Give the gift of wood next Valentine’s Day

OK, so I’m a day late and a dollar short for Valentine’s Day 2010. However, you can give your partner the gift of wood next year.
A marketing savvy Vermont woodworker has created The Naked Table Project, a Valentine’s weekend couple’s retreat that makes a contemporary heirloom-quality family table, designed by Charles Shackleton.
Six months before the event, 80 to 100-year-old sugar maple trees are harvested from a local sustainable forest. The wood is logged, sawn, dried and machined by various local artisans. Assisted by several ShackletonThomas furniture makers, 15 couples spend their first day assembling, smoothing and finishing the tables.
The weekend also includes a nature hike through the woods with a professional forester to see the actual source of the lumber and to indentify a replacement seedling tree. The GPS coordinates of each tree are recorded and attached to the base of the signed and numbered Naked Table. The weekend ends with a feast around the completed tables. All the tables are lined up to create a 75-foot-long table adorned with locally grown foods.
All tables come with a certificate stating the origins of the wood and a list of the chain of people who helped create the table.