Greetings timber lovers,
I do love sharing a good bit of wood with the world, whether sculpted, sanded, or simply one of our astounding wood kitchens – if it piques my interest, I can’t wait to share it with you.
Hold on to your hats for this one, and prepare yourself for something that would have previously been hailed as science fiction, or simply wishful thinking: a single tree that bears over 40 different type of tree from one trunk. Before you get too excited by the possibilities of your own single-tree fruit store though, consider the huge effort undertaken by artist Sam Van Aken in creating these freaks of nature.
Each tree begins life as a rather odd-looking specimen resembling some kind of warped science experiment, and slowly develops into what could easily be mistaken for a variety of other trees for much of the year. In spring, the trees bloom to reveal a bootiful example of what can happen when nature truly inspires art. Over the course of several months, Van Aken’s trees produce a delicious harvest of plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and almonds, including many stone fruits you’ve likely never seen before.
So far, Van Aken has meticulously created 16 trees, which are placed in museums, community centres and private art collections all over America. Each tree takes around 5 years to go through the entire process of grafting the wide variety of species onto the host.
On the future of the project, Van Aken said: “Eventually, I would like to create a grove or small orchard of these trees in an urban setting. I have always stayed away from artwork that educates people, but to some extent these works in addition to being beautiful and producing fruit cause one to reconsider the possibilities with food and fruit production.”
I might not be able to offer you 40 types of timber species, but here at deTerra we have 23 of the finest wooden worktops around, and we can provide samples of any one of the solid wood worktops in our range. They’re only £5 including delivery, so take advantage today – we’ll even refund the cost if you go on to place an order with us.
Ta ta for now,
The deTerra Diarist