Dishware
Read about dishware in “Is Ceramic Dishware Safe?”
Fiesta
This brightly colored iconic dinnerware is free from lead and some colors are also free from cadmium. Here’s the list of cadmium-free colors (both retired and current): shamrock, chocolate, peacock, turquoise, cinnabar, plum, black, white, heather, lapis, sage, slate, cobalt, claret, mulberry. Statement from the manufacturer about being lead-free.
Holland Bowl Mill
Wooden bowls of all sizes, made from a variety of different woods. They also have a unique treatment for the wood called “ebonizing” which is the use of a vinegar and iron solution that turns the wood black. These bowls are quite beautiful with black on the outside and the natural wood on the inside. They also make a whole series of nesting bowls from one block of wood. You can special order a whole set of these nested bowls if you want, though it’s not an item on the website. Bowls are finished with food grade mineral oil, but you can also order them unfinished. They also make live edge bowls!
JUstenbois
Wooden dinnerware and utensils, handmade from sustainably-harvested maple, all in one piece without gluing. Why wood? “Wood preserves the integrity of the foods—the neutrality—without contact with metals which emits certain tastes and degradation….Contact with wood is organic and warm. Sound manipulation is discreet and pleasant. The food slides least movement. And, for the taste it is like eating with chopsticks.” …During a simple meal, on the table there was a piece of wood and an x-acto blade… soon after a knife was born, and a tomato finely sliced! For the following 6 months, twelve families agreed to trade their metal forks for wooden forks. The comments were outstanding. A year of research and development followed. In 2004 JUstenbois was born. A team of 9 artisans worked at creating maple plates and utensils for your dining room table. These settings, finely chiseled out of selected cultivated sugar maple trees, have a very long life.” Nearly 9,000 utensils are made from one tree.
