In honor of tonight’s season premiere of Parks and Recreation, today’s Made in Your City post focuses on furniture and boats made at Offerman Woodshop (OWS) in Los Angeles.

Offerman, of course, refers to Nick Offerman, better known as Ron Swanson, Pawnee’s outspoken libertarian, red meat and outdoor enthusiast.

When he’s not on set consuming fried turkey legs wrapped in hamburgers, Offerman builds tables, benches, boats, and beds in the woodshop he started after moving to Los Angeles. While Offerman ‘cut his woodworking teeth’ so to speak, at the University of Illinois theater department's scene shop and later building sets for Equity theaters in Chicago, when he arrived in L.A. there was little scene building work to be found. He started building decks and cabins with a friend and opened his shop not long after.

Not only are the pieces built at Offerman Woodshop American-made, but the wood all comes from California forests. Says the OWS website:

Every slab in our inventory has been hand-picked by Nick, all over the state of California. Every slab is from a fallen tree or salvage trunk, to boot. These gorgeous works of nature's art would become firewood if we didn't rescue them for our furniture.

And for any Parks and Rec' fans keeping track, Offerman Woodshop's facebook page includes an album of photos from a teambuilding exercise. Somewhere Leslie Knope is thrilled.

Learn more about Offerman Woodshop.

Image of table taken from Offerman Woodshop's website. Image of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation facebook page.