Let’s face it – it’s been a long winter, and your stove is sick of you.  So it’s time to hang up the oven mitt and bring your meals out to be cooked under the great summer sky.  But if you think about the brown stats on grilling, it’s enough to keep you inside for the rest of the season.  On the 4^th of July alone, an estimated 60 million barbeques produce enough energy to power 20,000 households for a year.  According to the Sierra Club, this burns “the equivalent of 2,300 acres of forest and releases 225,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. It also produces other air pollutants.”    

But we can still be excited about grilling, because we can grill green!  And here are our top tips to get you started.

1.  First, pick your meats.  Choose lean meats and trim the fat.  Why?  Because there are two kinds of potential carcinogens in grilled meats.  Allow me to quote researchers at MIT: “The first consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These are found in the smoke that billows up when fat drips from meat or fish onto a heat source….The second type of carcinogen, heterocyclic amines (HCAs), has more to do with temperature than cooking method. HCAs are formed when high cooking temperatures cause a chemical reaction between naturally occurring amino acids and sugars in the meat and creatine, which is found in muscle tissue.”  But you can make things safer by marinating, pre-cooking in the microwave, grilling in smaller chunks, and not making your meat look like a hockey puck (i.e. charred). 

2.  Get a green grill.  There are a lot of options out there: you can go gas, charcoal, electric and more.  Charcoal and woods burn dirty, producing soot that pollute the air.  Electric grills are cleaner as they release 99% less carbon monoxide and 91% less carbon dioxide than charcoal.  There are also hybrid grills, which operate like hybrid cars.  The Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet hybrid grill allows you to cook with gas, wood or charcoal, in different combinations.  There’s even a solar grill for the ultimate in green grilling. 

3.  If you’re going to go old-school with your fuel, there are greener options.  There is organic charcoal, which is nitrate and petroleum free.   

Wood briquettes burn cleaner, and you can also get eco-logs which are made from compressed sawdust.    

4.  So now you’ve got the fuel, how are you going to get things started?  Lighter fluid is toxic, and the last thing you want are fumes all over your meat.  Check out a chimney starter, which can get things burning without lighter fluid.   Some eco-bloggers also suggest rubbing the grill with an onion instead of drenching it in a chemical spray.

5.  And finally, once you’re all green grilled out, clean up with a natural cleaner.  Goo Gone All Natural Grill Cleaner is a good option.  It is “specifically formulated for safe removal of the toughest BBQ grime without phosphates or harsh fumes…and it is made from sustainable and renewable ingredients.”  Be sure to dispose of charcoal and ash properly.  Charcoal is too toxic for your garden, but wood ash is alkaline.  This can be used as a fertilizer, but only if you're trying to neutralize very acidic soil.  So be careful!

>> Check out "Organic Eats for Memorial Day: Two Healthy Recipes for the Grill" for more green grilling Memorial Day tips!