Staying Green at Summer Parties
As the days get longer and the count down to our summer holidays begin, our attention turns to our gardens and their potential over the Great British Summer.
Barbeques and summer parties are a must, but with friends and family around it is important to keep them as green as possible for your own health as well as your garden’s.
We are all (unfortunately) familiar with the chargrilled sausages and blackened burgers that men in flowery aprons present to us proudly each year, which we eat despite the toe curling aftertaste of ketchup-flavoured-charcoal. However it is not just the food we have to be weary of, but also the impact of the charcoal smoke on the atmosphere and us.
Due to longer, warmer days the atmosphere is more stable during summer; this causes the air to stagnate trapping emissions released by cars, planes, power plants and of course barbeques. One in eleven children suffer from asthma and the figure is continuing to rise; this combined with the impact of acid rain caused by pollution on our gardens, moving away from charcoal cooking is becoming a popular option.
We’ve all seen solar panels on top of neighbours’ houses or in fields, but companies have been applying this technology to the humble barbeque, and what they have produced is rather spectacular.
A stainless steel dish is used to capture the sunlight, cooking whatever is in the central pot perfectly with no added char. The beauty of this is that you can cook food wherever you are, even in cloudy weather without the worry of smoke spoiling the party atmosphere. This outdoor cooking solution needs no fuel at all, making it easily portable.
Combine this with a few solar powered garden lights, or solar fairy lights and you have all the ingredients for a smoke free garden party.