Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Foxfire books... 'and other affairs of plain living'.

Thanks to Jenny (in Alaska) for reminding me about these via her blog. I bought a couple of them on one of my visits to Appalachia many years ago - they're compendiums of rural life, old country traditions, and of a way of life that I can just barely remember traces of here on our side of the Atlantic. And they're much more than reminiscences, they're akin to 'how-to' guidebooks. Definitely worth buying if you were rared in the country, or even if Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has inspired you... or if you have professional pig killers in your family tree (like I do). You're not going to get an article entitled 'Slaughtering Hogs' in Country Living magazine - but you do in this volume of Foxfire. Full of photography and hand drawn diagrams, all of the books are available here.

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1 comments:

Jenny said...

Aren't they fun?

I think my favorite's still the first for just all-roundedness.

Most of that world had started to fade by the time I was in it, but there were still plenty of cow pastures to watch your step in and dark hills to stay up late on. Daddy had it better - his stories are sneaking out the window to go ride horses at night, and building rabbit snares with his cousins out back of where the old mill used to be.



(Also - cool! You have the same editions my mom has!)