and for the brand new, 200,000 square foot Family Pavilion that features over 50 businesses. Fortunately, these pieces were created not only with their visual aesthetic in mind, but also to impressively withstand this sort of high traffic area. We also built the reclaimed red and white oak blade signs flanking all of the restaurants and shops, which creates a unified look within the complex. Much like the Pier, these signs have an interesting, rich history behind them. The red and white oak wood used to make the signs were actually horse fences on a farm in Mercy County, Kentucky that dates back to the late 1800s. Mercer county was one of the first settlements in the state, and the farm itself, Shawnee Springs, was originally over 2,000 acres. In the 1970s the farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. We knew the Navy Pier project was the right one for this specific wood-- historic wood for an historic landmark. (See our other applications of reclaimed red and white oak Kentucky horse fence here .) Check out photos of our tables, benches, and signs at the recently updated and unveiled Pier below. And if you’re in the Chicagoland area, you can check them out for yourselves in person, along with a whole host of entertainment on the Pier. Interested in some durable tables and benches for a high-traffic area? Contact us here to get started on your next project.

Aging Booker's Bourbon: Finding the 'Sweet Spot' for Flavor

By nat rosasco • June 18, 2018

When it comes to aging bourbon, Booker’s small batch bourbon has the process literally down to a science. Currently produced by the Jim Beam distillery, it was Jim Beam’s grandson, Booker Noe, who founded this brand in 1992 with bourbon from barrels he personally selected. According to the Booker’s Bourbon website, Booker was actually raised at a Kentucky distillery and brought his family’s six generations of master distillery knowledge to his bourbon batches. How does Booker’s perfectly age their bourbon? As we pretty much all know, bourbon ages in wooden barrels. When the weather becomes hot and humid, like it does during those sticky Kentucky summers, the wood expands and absorbs the bourbon, allowing for a chemical interaction between the bourbon and the wood. In colder weather, the wood contracts and the bourbon escapes the barrel’s walls. This interaction changes the spirit’s taste and color. The longer bourbon is in the barrel, the smoother the taste, (up to a certain point, that is). Barrels are kept in rackhouses where temperatures can easily be regulated. Rackhouses were originally built out of stone with several wooden floors and an exposed dirt basement to control humidity and large temperature swings. The windows were designed to keep the buildings well-ventilated.