Rain barrel water stinks...safe to use?

Mine runs off a shingled roof and since '06 runs off a NEW shingled roof. Plants don't seem to mind and I don't taste it much in the tomatoes. Most parts of the country are getting rain with some nasty "stuff" in it already and a miniscule amount of petrolium residue from the roof won't put it in the danger zone for plants. (Adjust this information for your local area, some roofs may vary, batteries not included.)

HydroHarold said:

After you dump 3-4 five gallon pails of compost into 30 gallons of water to make compost tea It will stink too. But your plants will LOVE it twice a week.

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My Dad built a "tea box" years ago when he was gardening. It was a raised compost box, about 8 ft on a side and the sides were about two feet high, one side could be dropped to shovel out the contents. He had it on corner posts so that one corner was about 4 inches lower, the floor was lined with old linoleum. At the low corner was a hole about the size of a mailbox opening, and a piece of roof gutter with a downspout hole. He kept a gallon bucket there, and rainwater (or water from a hose) would filter through the old vegetable matter, anything from lawn grass clippings to vegetable tops and mulched leaves, and eventually run into the bucket. He'd dilute that to 5 more gallons of water and spray or pour it around growing plants. Damndest fertilizer I ever saw, and that stuff stunk like holy heck.

THAT is a neat idea!! Just another creative way to use compost!

Since I didn't get any seat time today with this sad little first snow... I'm going out to the compost pile and give it the first turning with the tractor and blade since piling up the leaf cuttings. (I absolutely must have the engine hot to change the oil!)