• 弘前市はりんご生産量世界一のまちです。毎年さまざまな理由で役目を終えるりんごの木が出ます。薪とされる他は処分されています。木材として利用するには、太く長い部材が採れない上に節目・こぶも多く、加工に至るまでに非常に手間がかかるからです。それでも自分たちで農園からいただいて、製材・乾燥まで行っているのは、むかし曽祖父が建具の技術を応用した青森ひばのりんご栽培用の梯子を開発し、これまでりんごの恩恵を受けてきた木工屋であること、そして時代の流れに逆らわず自分達の設備・技術を生かした木のモノ作りを一貫してやってきた中から、やる価値があると思ったからです。使えるのは入手したうちの5割がやっとですが、実を食べるだけでなく幹も最後まで大事に使おう というゼロエミッション活動とも捉え、地域資源として活用しております。
• Hirosaki Apple Tree
• Hirosaki City produces the largest amount of apples in the world, as well as the large amount of apple trees that have fulfilled the role for various reasons every year. These apple trees are discarded unless they are used as firewood since they are too wide and short as lumber, and furthermore, they are knotty and gnarled to require a lot of work. The reason why we still work on apple tree lumbering through drying is that we have been receiving much benefit from apples as a woodcraft factory ever since my great-grandfather developed a ladder made of Aomori Hiba for apple cultivation using fixture-manufacturing knowhow. We also found it valuable to continue working on apple trees while we have been doing woodcraft consistently using our skills and equipment without going against the times. Although there is only half of all amount we receive available for woodcraft, we utilize apple trees as our local material considering it as a zero-emission activity trying not only to eat the fruit but also to use the trunk of trees.