by Texas Homesteader ~ 

You need a cutting board so you buy one. But did you know it’s pretty simple (and very inexpensive) to make an all-natural oak cutting board yourself. We wanted to make small cheese boards to go with our homemade gifts. Come see how we did it.

Homemade Gifts

This past Christmas our primary homemade gift to our children & other loved ones was homemade Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese.

But how to present the cheese to our gift recipients? RancherMan & I were brainstorming about presentation ideas.

We decided we wanted a cheeseboard to go with our gift. So we started looking online.

We were pretty surprised at how expensive even a very small cheeseboard was. Even at the discount shops.

Plus – as is our norm – we really wanted to personalize them anyway. So we decided to make the cutting boards ourselves.

Obtaining The Oak Wood

We decided we wanted our cutting boards to be made of oak. So RancherMan bought a 6-ft long 8″ x 1/2″ oak board. We were able to use our credit card reward points too. So we had no money out of pocket for the actual wood.

Then we decided to cut that long board into 6 cheeseboards. Each board would be approximately 8″x12″. So RancherMan measured, marked and cut the long board into 6 individual cheeseboards.

When the cheeseboards were cut to size we used a sander to sand all the rough edges of each board. Then a hand rasp was used to round the corners.

Let me tell ya, that will give you a workout! We don’t really work with wood very often so our woodworking hand tools are pretty rustic. LOL.

After the corners were rounded we sanded the edges once again to make a smoother finish.

Sentimental Personalization

But now how to personalize it? That question didn’t remain very long.

We used a hot branding iron to brand the corner of each board. This brand is sentimental to us and recognized by all in our family. It symbolizes our way of life: Sunrises Forever.

It reminds us that each new sunrise is a fresh start, a blank slate. A brand new chance to do something GREAT!

We knew our family would love it.

When the wood had been cut, sanded and branded, RancherMan used a 5/8″ paddle bit to drill a hole in one corner for easy hanging if need be. Now that will be convenient. So let’s stand back & look… Yeah, we like it!

Protecting The Wood

The final step was to coat the surfaces of the cutting board with food-grade mineral oil. Not only does this help protect the wood, but it did a fantastic job of bringing out that beautiful oak grain.

When it was time to package our gifts to our kids, we included different flavors of our homemade Farmhouse Cheddar cheese.

We’d made regular Cheddar, Garlic & Chive flavor & Italian flavor that used dried herbs from my garden. After each cheese was made it was pressed, cut, dried, waxed and carefully aged.

As we sat the wedges on our homemade cutting board, we pondered how to keep the cheese from just sliding off the board.

I could try to tie a big ribbon around it, but I’m not sure that would properly secure the cheese since they’re triangular. Or we could buy those large plastic bags that you heat to shrink wrap something.

But, you know, new plastic being bought. Surely there’s a better way!

Presenting Our Gift

In the end we located some net bags that produce was once purchased in. I’d sat them back in case I needed to make more Pot Scrubbers. But now they worked perfectly here for our gifts.

We simply slid the cutting board and cheeses into a net bag. A cotton string was used to ‘sew’ the ends closed. A ribbon & sprig of fresh oregano was added to the end to further embellish our cutting board and homemade cheese gift.

Once again this gift was handmade from our hearts. And once again we were able to show our love while staying true to our values. 

Share Your Favorites!

What about you? Do you love homemade gifts as much as we do? What are your favorite gifts to make or receive?

~TxH~

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See All Our Eco-Friendly Posts

Low-Waste Gift Wrapping & Presentation

• Low-Waste Gift Wrapping Tips
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• Make A Cute Gift Box Using A Greeting Card!

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