Liquid Life: Spring Water
It never fails to amaze me how something so mundane and universal could be so essential. Much of my life is spent in search of oddities, like finding mushrooms and plants that few have tasted before, showing people how to feed themselves from the land. And yet, water, found all around us, gets taken for granted. We don’t think of water as part of our diet even though it makes up about 70 percent of our own body weight. Without this one ingredient all life on this precious blue planet would be gone.
Throughout the ancient world water was universally regarded as sacred, a gift from the creator to be honored and revered. These days we need to be reminded by health experts to drink water due to the many health benefits of hydration, but such reminders do not instill in us the gratitude and love for this elemental need. One can survive for weeks without food, but the human body can only last a few days without water. There is far more than meets the eye with this simple substance.
Chemically speaking, water is two hydrogen atoms attached to one oxygen atom. But everyone who reads this article will have drunk good-tasting water and bad-tasting water. Water is more than just the atoms that structure it. Far and away, the most exquisite water that I have ever tasted—the water that I never have to remind myself to drink—is spring water: cold and refreshing and full of life-giving properties that have inspired people to go to great lengths to collect and store it.
Springs can manifest in different ways but, simply speaking, a spring is a point at which water flows from an underground aquifer to the earth’s surface. This water typically has spent an incredible amount of time being filtered by the rocks and sand and thus is often regarded as a safe source of water for drinking purposes. Although spring water is almost always clean and drinkable, not all springs will have water that tastes good. Taste is of course subjective, but most people find very iron-rich water to be disagreeable. Many of the springs in Northern Michigan have a lot of iron. Some of our favorite springs have very low iron.
Why drink spring water, when modern life makes it very convenient to stay hydrated? We no longer have to pull up bucket after bucket on a rope from a well our grandfather dug by hand. Nor must we walk a mile to the nearest river to harvest our day’s supply of water. Our life is one of luxury when seen through this historical lens. In my lifetime I have watched water go from something that most people drank at water fountains to a substance that is put into plastic bottles and offered to me everywhere I go. Some of these plastic bottles even say “Spring Water” on their labels.
Wild unfiltered (except of course by the earth itself) water can be a storehouse of nutrition above and beyond the water that flows from your tap and the water in those plastic bottles. Many spring waters contain calcium and magnesium. While these two simple minerals, found on any drug store supplement shelf, might not sound very impressive, they are important nutrients. Calcium and magnesium work together synergistically in your body. Magnesium is vital for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, and it is currently thought that 50 percent of the U.S. population is deficient in magnesium. Contrast this with most municipal waters and you start to see why some people might go in search of a spring.
COLLECTING WATER
Finding spring water is easy with Find-ASpring.com, a website dedicated to mapping out natural springs around the world. Then you will need to have a game plan for storage, and decide if you will go often or only every once in a while. This is where the real rubber meets the road, and there are pros and cons to either approach. You can fill up in any containers you like, but I suggest glass containers because many plastics will leach into your water slowly over time. If you do not feel safe about carrying water in glass, the next best option is to find a plastic container that is not predisposed to leaching; #2 HDPE plastics are probably the best option. All containers for gathering spring water should be kept clean.
Most springs that you can fill up at are safe, but I like drinking from the springs that have been tested or have a long history of use by others. If you find a spring that has not been tested, getting a water quality test is fairly easy these days. Some people I know gather spring water, then still run it through a filter at home to be safe, but for me this entirely misses the point of drinking spring water. Our planet has gifted us with clean, healthy drinking water, so why filter out what goodness the water had in it to begin with?
There are two good approaches to gathering spring water. One is to go often to your spot, filling up once a week or so as needed. The other is to make a day out of it and gather a month’s supply of spring water all at once. I like to go more frequently, gathering five or six gallons at a time. One of my good friends from Kentucky will gather upwards of 50 gallons at a time. You might choose option one if you live nearer to your spring, or option two if you live far away from it. Our family’s favorite spring is a hard hike of hills, tree roots, twists and turns, and as such carrying a full five gallon container back out is no easy feat. I consider my journeys to the spring to be one part water gathering, and one part heavy exercise.
STORING WATER
Due to the living nature of spring water, if you keep your containers exposed to sunlight, microalgae will start to form, giving your bottle a green hue. The best way to stop microalgae is to both have clean containers and to store your water away from direct sunlight. For those who collect large amounts at once this step is very important. Think basement, cellar or closet. If you live in a small apartment you can simply wrap the bottle in a thick towel that does not allow the sun through. Although the presence of a green hue to your bottle may startle you it is not worth spending much time worrying about; a little bit of elbow grease and a good place to hide the water are all you need.
I first began my love affair with spring water close to nine years ago. The taste was tantalizing, the experience of being in the forest was serene and the feeling of working for something was fulfilling. I am still in awe of spring water. It amazes me that this water is freely given to those who would seek it out. I can honestly say that while I may not gather spring water every single week, I will always go at least sporadically throughout my life. The experience is such that I would not ever willingly give it up.
A popular slogan being shared on social media these days is “Water is Life,” a signal that people may be truly starting to see the sacred in our water supply. Interaction with and immersion into the natural world often moves us into a love and a will to protect it. If you decide to collect and drink spring water, you will come to love it. Even in the times when you scarcely have time to gather it, you will still think fondly of it. Then you will realize that water is just one thing among many that deserve our reverence and our protection. The world will seem like a more beautiful place when you form this relationship with the water that comes from the earth.
