A ‘tree-to-table’ business in Orient
The buzz of saws and sanders, a soft dust coating the floor and the smell of freshly cut lumber make the senses come alive when you walk into the workshop of East End Wood Designs.
There, co-owners Jeff Rogers and Mike Gillespie of Orient aim to create one-off, specialty furniture made from local wood. Whether it’s the large overgrown limbs from pruning, or trunks from cleared properties, the business repurposes, recycles, and gives new life to the felled trees that would otherwise be discarded or turned into firewood.
“Everyone thinks you have to go to South America to get fancy grains,” Rogers said, referring to wood fibers. “But we have beautiful grains right here.”
White oak, butternut, cedar and even redwood sequoia — the timber found on the North Fork is as different as Mr. Rogers and Mr. Gillespie.
Photo: (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
