The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining, and Other Affairs of Plain Living
First published in 1972, The Foxfire Book was a surprise bestseller that brought Appalachia's philosophy of simple living to hundreds of thousands of readers. Whether you wanted to hunt game, bake the old-fashioned way, or learn the art of successful moonshining, The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center had a contact who could teach you how with clear, step-by-step instructions.
This classic debut volume of the acclaimed series covers a diverse array of crafts and practical skills, including log cabin building, hog dressing, basketmaking, cooking, fencemaking, crop planting, hunting, and moonshining, as well as a look at the history of local traditions like snake lore and faith healing.
Reviews (165)
This book has pretty hard-core skills instruction
This is a book I first bought when it was originally published, then lost over the years. That was before the term "homesteading" was in use, but it was something I have long been interested in. Now that I am an old retired person and actually have the time and means of homesteading, I wanted my old friend and reference book back. This book has pretty hard-core skills instruction, with lots of illustrations. Interspersed are stories of the old mountain people and ways. To me, it's more than a "how to" manual, it's a link to the past.
Educational without being boring series that preserves the "old ways". I wish I had the whole collection!
I read many of the Foxfire series in my 20's as my aunt had a huge collection and now that I am 60 years old, I still find them fascinating. While I was raised in a city, I used to have long visits with my maternal grandmother who had a large farm in the mountains of Tennessee. She was a very unconditionally loving person and taught me a lot of folklore that I treasure today. I was grieved when she died when I was 17 years old but while reading these books, I can feel her at my side, her voice in my head always teaching me the old ways. Now my 18 year old son is presently hooked on the books and sometimes we read them out aloud together. While reading the books, I tell him stories about the history of his family as well as the farm which is still in our family today (although, sadly, no one lives there or farms it anymore). The Foxfire series is so varied and interesting that anyone could find some of the topics, if not all of them, educational and intriguing. I am so glad that someone took the time to preserve the history of the "old ways".
Classic History That Shouldn't be Forgotten
I first read this book when it showed up in the library in the early 1970's and it still holds it's charm. I'm no longer that border-line hippie who wants to live off the land, so much of the useful information has become nostalgia, but there are still lessons to be learned about life that can't be taught in any classroom, only in life itself. The basis for the Foxfire book, and others in the series, was a magazine published by Appalachian students collecting their family teachings and lore. Presented exactly as written, or dictated, by the authors of each article, the language and grammar may be off but the knowledge and beliefs are evident in the pages. The families, individuals and stories are really the collection of skills mastered over the generations of living in the environment, skills that are lost in most of the modern world but that would be easily found in what many refer to as "Third World Nations." For all those viewers of the various homesteading, off-grid living, and survival programs on TV, this is what that life was like before cable TV and the internet took over for books, newspapers and stories around the dinner table.
A very good read.
I read the entire series of Foxfire books back in the early 80's and decided to see if it meant more to me now than it did when I was a young man. It did. One thing that meant much more to me as an older man are the verbatim words of the people spoken about in the books. They even use the vernacular of the old time Kentucky mountain people. But it is what they are trying to pass on to the newer generations that means so much to me, and I suspect this is the very reason the Foxfire series of books was written in the first place. I highly recommend these books to anyone who is interested in the history of this part of America, and especially to anyone who is interested in learning how the old timers did things. This can be essential information if the country ever collapses into the chaos of economic self-destruction or governmental collapse. I am going to purchase the entire series of books again, and this time they will be kept on bookshelves and saved for any future contingency. I highly recommend these books to you. The only negative thing I have to say about them is the poor quality of the binding and paper used to print them. If I could find these books in hardback, printed on better paper with better photographic prints, I would buy them the instant I saw them.
Learning from the past
This is an outstanding book, it contains many of the methods used for all types of very useful home & survival crafts. These are old art forms, that were used frequently by our ancestors which without this kind of documentation would otherwise be lost to time. I highly recommend this book.
Great read!
Love reading about many of the "old ways" the people of the Appalachian and Smoky Mountains that helped them survive life. Have even tried a couple of the meat smoking and soap making suggestions. Life was hard, but they didn't complain and made the best of it, and even enjoyed it. If you're interested in reading about the "old ways" of mountain living, or maybe getting even trying to get back to the earth, these are the books for you. Great price, easy reading, informative, and just plain interesting I would recommend these to anyone. The dealers from whom I ordered shipped promptly and the book was just as described. So far, I have books 1-7 of the collection. Excellent!
this is a treasure of a book
This book is a true treasure! The Foxfire Book is full of the information and lore collected by the students of Rabun County, Georgia. They made a project of preserving the old ways of their parents and grandparents, who have lived in those mountains for generations. If you ever had a curiosity, or wondered about what it may have been like to live the way the pioneers lived or the settlers of old, this book tells it all. It even tells you how build your own cabin, with a fireplace, how to plant by the signs, meaning by the position of the stars in the night skies, how to make moonshine, and how to use use herbs provided in nature for healing. I cannot go into all the details of this book without basically reciting the text of the book, so instead I will just say that you need to buy it and read it - the pictures and photos make it come to life. This is the original survival manual!
Great book and if your a survivalist you'll like it also.
Very good book with a ton of knowledge. This book should be in every survival training class. It has alot of good information that a survivalist could use. Only complaint is that during the printing process is there is some words that was cut off on some pages. Not enough you cant figure out what it says though.
Foxfire Book 1
I really like this book, it is very interesting and entertaining. I would suggest anyone who is interested in how people lived in the Appalachian mountains to purchase this book. There is a great deal of knowledge that is found in this book that is lost to the generation growing up today.
Practical Knowledge - Highly Recommended
The Foxfire books are a window into the past and are a great resource for those looking to learn how to do things the "old ways". We added this series to our emergency book collection since the knowledge contained would be very useful during a prolonged disaster. I was raised without a TV, we ground our own flour, planted a large garden, hunted and raised livestock for food (my sister wrote a book about our lifestyle,
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