The Two Buckets

 

They sit over in the corner of the kitchen, on the way to the living room.  They are just 6-gallon buckets that I got from Healthy Harvest a couple of years ago with one of those spiffy Gamma Lids instead of the standard cover.

Having them there, looking kinda ugly, in the corner of the kitchen is kind of a shrine to my Nona's kitchen.  I have the new modern kitchen with shelves for boxes.  She had two really cool bins where she kept her bulk flour and bulk sugar.  That is what my bucket contain as well.

The key to the presence of the buckets is to remind me that cooking is an integral part of your life.  Real cooking starts from humble things; salt and flour, sugar and yeast, fresh and dried vegetables.  Prepping must take this into consideration and practice routinely.  Stuff must be moved through your supplies and you have to learn to use them.

We are the product of a society based on convenience and self-absorption (or laziness and dilettantism, your call).  I think that one of the sovereign remedies to such maladies is the humble act of preparing foods from scratch.  It removes convenience from the mix.  It also forces you to address things at a more fundamental level, realizing that the things that you need to live are not necessarily mass-produced, but can be crafted from your own hands.

Maybe the buckets can teach me something; that to really be a prepper is to reject the facile and to accept the heavier loads needed to get through the twists and turns of history.