Foxfire BooksThe Foxfire Series:
With nearly 9 million copies in print, The Foxfire Book and its eleven companion volumes stand memorial to the people and the vanishing culture of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, brought to life for readers through the words of those who were born, lived their lives, and passed away there—words collected by high school students who wanted to be a part of their community and preserve their heritage. All 12 volumes in the regular series are anthologies of Foxfire Magazine articles written by Rabun County high school students over the magazine's 40-year history, usually expanded through follow-up interviews and other research.
For those of you who aren't aware of the Foxfire Books and who like this sort of thing, this is a pretty fascinating series that show details of skill sets no longer in use today. They're going for $216.00 for the entire set of 12 books, but you can purchase books individually if there are only one or two that interest you. Above is the general description of what the set entails. But that description doesn't give you a whole lot of in-depth information. I'll give some highlights from each book so you can get an idea of what they are all about.
Book 01) How to Dress a Hog, How to Build a Log Cabin and How to Make Moonshine (and the still).
Book 02) Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing and Wagon Making.
Book 03) Animal Care, Hide Tanning and Butter Churning.
Book 04) Gardening, Fiddle Making and Sassafras Tea.
Book 05) Blacksmithing, Bear Hunting and Flintlock Rifles (Yes, the chapter goes into detail about how to make a flintlock rifle from scratch).
Book 06) Shoemaking, Wooden Locks and 100 Toys and Games.
Book 07) Shaped-Note and Gospel Singing, Faith Healing and Snake Handling.
Book 08) Almost exclusively about Pottery.
Book 09) Quilting, Log Cabins Revisited and Home Cures.
Book 10) Chairmaking, Railroad Lore and Gourd Art.
Book 11) Preserving and Cooking Food, Wild Plant Uses and Hunting Stories.
Book 12) Square Dancing and a 'How To' section (which includes making a wooden coffin and catching, dressing and cooking a turtle).
As you can see some of these books are pretty helpful and interesting. They were written in the 70's with first-hand accounts from turn of the century/depression era residents of the Appalachians and preserves quite a bit of the knowledge of people that practiced simple living in a rural setting.