Mineral Oil is a...

Do you own a wooden cutting board? I have quite a few. The ones in the picture below were gifted to me. I always see such pretty ones at craft fairs.

Usually along with the cutting boards they have a special oil that you can buy to maintain your board and protect it. Often the bottle will say Cutting Board or Block Oil. It's usually not cheap but you feel like you NEED it. I finally realized this special oil is called Mineral Oil.

I use this stuff on more than cutting boards. It's great for restoring and protecting pretty much any untreated wood. I got a really cool old ladder that I hang towels on in the guest bathroom and I rubbed it down with Mineral Oil. I also used it on slate as you may have read yesterday.

I've used it so much I began to run low. I looked for this stuff everywhere. I would generally look near the cutting boards in any given store and I had a really hard time finding it. I even went into the hardware store looking for it and when I asked for it I got a weird look.

When my mom was here we went to the store and I said let me look real quick to see if they have Mineral Oil. When I proceeded to go to the cutting boards she was confused. She said it's in the pharmacy. Why in the world would cutting board oil be in the pharmacy!?! Well turns out Mineral Oil is a LAXATIVE.

Yes people you're not seeing things. Those of us who use Mineral Oil to treat our cutting boards have been rubbing them down with a laxative. Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't know that? Maybe for some of you that really explains a lot. And you thought that it was just the vegetables...

Yes I'm still shocked but grateful that I now have Mineral Oil at a quarter of the cost of that fancy Block that I was using.