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"Everyone we know loves real butter, but that 'icebox gold' can send the Good Ship Food Budget straight down to Davy Jones's locker," Mike and Rebel Eldred write from their hometown of Elmer, Louisiana. "Well, the next time your local grocer puts house margarine on special, you can save money with this recipe: Place one pound of margarine in a mixing bowl and allow it to soften to room temperature. When it's mushy, add 3/4 cup of buttermilk and 3/4 cup of light cooking oil. Beat the ingredients with an electric mixer until they're soft and fluffy. You'll then have a supply of soft margarine that tastes a lot like butter."

Alice Shipley of Kirkwood, Illinois has a simple but effective method of making sure she knows which of her hens are earning their keep. Every day for a week she takes a little bottle of food coloring along when gathering eggs, and places a small drop on each "working lady" sitting on a nest. Alice uses a different color every visit, starting all over again on the fifth day. By the end of the week, the productive layers have rainbows on their backs . . . and the plain, white-feathered loafers are readied for the stew pot or freezer!

Now that it's summer, some of you will be letting your chickens out to roam now and again. That's what Minden, Nebraska's Mary Anne Carlson did . . . but she soon realized that her hens weren't particular about where they stopped to lay eggs! Now, whenever Mary Anne runs across a nest somewhere, she tests the eggs for freshness by placing them in a bucket of water. Any that float to the top are bad and should be destroyed. Those that stand on one end, or don't lie flat and "relaxed", are over three days old and—although still all right for cooking or baking—probably shouldn't be sold. The rest, she says, are "farmfresh"!

Those of you who have youngsters home from school for the summer might want to try Gary Wallin's recipe for homemade soda pop. He thaws a can of concentrated fruit juice (the Warren, Pennsylvania family likes grape best) and mixes it with club soda instead of water. Gary then pours the beverage into soda bottles, capping the bubbly treats with rubber "fizz stopper" tops.

Judy Widener lets her garden's blooms grow as big and pretty as they can be. Then—when the blossoms get a little bit past their prime—the Twin Falls, Idaho resident pinches them off and strings them up to dry. Dense-flowered marigolds, daisies, astors, bachelor's buttons, and even tiny blossoms (such as those of feverfew) can be threaded easily and quickly. The homemade "leis" make great presents . . . and once they're too dry to wear, they can be stripped of their seeds for next spring's planting.

And Barbara Neighbors Deal told us about a similar gift idea. Barb—a MOTHER-follower from Walla Walla, Washington-sends her beginning gardener friends a few dozen seeds from her own garden. She just pops them in a pretty envelope and encloses directions for their cultivation.

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