A pair of matching wood food boards has to be the perfect gift when you’re looking for something that can be shared. They’re something really unique, personal and truly special.

We find that our boards are really popular as wedding gifts. A substantial solid wood chopping board or breadboard is a great choice. Alternatively a matching pair of serving platters or presentation boards that can be one each for the bride and groom or that can be used together as presentation boards can work really well too.

At Christmas it’s sometimes nice to buy presents that have a connection between them. Buying boards that come from the same tree mean that you can give them as themed gifts for close friends or family. Each board is unique and yet linked at the same time.

For example, these wonderfully versatile Matching Wood Serving Platters are handmade from sustainable, locally sourced English oak. Both feature a distinctive natural edge, splendid grain patterning, comfortable easy grip handles and a food safe mineral oil finish. The natural beauty of the wood is enhanced, with the features of knots, cracks and markings being celebrated.

You can see these two wooden serving platters are from the same length of timber by the way they fit together. You can use them separately or together either back to back or end to end – one for a cheese platter and the other for a meat platter for example.

Wood is naturally anti-bacterial and an ideal medium for food boards, as well as being heat resistant to hot pots and pans. Whether you’re looking for a wooden chopping board, rustic cheese board, wood breadboard, wooden serving platter, or rustic food presentation board – the choice is all yours.

If you would like to commission a handmade board or boards with your choice of edge, type of wood, selected dimensions and finish, contact Rachel directly via hello@woodlandsoul.co.uk

Woodland Soul boards are frequently made of English pippy oak. It is said that English forests produce the finest pippy oak in the world. Pippy oak tends to be more of a wild hedgerow tree than a straight oak. This unique hardwood features curly grain with natural clusters of pin knots mainly on the outside of the log similar to cat’s paws giving it a charming rustic character.

It is the open nature of our English woodlands, hedgerows and large parks that allow for plenty of light penetration. This encourages ‘epicormic growth’ on the main trunks of the trees. These growths penetrate deep into the heart wood of the tree.

When the tree is cut perpendicularly to the direction of travel, the growths appear as cat’s paws. Cat’s paws are revealed as frequent small knots and knot clusters peppering the board. The large knot clusters are called burr. Boards with a high proportion of burrs are described as burr oak.

The heart wood of English pippy oak ranges in colour from pale straw to dark honey brown. The grain moves around the knots and clusters to create beautiful wild patterns and figures which are highly prized by furniture makers such as Steven Baker Furniture. We work with English pippy oak that has been cut to achieve as much interest and beauty as possible. These logs are ‘flat cut’ meaning that they are cut parallel to the growth rings. This displays the epicormic growths as pips and burrs on the surface of the board, along with the growth ring patterns.

Pippy oak lends itself particularly to rustic cheese boards, wooden serving platters and rustic food presentation boards. Wood is naturally anti-bacterial and an ideal medium for food boards. We love to work with timber in an organic way and to celebrate the knots, burrs and figured grain in each board. We carefully fill any gaps or cracks as needed and protect the board with a few coats of food safe mineral oil or wax oil.

If you would like to commission a handmade board or boards with your choice of edge, type of wood, selected dimensions and finish, contact Rachel directly via hello@woodlandsoul.co.uk

Here at Woodland Soul most of the wood that we use retains its natural live edge. Live edge wood keeps the original lines of the trunk along its edges, showing the wood in a very naturalistic and raw state.

The outer rings of a tree trunk are the living part of the tree. When a log is cut into slabs, the entire slab is used including the natural edge. The natural live edge of the wood under the bark is kept intact after it is cut. We love to work with timber in an organic way and to celebrate the knots, burrs and figured grain in each board.

“The live edge ethos is all about embracing nature, craftsmanship, and simplicity.”

‘Live edge’ became a popular term in the 1940s thanks to George Nakashima. He was an American woodworker, architect, and furniture maker who was one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a father of the American craft movement.

Nakashima’s signature woodworking design was his large-scale tables made of sizeable slabs of wood with smooth tops and unfinished natural edges. He connected these large slabs of wood with butterfly joints. The term is now used to describe nearly any piece of furniture or home accessory, from tables and benches through to headboards, shelving and food boards that retain this natural style edge.

There are two types of natural live edge. A “bark on” edge is really rustic as the bark of the tree remains intact and is simply cleaned and then oiled like the rest of the finished board. A “de-barked” or “bark off” edge is where we carefully remove the bark from the tree slab using a curved edge knife and lightly sand the edge to prevent splintering. The focus is on retaining the edge as much as possible and not altering the shape of the wood. Both bark on and bark off finishes result in an exquisite, unique edge full of individual character.

We love wood, we love local and we don’t like to see any part of a tree go to waste. That’s why we work with local sustainable traceable English wood, mainly English oak, that is of the highest grade having been fully seasoned and kiln dried grade at local reputable saw mills. We always like to make sure each felled tree is respectfully celebrated and that as much of it as possible is used for the enjoyment of as many people as possible.

Wood is naturally anti-bacterial and an ideal medium for food boards, as well as being heat resistant to hot pots and pans. Whether you’re looking for a wooden chopping board, rustic cheese board, wood breadboard, wooden serving platter, or rustic food presentation board – the choice is all yours.

If you’d like to commission a handmade board with your choice of edge, type of wood, selected dimensions and finish contact Rachel directly via hello@woodlandsoul.co.uk