My Beaux has been a chef since he left school and seeing my Moms wooded chopping board stained he was chatting to her about cleaning it.
In fact he was also telling us about how the British environmental health dept effectively banned (or certainly frowned heavily upon) wooden chopping boards, claiming they harbored bacteria and the ground swell of plastic boards took place in the mid eighties – that is of course until later research suggested that the wooden chopping boards would swell and close the marks made in them by knifes… sort of self healing, whilst the plastic ones didn’t and harbored more bacteria! Anyway, as a chef he’s very careful when cutting meat, but simply loves the feel and weight of the heavy cherry wood board.
Yet again though I digress as I started to write about the stains you inevitably get on wooden boards when chopping (for example) parsley. Of course there is the simple option of using plastic when chopping herbs as you can always put the plastic board in the dishwasher.
As to getting those stains out – sprinkle some coarse salt on the stained area, then take half a lemon and placing it cut side down on the salt, proceed to scrub the board with the lemon and salt. Depending how bad the stain is you might have to repeat the process, but it will surely remove the stain.
After the stain has gone, wash the board in warm soapy water although avoid immersing it. Then dry it off and stand it up to ensure good air circulation.
When the board it thoroughly dry, oil it well with a proprietary brand of specialist “block oil” (such as Rustins) which are based on plant oils and will both protect the block ensuring it doesn’t dry out and won’t contaminate any food.