12
Mar
I am a bit of a cooking enthusiast. I really enjoy cooking high quality meals for my family. Afterall, what would be the point of going through all the effort of raising our own animals organically if I weren’t going to serve it right in the kitchen at the end. But my journey into home cooking started when we switched to a whole-foods diet about 2 years before we began our homestead.
When we switched to the whole-foods diet, I found myself in need of a cutting board more often because of the processing of raw ingredients. At the time I was using cheap plastic cutting boards because they didn’t cost much and I could toss them in the dishwasher when I was done with them. As I learned more about healthy food and healthy living I also learned about the toxicity of plasticizers in plastic materials and the potential for them to leach into our food. I began to question whether I wanted to be putting our organic, locally-sourced food onto a plastic cutting board, especially a hot roast that needs carving. I also came to learn that plastic cutting boards tend to harbor pathogenic bacteria in the cuts and creases on the surface of the board.
So I set out on a journey to find a good alternative to plastic cutting boards. Searching on the internet I found a lot of bamboo cutting boards. The problem with these is they are usually made out of a pulp of bamboo that is fused together with copious amounts of glue that can contain formaldehyde and other toxic ingredients…. not really what I want my food to come in contact with (yes, I just ended a sentence with a preposition). The search continued and I found other wood cutting board option but many were also glued together and most were finished with mineral oil.
Mineral oil is the most common finish for wooden kitchen utensils and cutting boards however it is made from petroleum. Though, it is approved “food grade” by the FDA, the FDA is the same agency that says it is ok to spray our food with glyphosate, atrazine, and 2,4d and then eat the food.
Just when I was about to give up the search, I found a company called Urthware. Urthware is based out of Canada and they make high-quality hand-made non-toxic wood cutting boards. I have bought 4 cutting boards from Urthware since 2015 – 2 face-grain cutting boards, 1 end-grain small butcher block, and 1 LARGE end-grain chopping block. I absolutely love these boards! They are 100% Canadian hardwood (sugar maple) and finished with organic walnut oil and beeswax (way better than mineral oil). For those that have nut allergies, Urthware offers a coconut oil/beeswax finish also.
Urthware sent me their latest cutting board style along with a new addition to their lineup, a wooden spatula. Check out our video on these products. Click here to check pricing and order.
*The Urthware link is an affiliate link which means I get a tiny commission if you purchase a product from them using our link. It doesn’t cost you extra but it helps support the work we are doing here on The Grass-fed Homestead.