It's hard to tell exactly where Sandy is and what she's doing.The sky has been rotating clockwise for at least two days but it hasn't rained yet and the wind is mild enough. I've just finished making a pot of corn chowder from the local corn I froze a couple months ago. As I take a break from cooking I'm congratulating myself on the water part of my storm prep.
All summer long, on and off, I've stocked up on new canning jars of all sizes. I even ordered two cases of half gallon jars which seemed to surprise our local country hardware folks . It was easy for me to imagine lots of uses including refrigerating large batches of soup and having extra storage for kombucha. Maybe someday the grapevines will bear enough juice to preserve! Pint and quart sized jars with wide mouths can be used to freeze in as long as care is taken to make sure the food is cooled before adding it to a cool jar and there should be plenty of head room left. Also they should be stored in a way that they won't get jostled. Besides canning and freezing, these sizes will hold dried beans and rice and dehydrated foods. Jelly jars of all sizes can be used for crafting candles, storing small items and drinking from as well as for canning jelly. They're great for dried herbs from the garden and storing this year's seeds for next year's planting.I also probably irritated the closest Dunkin' Donuts place because I checked every week for months to see if they had any empty food grade buckets. I started out wanting only five gallon buckets to put gamma lids on for storage in the basement but they were slow to get the idea and I ended up taking anything they offered me. It's just as well because I have put all sizes of those to good use. The smallest ones became yarn buckets for my knit and crochet group. I showed my ladies how to wind their yarn into balls and then put them in their buckets where they can roll freely with a light tug. I've stored baking supplies for myself, baking supplies for the breads I made for the Farmer's Market, and a collection of garden seeds all in buckets that with gamma lids become air tight, water tight containers. My husband has drilled holes in the bottom of a few large buckets for slowly watering trees and for experimenting with drip irrigation for the garden. Spouts and spigots can both be added!
Now where was I? Oh yes, well maybe you can see where this is headed. With these items it's easy to tailor storm prep for specific needs. Now with the possibility of power outages we have a large water storage container ready for washing bodies and dishes; there are large glass jars full of fresh tap water for drinking (and the water won't taste like plastic); and there are buckets on the porch, of a size that will fit in the bathroom, filled with water from the rain barrel and ready for flushing!
