Puerto Rico is not known much for its food, although if it stuck to the more traditional fare, it could be. The staple dish is rice and beans, there is sofrito (flavorful sauce), piraguas (shaved ice), pasteles (kind of like tamales but with yucca root -casava- instead of corn meal), mofongo (we ate at a restaurant called Mr. Mofongo and thought that was great!) and pinchos (chicken on a stick with a piece of french bread on the end). They also have tacos and burritos and other foods you would think would be like Mexican food, but they are all deep-fat fried. And of course, pollo frito! I have never seen so many fried chicken fast food restaurants! They are everywhere. And then we noticed what it did to many of the people. Most of the teenagers were in pretty good shape, but after about 20-25 years old, a LOT of them ballooned big time. So Britton (and my) code phrase for an extremely overweight person is pollo frito. Anyway, now you know the code, so its not so much of a secret.

The reason I get off on to this subject is that I want to raise chickens in Puerto Rico for their eggs, and maybe their meat. I do not think I could kill a chicken, so Britton would have to do that part. But I am sure the chickens would live better than most of the chickens in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). They would be free-range and eat all the grains, bugs (big, yucky bugs I hope!) and fallen fruits. But I don’t want to wait…After going to the county fair this weekend with Britton and our niece, I think I may have Britton convinced to let me have a laying hen/chicken or two in our backyard! I think it would be good practice. Plus Schnoodle needs help eating all these grasshoppers! I just hope that there aren’t foxes, skunks, weasels, etc that will eat them here or in PR. I am still worried about Callie for that same reason. Still no sign of her. Maybe she’s on summer vacay….

Here’s a video of Noodle trying to help rid us of the grasshopper take-over, but I think she is playing more than working!