A student of mine gave me a copy of the first Foxfire book years ago. What a gift! I ended up ordering the whole series because that type of wisdom and writing could be gone in a generation.

The Foxfire books were started by a teacher and his high school students in the late sixties as a magazine. The students interviewed old timers in the Appalachian Mountains on everything from building a chimney, gardening by the moon, and their life stories. These men and women were all born in the 1800’s and saw a very different way of life. The stories are fascinating.

When I was a young girl, I used to visit the elderly folks at the assisted living home that shared the campus with my school. The first gal that I began to visit when I was twelve years old was a lovely woman named Ada. She was born in 1892. She played the piano for silent movies in the 1920’s and would play for me. She told how her family would store a burlap sack of potatoes in the cellar and told me about the trolley that went down Broadway. I wish I could remember more than that, but at twelve years old, I didn’t realize the importance of listening to her. A veritable history book with a sweet smile.

The Foxfire books are the ultimate in how-to for homesteaders. Gardening, remedies, midwifery, building, plus all the stories of how it was before the chaos of modern life are as entertaining as they are educational. Even if you have no desire to break out the canning pot or grow collard greens by the moon, if you are a history lover, these books are worth checking out. They make a lovely way to pass the days until we can get back into the garden!