KINGSTON, Jamaica – What’s in those fallen trees after Hurricane Beryl’s passage? For people like wood designer Mara Harding, they’re a valuable resource.
On Thursday morning, as workers were dismantling a fallen sweetwood that was blocking traffic flow on Shortwood Road in St Andrew, Harding was one of several passersby who patiently waited for pieces of the tree.
“I was driving by and saw some people cutting wood so I just grabbed a few,” Harding, founder of Malamaid Designs, told Observer Online. “This is the first sweetwood I’ve picked up – you don’t see that often.”
Video: Tree felled by Beryl is removed from Shortwood Road
Sweetwood is a good material for furniture, but it is also used for jerk, a cooking method native to Jamaica, making large, mature sweetwood trees rare.
Harding said he believed the fallen tree was very old because it appeared hollow inside.
Harding founded Malamaid Designs in 2015 with the mission of breathing new life into wood that would otherwise be discarded.
A self-taught timber designer, she said her company’s motto is “no wood left behind,” adding that in some cases they even remove trees from people’s homes at their own expense.
“What I tend to do is, if there’s a tree that needs to be cut down for a good reason, I’ll go and cut it down at my own expense,” Harding said, noting that mango trees “make great furniture.”
– Julian Richardson
