The closure of one business at Elderslie Farm provided a sort of way station for a new one

Carpenter David Graver was a faithful customer of George Elder’s Elderslie Woodworks at Elderslie Farm until one day last year when he visited the Kechi business to buy lumber for his own Riverside Wood business and was disappointed to learn it was closing.

“He would be my go-to man for locally sourced lumber,” Graver said. “I got home, and I was like, “Erin, you wouldn’t believe this.’ ”

His wife said, “Call him right away.”

The two, who were Bishop Carroll Catholic High School teachers at the time, already had been discussing making their business full time.

So they struck a deal to lease Elder’s space until they can buy their own and opened Shelterbelt38 — a new name for their former Riverside Co. that focuses on high-end charcuterie and cutting boards, butcher blocks, outdoor furniture, tables and benches.

“We decided to just go full throttle with the wood business,” David Graver said. “It’s been a great move. . . . George has been amazing just welcoming me in.”

Elder said David Graver and Shelterbelt38 add a lot.

“David’s a positive, fun guy.”

Elder said while the rental of the space is transactional, his support of Graver is personal “because he is a thoughtful person trying to do something good in Wichita.”

Though woodworking is their niche, the Gravers also started a perennial-plant business under their brand.

“It’s turned into, like, a mini nursery,” David Graver said.

Their five children help with it, too.

For more than a decade, the Gravers sold through the Kansas Grown! Farmers’ Market on the west side, and now they’ve added the Old Town Farm & Art Market , too.

At Elderslie Farm, David Graver has high school students as carpentry apprentices.

“Teachers gotta teach, you know? It still remains in my blood.”

As he did last summer, Graver once again plans a week-long colloquium at Shelterbelt38 that’s a combination of shop class, prayer and discussion.

He and his wife renamed their business after the hedge rows and trees, called shelterbelts, the government planted in the Great Plains in the Dust Bowl era to help with soil erosion.

“It was a really great success,” said Graver, who called 1938 “the high point of that.”

He said they chose the name in part as a reflection of a conservationist effort.

“We still need these shelterbelts,” Graver said. “It’s good to harvest the trees that are mature and then plant a million more. It’s kind of like the natural cycle of things being valued.”

With every board he sells, Graver plants a tree.

For people who buy his boards or chopping blocks, he said there’s value in people holding that history in their hands.

“It’s just a reminder of our groundedness.”

As the Gravers’ business progresses, they hope to get into more corporate gifting, too.

And, as much as they like being at Elderslie, they also hope to one day have their own place.

“I have a vision for what that will look like,” David Graver said.

Like Elderslie, he’d like it to be in the country.

“It’s beautiful Kansas sky,” he said of where he’s at. “It’s just so peaceful.”

When he has his own place, Graver wants to also get into kitchen remodeling and cabinetry work.

His dream includes a vineyard one day as well, but Graver said he and his wife are taking their time expanding the business and finding a new space.

“It has to feel right, so we don’t want to rush it.”

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