Stick With Bamboo for Beautiful Fairtrade Kitchen Utensils If you were a panda or a mountain gorilla you would eat it, but for what is after all a mere form of grass bamboo has a surprisingly diverse range of practical uses.
In areas of East Asia and the South Pacific it is heavily used in construction. In China it has been used to sustain suspension bridges and has been found to be surprisingly resilient if properly maintained. In Hong Kong, and still to some degree in China, it is used for scaffolding. Bamboo dwellings are not unusual in the Philippines and in Japan the plant is used as a decorative or supplemental element in domestic construction.
As a good source of potassium and protein with few calories bamboo can readily be consumed by humans, as has been used by the Chinese as a medicine for treating and healing infections. The shoots also have a surprising range of uses in more general cuisine, and are to be found in many South and East Asian broths and dishes. The saps of immature stalks can be fermented into wine or made into a refreshing soft drink.
The physical structure of bamboo lends it to natural use as a musical appliance, most commonly as a kind of flute or other wind instrument. Perhaps less conventionally it has sometimes been used in preference to eucalyptus in the construction of the Australian didgeridoo.
More recently a process was devised by students at Beijing University to convert bamboo into clothing. By all account apparel made from bamboo is soft in texture and akin to cashmere.
A utensil crafted from each piece of bamboo
In the West we are able to source consumer goods that are manufactured from bamboo. As they originate from material provided by developing countries such goods will often be fairtrade, meaning that everybody involved in the manufacturing process, from the original processor to the retailer, will have been treated with fairness and equity in a way that respects their input.
Bamboo utensils for the kitchen can be said to have a particular beauty all of their own, with an elegant designer appearance. Elongated items such as spoons and spatulas are typically each made from a single piece of bamboo.
Kitchen products made from bamboo are famously hardy as well as entirely practical, and are a neat and useful addition to any household.