Coffee Prepping

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For the record, I love coffee. I love all coffee except that last cup in the bottom of the pot. If it's really burned, it goes in my compost bucket, unless it's cold, then it goes in the front flower bed for fertilizer. I'm told that old coffee has nutritional benefits for plants, just like used coffee grounds, but without needing time to break down.

Did I mention that I love coffee? Coffee is the first thing I consume every morning and the last thing I ingest at night. I love espresso, latte, cappuccino, cafe coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans.

The thing is, I love my coffee and I want it every morning. I'm probably addicted, but I don't worry about it. After forty-seven years I have never had an overdose of coffee requiring emergency medical treatment.

We use a ten dollar coffeemaker from Dollar General Store and it does the job of making coffee just fine. Occasionally our coffeemaker gets clogged up with minerals from our well water. We use water that has been filtered through our Brita filter pitcher, otherwise our coffeemaker would clog up after only a month or two. After running white distilled vinegar through the appliance several times, our machine is restored to its like-new operation.

The cleaning process takes hours (longer if I forget to cycle the vinegar). During this time, it's nice--okay, essential--to have a stove top coffee pot. The picture above is our backup coffee maker. This is the enameled percolator we use for camping and cookouts. It makes very good coffee.

We live out in the country, where power outages are common. Several times we've awakened to no electricity and had an outage that lasted all day. That would hardly be doomsday by most people's definition, but we're talking about No Coffee! Thankfully, we stay prepared. We keep dry kindling and firewood handy. And since no electricity means no running water, it helps that we keep two Brita pitchers full at all times.

It does require a little more attention than an electric coffeemaker, but with no TV, radio, computer or other forms of entertainment, at least we have coffee.

Stephen P.

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