Coming home from your local farmer’s market with a basket of fresh veggies, fruit, and maybe for us carnivores, some ethical meat choices. One of my favorite parts of summer are the simple meals prepared by cutting up a few fresh veggies, maybe grilling some meat, and polishing it all off with a bowl or strawberries or maybe even a peach cobbler.
With our boards and counters getting so much use it is important to keep them clean. The answer to keeping our counters and cutting boards clean IS NOT bleach. My southern friends, more than any other people I know, LOVE bleach. They love feeling like they have killed every last germ and they even love the way bleach smells. Because I care about the health and well being of my dear friends I am going to share a few alternative cleaning recipes.

Here are a few germ-killing solutions for your cutting board and your counters from Care2:

Plain Old Soap and Water:
The Environmental Protection Agency notes that soap and hot water kill bacteria. Wash the cutting board with soap and water (note: use real liquid soap, such as Dr. Bronner’s); it is effective to do this using a good scrub brush, to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Hydrogen peroxide and white distilled vinegar:
Wash your board with hydrogen peroxide followed by straight white distilled vinegar. Leaving each one to rest on the cutting board for 10 minutes or so before rinsing. (The smell of the vinegar will dissipate.)

A straight 5 percent solution of vinegar—such as you can buy in the supermarket—kills 99 percent of bacteria, 82 percent of mold, and 80 percent of germs (viruses).

Lavender antibacterial spray:
If you like the smell of lavender, make an antibacterial spray by mixing about 20 drops of the pure essential oil of lavender to 1 cup of water in a spray bottle. Shake to blend. Spray on the cutting board and don’t rinse.

New research is proving that the old folk recipes using herbs and essential oils to kill germs, such as those used by 14th century doctors during the Black Plague, were based on good science. Many essential oils, such as the oils of lavender and thyme, are more antiseptic than phenol, the industry standard. Research is also showing that antibacterial plant oils may not cause drug resistance, as could be the case with common chemical disinfectants. The essential oil-based spray, below, leaves a lovely, clean scent. It is a good choice to use for misting your cutting board after use.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Environment, General, Recipes, making changes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.