Dining: A religious experience

Better Farm feeds anywhere from one to 20 people on any given day. With a constant stream of visitors and residents (and no shortage of interesting meal options), seating is a constant issue. The kitchen has for the last decade been an excellent hodgepodge of mismatched chairs and tables. Then, a few weeks ago I stumbled on this Craigslist ad:

Church Pews - (Calcium Community Church)

Date: 2009-07-05, 4:25PM EDT

We are selling 16 oak pews at our church. They are approximately 12 Feet long with a slight curve on the back.

Under the listing were several pictures of lovely church pews. What can I say? The spirit moved me. 

Dining at Better Farm, a religious experience? You bet. I got in touch with the folks over in Calcium, N.Y., immediately. A few days later, Fred Ciliberti and I headed out on a very circuitous journey to Calcium Community Church for the pews. Pastor Mark White is nice as can be, helping Fred do the heavy lifting and inviting us in for coffee and conversation. He even sent us off with Calcium Community Church mugs!

Back at the ranch, we lugged the 12-foot seats to the kitchen. Lo and behold:

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Nicole Caldwell

Nicole Caldwell is a self-taught environmentalist, green-living savant and sustainability educator with more than a decade of professional writing experience. She is also the co-founder of Better Farm and president of betterArts. Nicole’s work has been featured in Mother Earth News, Reader’s Digest, Time Out New York, and many other publications. Her first book, Better: The Everyday Art of Sustainable Living, is due out this July through New Society Publishers.