Grandmother's Household Secrets - Bicarbonate of Soda by Margaret Briggs

This little book is a bountiful harvest of ideas for baking, cooking, household cleaning, medicinal and other uses for bicarbonate of soda.  Ms. Briggs’ historical account of the uses of bicarbonate of soda as Egyptian embalming aids, part of Roman glassmaking, and soap making was very interesting.

The recipes in the back of the book were marvelous, too, including the brief accounts immediately preceding them.  Did you know that bicarb can be used as a fabric softener or a mild bleach?  You can also unclog a drain with it and use it to melt snow and ice without harming your tender garden plants.  Having trouble with pesky ants?  Run a line of bicarbonate of soda along the door jamb to keep ants at bay.

Great gift idea for the woman who thinks she has everything.