Free Range Friday ~ Culebra and Points East

First up, obviously, will be news of Bertha, our local weather impending Tropical Storm. From the NHC comes this - hopefully we'll get some cisterns filled up!

Let's hope we get some beach back at Zoni. Remember when you could sit on this with your feet touching the sand?

Fair weather expected this evening ahead of 
Bertha. Showers and squalls will begin to affect the USVI after 
06z Sat reaching eastern PR around daybreak Sat. Rain heavy at times 
expected Saturday as Bertha tracks west-northwest south of Ponce around 20 
miles per hour. Heaviest rainfall accumulations of up to 6 inches are 
possible over favored topographic regions of El Yunque and Cayey 
mountain ranges. Rest of PR and USVI will likely see amounts in the 
1 to 3 inch range with southwest PR likely to see the least amount 
of rain. Still cloudy and showery Sat night but areal coverage and 
intensity of showers will decrease as middle-level circulation moves 
past PR. Isolated tornadoes will also be possible in squalls and 
embedded in rain bands once surface winds shift to the southeast Sat 
afternoon. Gusts to tropical storm force can also be expected 
Saturday especially over higher elevations and in squalls and rain bands. 

Things dry out quickly Sunday with a very nice day on tap. Upper 
level ridge strengthens through all of next week with overall very 
dry conditions.

Because this is the time of year to have your canned goods at the ready (it's a real good thing to have propane to cook with in one form or another, be it a stove of some kind, or a grill), I was looking at different sites about canned foods. There are a lot of them out there! But this one was one of the more interesting. If you've not eaten breakfast yet, you probably should do so before perusing this section. Some of these I've heard of, some I've even bought, and plenty would just stay right on the shelf from hell they came from.

Oops! I was going to show the whole enchilada (not in a can) but for some reason, blogger won't let me do that, so you'll just have to go to BuzzFeed yourselves and check them out. Here is an example, though.

On the more normal side of the canned aisle, there are fruits and meats and juices and veggies. There are condiments that will help out too; peppers and nuts and sauces galore. One of my favorite canned items (and I'm pretty sure I've said this here before) is dolmades.

I'm not sure why they take to being canned so well, but I've tried lots of different brands and have never had one I didn't like.

Another favorite is canned cassoulet. Maybe Europeans just get canning better than we do. Or put in better ingredients to start with and apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Whatever it is, these two should be tried before dismissed. Of course, you won't find them on any market shelf on Culebra, but that's what friends who live in a bit more urban environments are for - mail is a beautiful thing.

On other market shelves, however, you can not only find cassoulet in a can, you have as many varieties as we have vienna sausages in a can. I need to talk to a few colmado owners. Photo credit: Art of The Pie

So if you have some time to kill, check out a search engine for good canned foods and condiments.  Don't forget things like canned milk for your coffee or tea, or whatever those little things are that in the face of emergency will help bring normality back around or at least the present more bearable.

This post from Real Simple  is not just about canned goods, but about stockpiling for a rainy day, and shopping in the days before a weather event (luckily, with storms we usually have some fair warning).

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But please, no pork brains for me. I hear pigs are very smart but I'm pretty sure it's not transferrable via ingestion.

Have a find your favorably favorites Friday. Do something fundamental.