MOTHER'S DOWN-HOME COUNTRY LORE

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Bean, alfalfa, wheat, and other sprouts take over for many of us where garden vegetables leave off. And, since sprouting seeds need both warmth and darkness, it's only natural to cultivate them in the cupboard . . . where they're easily forgotten. "That°s why I just invert a paper bag over my jar of sprouts and leave 'em right out on the kitchen counter," says Evelyn Stewart of Milford, New Jersey. "The sack keeps the shoots as warm and as dark as they need to be . . . yet lets me grow 'em next to the sink so that I never forget to rinse the developing crop regularly."

If you make up your own chicken feed (see the formulas in MOTHER NO. 35) and need a source of protein, ask your butcher for the "meatsaw dust" that accumulates daily as he cuts steaks and roasts. Sister Anthony Ames of Erie, Pennsylvania reports that her biddies thrive on the fine scraps of bone and meat (which, of course, may be frozen whenever you collect a surplus that you want to feed to your flock later). And if your butcher won't give you the dust free, offer to trade a few eggs or some garden vegetables for it.

Oops! You've started to make a cake and you've just discovered that the egg tray is bare. But that won't stop you if you're Deldee Johnson, of Butte Meadows, California. Deldee keeps a jar of flaxseed in the kitchen and when she comes up short this way she just substitutes a tablespoon of the ground seed for one egg in a recipe. ( I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work, unless you were trying to make an egg-rich sponge or angel food cake!?Nancy.)

Short of freezer space? "Store cured, smoked hams and slabs of bacon in a cool, dry place in a wooden box filled with beardless barley," says William Hussman of Eagan, Minnesota. "My family's used this trick since Grandpa Lightfield homesteaded in Idaho. And, yes, you can use bearded barley the same way . . . if you remember to wear gloves to protect you from its barbs when you dig into the grain to retrieve your meat."

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Oats and wheat will work, too, Bill. At least Indiana farm families have been stashing wrapped, cured hams out in the oats bin for generations. And watermelons too! You just ain't lived until you've buried a halfdozen choice, unblemished watermelons in the oats bin at the end of a good summer . . . and then dug the crisp, ripe, juicy fruit back out of the granary for the annual Thanksgiving reunion feast!)

For an inexpensive, attractive way to let light into a log cabin, cap or cork (to keep the grout out of the containers) either clear or colored bottles and cement them right into spaces cut into the wall. Wipe the exposed surfaces of the glass clean before the cement dries on them?says Ken Raspotnick of Washburn, Wisconsin?and then stand back and admire the sun that shines in.

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