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  • From: Chrys Ostrander <chrys AT thefutureisorganic.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] What do you use for food safe oil for garden tools?
  • Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:37:15 -0700

Hi Carla,

I just use any non-hardening vegetable oil (linseed and walnut are examples of hardening oils - of course these have their place ie for tool handles). For most hand tools I think you'll find these perfectly adequate.

You can also get spray-on vegetable oils like "Pam" that do just about as well as WD-40 in most situations. If you have Safeway grocery stores, there's even a (purported) organic "O" Brand spray-on oil canola oil (be careful, it also contains a lot of organic grain alcohol as a carrier making it very flammable. Don't know if Pam has the same issue).

On a related issue, I use "Citra-solve" citrus oil solvent in place of any petroleum-based solvent for cleaning things like hand tools and auto parts. Much safer! And very effective.

Chrys

At 05:31 AM 8/13/2009, you wrote:
It's another rainy day in the Hudson Valley, and we thought we'd have the farm interns clean, sharpen, and oil some of our tools, including harvesting clippers and knives. We're wondering what kind of oil others use for tools that will come in contact with soil and food?

We thought food grade mineral oil would make a good coating, but it's too heavy an oil for things like secateurs. I use Gibbs spray on tractor parts, etc. Gibbs is fantastic for preventing rust. If you heat it with a torch after treating, it apparently bonds and becomes very stable. The promotional propaganda and Materials Data Sheet make it sound more safe and stable than anything else I've run across, but am still not sure about how it might interact with the environment.

Any best practices out there?

Carla Shafer
Assistant Farmer Manager

Phillies Bridge Farm Project               http://www.philliesbridge.org
45 Phillies Bridge Road
New Paltz, NY 12561

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This message originated from or was forwarded by:
Chrys Ostrander
Chrysalis Farm @ Tolstoy
Organic Micro-permaculture
33495 Mill Canyon Rd.
Davenport, WA 99122
509-725-0610
chrys AT thefutureisorganic.net
http://www.thefutureisorganic.net

"From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs"
Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc - "The organization of work" 1839
Karl Marx - "Critique of the Gotha Program" 1875

"The purpose of agriculture is not the production of food, but the perfection of human beings"
Masanobu Fukuoka (February 2, 1913 - August 16, 2008)  - "One Straw Revolution" 1978

"The community whose every member possesses the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil... will be alike independent of crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings...."
Abraham Lincoln: Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1859

"We will never have an organic future and a stable climate until we pull all the troops out of Iraq
and redirect our annual $650 billion military budget to greening the economy and guaranteeing
a sustainable environment and economic justice for everyone."
Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association
at the "Farms Not Arms" public forum and protest in Manhattan, September, 2007



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