A lot of the time, the traditional knowledge is worth listening to even when it is not so clear how it works…

A few months ago I bought a piece of beautiful thick natural tamarind wood cutting board from the market…And as soon as I got home grandma said, tonight you must soak it in saltwater and rub it well with salt again tomorrow morning so the cutting board won’t get moldy or easily cracked…

When asked how it works… She wasn’t too sure but it was what great grandma passed on to her, no extra explanation needed. So I guess it could be traditional intuition that was passed along.. Little that I knew there’s a proper explanation to that…

I soaked the wood in salted water overnight… And washed more with salt the next morning. The wood turn alive…soft but hard at the same time… This got me thinking about finding the balance between being soft and hard, wet and dry. So, with a little help of my holistic nutrition background, here’s my explanation of how it works.

By its nature, salt is drying as it absorbs the moist… Which creates an unpleasant condition for molds to grow. Meanwhile water is definitely damping.. It can be absorbed into the wood and make the living or dying cells expand.

By combining the two things of the opposite properties together, we neutalize the end result each other and brings the substance it is applied on into balance….

Yes, think about how amazing salt water can be- it’s great to gargle with when you have a cold, it also prevents the color run on ntural dying clothe… There are countless instances that salt water is applied…

It’s probably similar to “opposites attract”🤔 kinda thought… Because the more different they are, the more balanced the combination becomes.

Nature always find its way to rebalance things. And where you know it or not, your grannies probably probably know a lot of it.

Tell us how your tradition deal with new natural wood cutting board? Do you apply oil/salt/water? Or if you aren’t sure, maybe check with your grannies? 😁😁😁

I’d 💚 to know.

-mon