You can get butter with or without salt. I usually get Land O Lakes in the grocery store. It was really sweet and creamy, but, recently, it seems like it is a bit flat-not sweet or as creamy anymore. I gave up margarine and went back to real butter some years ago. Never did like margarine. Of course, growing up, we had butter that came from my great-uncle's grocery store, or from a lady who we bought milk from out in the country. Butter in the store was purchased from local people, of course, who made butter. Milk came from a local dairy. Actually, margarine came into use when I was a kid during the War. My grandmother had it for Sunday dinner, with all the family around. It was white, and they had to add the yellow into it. I always thought it was like putting a big spoon of Crisco in my mouth. The grownups said we would get used to it, and we had to do it for the boys overseas. I never got used to it. I thought that the taste of the milk, and butter, varied somewhat, depending on what the cows ate. If they got into bitterweed or sour grass, it affected the taste of the milk. I remember milk not being available when I was growing up, from time to time, because the cows had gotten into bitterweed, and the milk was dumped because it was bitter. There is a place near Brenham, Texas, that makes ice cream. They are just starting to branch out to other states. That is Blue Bell, and it is wonderful ice cream. They show pictures of Belle, the cow, out in a field of Bluebonnets, singing, and they talk about it being the best ice cream in the country, and how Belle and the other cows are so contented, singing away, and eat the best grass. They started as a dairy, long ago. They said that they dropped butter and milk sales and changed over to just making ice cream. Sure is good stuff! Anybody remember the Borden cows? I was fascinated with Elmer and Daisy, when we used to see them at the State Fair of Texas. I'm sure they traveled around the country, with their "home". I'm afraid that KFC won't be as good, when they change the kind of grease it is fried in. The very best fried chicken is in Hearne, Texas at a little place near the high school. I think it is called Chick Express. I had lots of students that worked there. Never could figure out why that chicken is so much better than everywhere else. Big pieces, and so juicy and tender, that the juice just runs down your arm as you eat it. Wonderful crust that is not too hard and crisp. I've tried all kinds of tricks to make it, but I just can't make it the same. That is a nearby town, where I used to work. They opened a branch here, and it was good for the first month, after that, the food was horrible and the health department kept giving them bad scores for spoiled food, etc. Now it is a Chinese food place. Two more places have opened that have a similar recipe as the place in Hearne, but their chicken is on the dry side. My grandsons love it, though. Of course, they didn't have all that good chicken we used to eat almost daily. My school didn't have a cafeteria when I started teaching in that town, so everyone either brought lunch, or went out to eat. Not easy to do with just 30 minutes for lunch, and you have to drive there and back! My room was an old ag shop out from the main building. So, at lunch time, some kids would go pick up lunch, bring it back, eat in there, and talk out their problems. Usually lunch was a snack pack of chicken. When my daughter was born, we hired a woman to cook and clean for a while. She had cooked in a restaurant and she showed me how to make fried chicken with a lot of crust. But, it still wasn't the best tasting of chicken. It was good, but not exactly the best flavor. Could have something to do with the chicken, too, and what they were fed. I'm always concerned about the "fresh" meat we get in a lot of places. They cut out personnel to work in the butcher sections and bring in frozen stuff, from goodness knows where, and thaw it out and sell it as fresh. I know that can't be really safe, or the best quality. In my home county, Robertson county, Texas, the land is pretty flat, with some very low, rolling hills. There is one little bump on the horizon, west of the Brazos River (actually it is in Milam county), that is called Sugar Loaf Mountain. The story goes that gold was hidden in little caves in the mountain. So, over the years, people have gone to the mountain, exploring, picnicing, and digging for gold. People were reluctant to look because there are supposed to be rattle snakes in the caves. I've been told that a group formed to try to save the "mountain". The last people who bought it, brought in heavy equipment and dug away the back side of the mountain, trying to find that gold. I don't know if there ever was gold, or if it was just a story. I did a painting of Sugar Loaf Mountain, just in case, some day, someone digs away our "mountain", trying to find the gold that probably never was. Reminds me of the old Glenn Ford movie about the Lost Dutchman Mine. Cecelia > Does anyone in Middle TN still make their own butter ? My Aunt in Bedford > County, TN use to churn her own from fresh milk way back when. It had a > unique taste, probably because of no salt. She would roll it up in a small > ball and put it in cheese cloth. She would always send us home some when > we visited. > A little question for those who live down that way. Between Murfressboro > and Shelbyville on US 231, there is a Big Hill. My aunt said it was called > Signal Mountain. I think it had a laarge tower on it when I was young. My > aunt said a neighbor of hers in the 1950's who was in her 90's, said her > father owned a part of the land below it during the War. Said some troops > had came through there with a wagon loaded with silver. When they thought > they would be attacked soon, the Commander ordered the silver to be buried > on the mountain. The residents were kept away while this was being done. > Has anyone ever heard of this Story also ? > Kevin Morgan