In Yorkshire, England, an ancient profession turned hobby is helping to keep tree trimmings out of the landfills, among other benefits.

The Yorkshire Spoon Club, as the name suggests, will jump at the opportunity to turn an upturned oak or alder tree into a spoon, but this collection of hobbyist and professional woodcarvers churns out far more than just eating utensils.

Meeting once a month in Ellekers Wood, near the small city of Bradford in North Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Spoon Club will quickly turn any municipal tree that’s reached the end of its life into a work project.

When Atlantic Storm Amy passed through the area last month and knocked out a mature alder tree in the town of Shipley, club member Clive Nutton took the whole of the tree away after the surgeons had reduced it to logs.

The club, BBC reports, then processed the town’s departed tree into all sorts of steins, bowls, and spoons.

“It was very happily received and it’s in the process now of being turned into all kinds of lovely things,” he said, adding that it’s so nice to have possessions that remind you of the forest. “They’re reflective of a good time spent in the woods with lovely people and reflective of time in nature.”

Dave Watson, the Spoon Club’s founder, says that these fallen city trees are a big help to the dozens of club members who don’t live near the woods or have equipment for harvesting timber.

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Watson holds woodshop workshops in Elleker’s Wood where timber is plentiful, but for the rest of the month, some of these carvers will “literally be listening out as they go about their daily business for the sound of chainsaws.”

“Often tree surgeons are removing something that’s dangerous or unwanted for some reason and it just gets chipped up,” Watson told the BBC. “So, they’re usually only too happy to pass a bit of wood over.”

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Watson touted the benefits of the activity for the mental health of its participants, a topic much on the mind of Britons these days as the nation looks to grapple with a significant burden of mental health disorders in society.

Sitting in a wood with friends carving a spoon out of green wood around a fire as the Sun lazily drifts across the sky and the leaves change color is a remedy fit for practically anyone, and it’s no surprise that the club has so many members.

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