Foxfire 2

Ghost Stories, Spring Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin's, and Wagon Making are an integral part of Southern mountain culture. This volume of the Foxfire series should be on any author's shelf who writes or plans to write a best selling historical (COLD MOUNTAIN), a mystery (THE DEVILS HEARTH), or a literary novel (PRODIGAL SUMMER), because these traditions add spice and authenticity to a work. The FOXFIRE series is a place to begin research. They are well illustrated with photographs and line drawings. We've dog-eared this volume for several short stories and our novels. Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelUnder the Liberty OakThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersGuns Across the Rio: A Texas Ranger in Old Mexico

THis work, Volume II, is like the others. A wonderful history of how it was. In this day and age of having most needs meet and something for everyone on the Wal-mart shelf, we tend to forget just what it was like in our not too distant past. These books, the Foxfire books, brings to light skills, attitudes and a way of life that is all but forgotten. This is a good thing. When a people lose their history, they lose part of their soul. As the title of this work states, Ghost Stories, Wild Plant Foods, Spinning, Weaving, Midwifing, Corn Shucking, and there is so much more. The editors have done a wonderful job. They have made a very honest effort to replicate the dialect of those places and times and I feel that this is a big part of the charm of these books. I am old enough to have known many of the kinds of folks featured in these books, being only one generation past them, and have a great appreciation for what and how they did all the little things we take so for granted now. I might also suggest that you actually try some of the things mentioned in these volumes. It will give you even more of an appreciation for what they did, and hey, who knows, the skill you develope just might come in handy one of these days! Recommend this and the other Foxfire books highly.

Have enjoyed all the Foxfire Books for years. They are a wonderful peek into the lives of hardy people who survived without a single benefit from the U.S.Government.........and were proud of it.

Years ago we owned all the Foxfire books, and then we donated them to the library so others could glean the wisdom they had, and we have slowly begun to but copies for our home library and this is one that I wanted first. Simply because it had information on burial customs and I make plain pine burial boxes. And because it has excellent information on wild plants that are edible in the spring and we love to forage for wild plants for food like stinging nettle, fiddle fern and dandelion. The section on bee keeping is also informative. Then there is the wonderful section on midwives which is of personal interest to me, as well as the wonderful section on how to wash clothes in an iron pot, because being vagbond-homestead-mountain mode people we like good clean clothes washed in an environmentally sound manner using the least amount of soap possible.The Foxfire series is one that comes up on various simple living, homestead, frugal websites and web boards. So I know that millions of people have over the years found the series of books to be invaluable.

The series of Foxfire books takes you back in time when life was hard physically but simplier mentally. While reading these books I fell like I am in a time capsule being transported back in time ninety or so years. I enjoy past history and anything to do with mountain country around the Smokies. These peope lived off the land and took the time to enjoy life and their families. These books provide tips for things that are still done the same way, such as tanning hides. Norma Doyle, Florida