You know you're a gardener when...

[Baitball Blogger]

you accidentally serve yourself a glass of rainwater. Seriously. I collect rainwater and put them in old water jugs and store them outside of the house to use on my orchids. I keep the jugs outside specifically to avoid confusing them with good drinking water. The way I collect the rain involves leaving a wide kiddie pool outside, and when there's enough to store, I use coffee filters to filter the water into the jug.

Today I brought one of the jugs into the house to water my miltoniopsis, which I have on the kitchen table. I keep it inside, separate from my others, because miltoniopsis prefer cooler weather. So, anyway, I left the jug on the table.

It was quite by accident. A few hours later, in one of those spontaneous moments, I forced myself to stop and hydrate, and the jug's handwritten label, "RAIN WATER" was on the wrong side of the jug.

And, here's the thing. I didn't even realized until I came back to pour another glass.

I had found the water very tasty, which is why I didn't want to believe I goofed. But I used a magnifying glass to confirm there were tiny particles in the water. Fortunately, nothing was moving, though I know there could have been microscopic itty-bitties.

I'm not too concerned about the minutiae of particles that I may have drank, because one thing about gardening is that you probably ingest far worse. The thing that impressed me was the taste. It was good! And I researched it, (chuckle) and it says that rainwater is alkaline and it actually might improve digestion because it has detoxifying effects.

...not that I plan to do it again. At least, not intentionally.

[Champp]

1. Love me some rain water

collected in clean vessels, or your hands...

[Sogo]

2. Could you boil it before consuming

to kill the bacteria and yet retrain the benefits of drinking alkaline water?

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I don't see why not.

I was planning to put in a raincatcher that would blend into the yard, but I have delayed because there seems to be a lot to it to keep the water as pure as possible. If the water runs down the roof and into the gutters, it is always going to be problematic. It would require boiling and a better filter than a coffee filter.

[Sogo]

4. The thing about collecting in a wide open pool,

is that unless you use it up pretty soon after collecting, you're going to have a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I found that out the hard way in my garden with catching water in big tubs. I guess that was the reason the old rain barrel on the farm had a lid....

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Absolutely correct.

But, I'm OCD about mosquitos. If it contains water, I'm checking every two days to dump the container. I've learned, however, that mosquitos like the stankiest water. And the swimming pool is usually very clear.