Foxfire 4: Fiddle Making, Spring Houses, Horse Trading, Sassafras Tea, Berry Buckets, Gardening

I purchased the Foxfire volumes 1-12 in a single purchase. Highly recommend them if one is looking to learn skills from the "old school." Directions and pictures are very good. Our family is one interested in learning skills from past, such as soap making, cabin building, etc. and we found that these books are a very valuable source of information. There are areas of these books that are simply documentations of folklore and such, especially in the areas of herbal/natural medicine, that one will immediately recognize as ineffective, but it is still interesting to read this folklore anyway. Most of the Foxfire books have incredible, "lost" skills that we find very interesting. The books are good. Your money will be well spent.

Out of the four that I have read it gives me a warm feeling inside to read them and puts a smile on my face. The students that did the research did a yeoman's job of it. They will make you proud of them with their sensitivity and caring. We all would be better off if America was like that now. Old people are a valuable resource of knowledge and humor. These books are superb.

An excellent history of the Appalachian Mountain folks. You will come away with a whole new perspective on the intelligence and ingenuity and the perseverance of the people who populated the Appalachians. If you are getting tired of all of the talking heads on tv and radio turn to the Foxfire series for some inspiration and hobby ideas.

This work, Volume IV, 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, from fiddle making to horse trading, this addresses many of the old forgotten skills 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.

Being a native of rural Appalachia, we owe so much to Mr. Wiggington for the preservation of our culture. No other, in my knowledge has done so much. The entire seires of Foxfire books is a tribute to the plain, industrious, pragmatic, proud mountain ways that I so fondly recall from my childhood. Whether you are doing research, or simply trying to remember how granddaddy did it, these books are an excellent source of knowledge.