“Raw chicken and your salad should never share a cutting board.” — Dale Pruitt (67) builds a three-board set that keeps raw meat juice, onion flavor and plastic off the food you eat raw.

His wife Carol ran a school cafeteria for 26 years, where every cutting board had one job: one for raw meat, one for produce, one for bread. When she retired, she wanted the same rule at home. Dale built it for her by hand, from wood the Florida storms had already brought down. What started as a present for his wife is now on kitchen counters from Maine to California.

Redland, Florida. The pole barn behind the Pruitt house has a tin roof, two open sides and a view of the palm trees. Lumber is stacked under the roof to dry, and the air smells like fresh-cut wood. An old radio plays country music on the shelf, and a coffee can full of pencils sits on the workbench. This is where every set is made.

Dale has cleaned up after South Florida’s big storms since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. After every hurricane, the roads around Redland are lined with fallen trees, and most of that wood goes straight into the chipper or onto the burn pile.

“I’ve never cut down a tree for a board,” Dale says. “The storm does that. I just can’t stand watching good wood go to waste.” So after one storm, he started hauling the best trunks home on a borrowed trailer instead. These days, neighbors call Dale first when a big tree comes down on their property.

Back at the barn, the trunks are sawn into planks and left to dry under the roof for months. Only then does Dale start on a board. Many low-cost imported boards are made from wood that was never properly dried, which is why so many of them warp or split within months. Dale doesn’t rush that step.

The idea for the set came from Carol. In a school kitchen, cutting boards aren’t a matter of taste. Raw chicken never goes near the board the lettuce is cut on. “You stop thinking about it after the first week,” she says. “It’s just how a kitchen works.”

When she retired, she wanted her cafeteria rule at home, just not the colored plastic boards she’d looked at for 26 years. “I wanted wood,” she says. “Real wood. And I wanted everyone in the house to know which board was which, without having to ask me.” Dale went out to the barn that same afternoon.

Made by hand in a Florida barn

Dale cuts, scrapes and oils each board by hand. Every one is 13 by 10 inches of solid hardwood, big enough for a whole chicken or a full loaf of bread, and heavy enough that it stays put while you chop. The edges are eased by hand so they feel smooth in your hands, and the surface is scraped, not just sanded, until it’s perfectly even.

That’s the difference from a big-box set. Shoppers who bought popular store-brand board sets have described boards that arrived cracked, with the cracks filled with wood putty, finishes with a chemical smell, and knife marks after the very first use. Dale’s boards get no stain and no lacquer, just food-grade mineral oil, and every one is checked by hand before it ships.

Carol had one more request: “If they’re going to sit on my counter, they should look like books.” So each board has its job burned into the edge like the title on a hardcover spine, never printed on.

What one board does to your food

Most of us use one board for everything. Chicken on Sunday. The same board, washed, for salad on Monday. Strawberries on Tuesday that taste faintly of onion.

First, what comes off the raw meat. Juice from raw chicken, pork or fish runs into every knife mark on a board. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food-safety guidance is clear: use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood.

Second, what the board remembers. Garlic, onion and fish work their way into a cutting surface. That’s how a sliced apple ends up tasting like last night’s salsa, and how the good cheddar picks up a hint of garlic. “People blame the fruit,” Carol says. “It’s the board.” That’s why professional kitchens don’t rely on washing alone. They give each kind of food its own board.

No plastic under your knife

Many kitchens that already use separate boards use plastic ones. In 2023, engineers at North Dakota State University measured what comes off a plastic board every time a knife comes down on it. Their equipment only counted the larger particles, so the real number is likely even higher. The study made national headlines, and it’s one of the main reasons so many families are putting their plastic boards away.

Those knife grooves cause a second problem. In lab tests at UC Davis, food-safety researcher Dean Cliver found that scarred plastic boards were very hard to get clean by hand, while well-used wooden boards behaved almost like new. “Wood gives up wood,” Dale says. “I can live with that.”

Carol’s three rules

• MEAT & FISH: Raw meat, poultry and seafood go on this board and nowhere else, just as the USDA recommends.
• FRUITS & VEGETABLES: Two sides, one simple rule. When the words on the edge read right-side up, you’re on the fruit side. Flip it over, and that side is for onions and garlic. Your strawberries never meet an onion.
• CHEESE & BREAD: The pale oak board never sees onion, garlic or fish, so it goes straight from the counter to the table as a serving board.

“You don’t have to remember anything,” Carol says. “You just look at the edge.” Even the grandkids get it right the first time, and nobody has to ask which board the chicken goes on. It’s the same system restaurant kitchens use, just in warm wood instead of colored plastic. And because the names are burned in, they’re still there after years of washing.

Fresh wood, fresh start

Every family has that one board, the one that’s done it all for fifteen years. Dale’s set gives each job its own board, so every board stays smooth and fresh for a lot longer. And hardwood isn’t just for home cooks: the FDA Food Code allows hardwood cutting boards even in restaurant kitchens. Stored upright in the stand, each board dries evenly after every wash.

Plenty of handmade boards show up raw and dusty. Each of Dale’s sets arrives already oiled and packed in its stand, ready to go straight onto the counter. It takes up about as much room as a row of cookbooks. It also makes a gift people actually use every day: for the Thanksgiving host, the new homeowner, or the cook in the family who already has everything else. More than a few customers have come back to order a second set for their daughter or their best friend.

At home in kitchens across the country

The online shop was his granddaughter Kayla’s idea. After Carol’s friends from church kept asking for sets of their own, she set it up over a weekend. Today the sets go out to families from Maine to California, straight from Dale’s barn.

Where to get Dale’s set

The set is available only through Backroad Goods, the small shop Kayla runs for Dale. Cut the chicken on one board, the salad on another, and put the third on the table with the cheese. If it’s not right for you for any reason, send it back within 90 days for a full refund. No restocking fee, no questions asked.