These are some great ideas! I just read in About.com's Frugal Living area (http://frugalliving.about.com/) about making homemade soup mixes and giving them as gifts. What a cool idea - you could make the mixes, put them in glass jars you've saved, and adorn them with your own labels and decorations. And you wouln't have to be MARTHA (bow down, it's MARTHA) to do it, either. :O)

See this link for info on cooking, eating and *giving* beans: http://frugalliving.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.colostate.edu%2FDepts%2FCoopExt%2FPUBS%2FCOLUMNCC%2Fcc971113.htm

:O) Gardenwife