Have a Green Memorial Day This Year!

English: Barbecue Bosanski: Roštilj Deutsch: Grill (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Memorial Day weekend, make your cookout eco-correct.  How?  It’s easy….

Think outside the burgers/hot dogs/potato chips box and focus on healthier options instead – turkey tips, wild fish, grilled tofu, grilled veggies, grass-fed beef, free range chicken, sweet potato chips and lots of different salads made with organic fruits and vegetables.  Farmer’s markets aren’t up and running yet, but you can still buy fresh, seasonal, and somewhat local fruits and vegetables. Perhaps you have lettuce ready for harvesting from your own garden.  Add delicious and nutritious vine ripened tomatoes and watermelon to your meal – they contain lycopene, a powerful antioxidant, which may also help ward off sunburn!

When it comes to grilling, a charcoal chimney is an easy way to start your grill and much safer than lighter fluid if you don’t have a gas grill.  Make sure you use natural, hardwood charcoal instead of the conventional briquettes.  Try filling at least half your grill with produce.  Produce is not only healthy and low-calorie, but also doesn’t produce the carcinogens that can form on grilled meats.  Always cook over a low-to-medium flame and avoid over-charring; flare-ups and smoking oil create carcinogens.  Marinating or basting with oil, honey or a barbeque sauce will provide a barrier and help prevent charring.

I prefer reusable dinner plates and utensils, but if you are having a crowd disposable is easier; just make sure they are compostable or made from recycled, BPA-free plastic.  Whole Foods carries a good selection of biodegradable disposable plates, cups and utensils.  Cloth tablecloths and napkins are a nice touch, but you can easily find recycled paper napkins and cloths at most supermarkets.

Organic, chemical free sunscreen and insect repellents are a much healthier and safer alternative to conventional products.  Consider spraying your yard in advance with a garlic spray to ward off mosquitoes. Start your cookout after peak sun time, between 10 and 2, and provide shade for your guests.

Organize activities to get your guests moving and not eating and drinking so much.  If your cookout is near the water, swimming and kayaking are fun. If not, set up a volleyball/badminton net and get the teens involved in a tournament.  Croquet appeals to all ages and a nature walk or an outside scavenger hunt is a great way to get the kids interested in the outdoors.

Compost leftover fruits and vegetables, and, don’t forget to recycle cans, bottles and other recyclable items!

Whatever you do to honor the start of summer, make sure you are good to the earth.

Don’t Throw Away Your Coffee Grounds!

Coffee grounds, fine, wet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before you pour your coffee grounds down the disposal, read this blog and find out what you can do instead with this versatile, nutrient-rich leftover.

1. Neutralize odors in your refrigerator or freezer with dried grounds.
2. Repel insects by mounding the grounds into a protective ring around plants that will ward off ants, snails and slugs.
3. When you clean your fireplace, sprinkle damp grounds on the ashes to cut down on airborne dust.
4. Scrub hands with grounds to act as an exfoliant and eliminate food smells like fish and garlic.  Grounds are also a good cellulite reducer (see recipe below).
5. A few teaspoons placed on a thin rag can be used to clean grease and grime from dishware.
6. Steep grounds in hot water to make a natural dye for Easter eggs or fabric.
7. For a non-toxic cockroach trap, fill a can with an inch or so of wet grounds and line the neck with extra-sticky double-sided tape.  The scent draws the roaches into the trap.
8. Add some grounds to your potting soil to give plants and seedlings a nitrogen boost.  They may repel root maggots too!
9. Coffee grounds dabbed on scratches in dark wood furniture will minimize them.  Use a cotton swab to apply and add a bit of liquid; try a test area first.
10.  Coffee grounds are a nutritious addition to your compost pile!

Companies are doing interesting things with recycled coffee grounds.  Moving Comfort, an athletic gear company, uses recycled coffee grounds in a fabric called S. Cafe to absorb odors. My husband’s company, Boston Tree Preservation, has an arrangement with Boston Bean Coffee Company to recycle their spent coffee pods. The pods are fed to the worms in the worm farm;  the worm castings are then used to make a rich, nutritious compost tea which is sprayed on customers’ trees as an organic fertilizer, natural fungicide and pest deterrent.

Recipe for Coffee Ground Exfoliant

 (from livestrong.com)

 Since coffee grounds are course, they are a natural exfoliant.  They also contain caffeic acid, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects on the skin and stimulates collagen production.

Mix 1 cup warm coffee grounds with 1/2-cup sugar, then add 2 tbsp. olive oil. Rub the mixture all over your skin, especially rough areas such as elbows and feet. If you do this in the shower, put a mesh sink strainer in the drain. Otherwise, the coffee grounds could clog the drain.  You can also just use the coffee grounds to exfoliate.

Information compiled from thisoldhouse.com March 2012 and curbly.com.

THE DREADED DEER TICK

Image by life_through_a_viewfinder Jeremy Flickr.com

My husband and I took a beautiful walk through the woods last weekend.    The leaves were lovely shades of yellow and red and the temperature was perfect.  Then, I noticed several ticks on our pants and coats, and of course on our dog.  Nothing can ruin a walk faster than ticks!

Wood ticks are larger than deer ticks, and can be easily spotted and removed.  A mature deer tick however, measures about half the size of a wood tick and is harder to see.  They often carry Lyme disease and should be removed right away.  Infections peak during May, June and July.

Deer ticks are found in wooded areas and prefer to feed upon deer. The ticks wait on leaves and grass blades and attach themselves to any passing host they find. Humans often become accidental hosts of deer ticks.

What you can do to reduce your risk of getting Lyme disease?

• Avoid tall grasses
• Avoid deer paths
• Wear light colored clothing to spot them more easily
• Wear long sleeved shirts and pants tucked into your socks
• Use insect repellant
• Do tick checks with a magnifying glass
• Shower after being in an infected area
• Put your clothes in a hot dryer for 35 minutes
• Take garlic supplements to repel insects
• Treat pets to repel ticks and minimize their risk
• Keep grass mowed regularly and along boundary lines of your yard
• Get some guinea hens – they eat ticks, beetles and other garden insect pests

In addition you can treat your yard proactively in spring and early summer with organic tick control products such as pyrethrum, soap, Neem, garlic, and red pepper wax.  There are companies who offer organic tick control service. Visit bostontreepreservation.com for information.

For those readers who want to avoid chemical insect repellants for their pets, you can try a garlic powder and yeast supplement for pets.  Arbico Organics carries a good tasting one that is also good for the pet’s coat. The supplement probably works better for fleas than ticks. Never give a dog or cat raw onion or garlic however – they are toxic to animals.   One of my readers finds Diatomaceous earth quite effective as a tick repellant for her dogs.

Information compiled from Orkin.com, and “Lyme Disease and associated diseases: The Basics”, by Douglas W. Fearn