Bamboo in the Kitchen

The use of Bamboo in the home has boomed in the past few years and the benefits of using bamboo in the kitchen are endless.  Unlike most other hardwood cutting boards, bamboo absorbs very little moisture and consequently does not shrink or swell making it a superior choice of material for cutting boards.  Bamboo is even harder then maple which means the cutting board will have less visible knife marks over time. Not only is bamboo 16% harder than maple but it is lighter than oak and easy to handle. Bamboo also has anti-bacterial properties that make it an ideal material for cutting boards and cooking utensils.

 Going Green in your kitchen is very easy with bamboo cutting boards and kitchen utensils. Many people are concerned about the environment and are trying to reduce their day to day use of potentially harmful plastics; these kitchen items are a great environmentally friendly, all-natural alternative to plastic cutting boards and kitchen utensils.

 Bamboo also holds the promise of a cost effective and ecologically responsible alternative to the widespread clear cutting of our world's precious rainforest. Bamboo is actually a grass that grows to a harvestable height of 60 feet in just 3-5 years, growing as much as 6 feet per day. It has an extensive root system that continually sends up new shoots and naturally replenishes itself. Bamboo does not require replanting.

 Bamboo in Life

“A man can sit in a bamboo house under a bamboo roof, on a bamboo chair at a bamboo table, with a bamboo hat on his head and bamboo sandals on his feet.  He can at the same time hold in one hand a bamboo bowl, in the other hand bamboo chopsticks and eat bamboo sprouts.  When through with his meal, which has been cooked over a bamboo fire, the table may be washed with a bamboo cloth, and he can fan himself with a bamboo fan, take a siesta on a bamboo bed, lying on a bamboo mat with his head resting on a bamboo pillow.  His child might be lying in a bamboo cradle, playing with a bamboo toy.  On rising he would smoke a bamboo pipe and taking a bamboo pen, write on a bamboo paper, or carry his articles in bamboo baskets suspended from a bamboo pole, with a bamboo umbrella over his head.  He might then take a walk over a bamboo suspension bridge, drink water from a bamboo ladle, and scrape himself with a bamboo scraper (handkerchief)”. Quoted from the book; A Yankee in the Yangtze, by William Edgar Geil.

 Bamboo in Thought

Growth

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on Earth; it has been measured surging skyward as fast as 121 cm (47.6 inches) in a 24-hour period and can also reach maximal growth rate exceeding one meter (39 inches) per hour for short periods of time.  Many prehistoric bamboos exceeded heights of 75 meters (250 feet).

Unlike trees, all bamboos grow to full height and girth in a single growing season of 3–4 months.  During this first year the young shoots strike skyward supported by photosynthesis from the rest of the clump with no time to sprout their own branches and leaves.  Over the next year the pulpy wall of each Culm slowly dries and hardens, sprouting branches and leaves during the second year from juvenile sheathes that

form from each node.  Over the following year the Culm hardens still further shedding its juvenile sheaths and commencing its life as a fully mature Culm.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo

 Environment

Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the re-greening of degraded lands, and its stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees.  Some bamboo even sequester up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide from the air per hectare.  Bamboo can also lower light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays.  Traditional belief holds that being in a bamboo grove - the favorite dwelling place of Buddha - restores calmness

to emotions and stimulates creativity. Source: Environmental Bamboo Foundation

 Economy

Bamboo and its related industries already provide income, food and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide.  There is a 3-5 year return on investment for a new bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan.  Governments such as India, China and Burma with 19,800,000 hectares of bamboo reserves collectively, have begun to focus attention on the economic factors of bamboo production.

 Commercial consumption of bamboo world over is to the tune of US $10 Billion which is expected to reach US $ 20 Billion by 2015.  Potential growth areas are shoots, boards, paper and pulp, furniture, building and construction. Source: Environmental Bamboo Foundation

 Bamboo in Medicine

In ancient medicine, Bamboo has for centuries been used in Ayurveda and Chinese acupuncture.  The powdered hardened secretion from bamboo is used internally to treat asthma, coughs and can be used as an aphrodisiac.  In China, ingredients from the root of the black bamboo help treat kidney disease.  Roots and leaves have also been used to treat venereal disease and cancer.  Sap is said to reduce fever and ash will cure prickly heat.  Current research point to bamboo's potential in a number of medicinal uses. Source: Environmental Bamboo Foundation

 Bamboo in History

Thomas Edison's first successful incandescent lamp (light bulb) used a filament made of carbonized bamboo.  It was patented in 1880 and this light bulb still burns today in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.

 Thomas Edison also used bamboo as rebar for the reinforcement of his swimming pool. To this day the pool has never leaked.

 Alexander Graham Bell used bamboo for the first phonograph needle.

 Bamboo provided the first re-greening in Hiroshima after the atomic blast in 1945.

 In Limon, Costa Rica, only the bamboo houses from the National Bamboo Project stood after their violent earthquake in 1992.

 Bamboo in Myths and Legends

Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, believe that humanity emerged from a bamboo stem.  

 In the Philippine creation myth, legend tells that the first man and the first woman each emerged from split bamboo stems on an island created after the battle of the elemental forces (Sky and Ocean).  

 In Malaysian legends a similar story includes a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside.  

 The Japanese folktale Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari) tells of a princess from the Moon emerging from a shining bamboo section.  Hawaiian bamboo ('ohe) is a kinolau or body form of the Polynesian creator god Kane Milohai. Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo