As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of self-sufficiency, survival, or homesteading books that I own. I will usually list each book one at a time, and will consist of books I own and consider a resource to rely on. Some are on my Kindle, others are paper pulp, but all are worth reading for one reason or another.

I treat books like a dieter treats a piece of chocolate – treasuring every scrap, and when its all gone, wishing there was more.

Today’s book is actually a series called Foxfire.

The term “foxfire” is a name commonly applied to several species of bioluminescent fungi that grow on rotting wood in damp forests (like the Southern Appalachians) during the warmer months. These fungi typically produce a dim blue-green glow that can be seen only in dark, starlit areas, away from any artificial lights or moonlight. Other names associated with these glowing fungi include “faerie fire” and “will o’ the wisp.”

I’ve run into foxfire several times, the most memorable one was while coon hunting as a teen. The dogs has lost the trial they were following, so the humans in the party headed to a “low gap” (the low spot between two higher points on a hill, resembling a giant saddle), for shelter from the winds. As we sat there waiting for the dogs to pick the trial back up, we turned all of our lights out.

Now if you have ever sat on the top of a hill, in the woods, with dogs sniffing, growling and sometimes barking about 500 yards from you, little wind, and just the sounds of your heartbeat and the breathing of those with you….at night with no moon….you understand how you can get jittery. If you’ve never done that, trust me, it is spooky.

As we sat there, my eyes adjusted to the lack of lights, I thought I saw lights down the hill below us. I was confused, since there was no house down the hill, but it looked like house lights about a mile or so away. I asked who’s house it was, and was told the was no house down the hill in that direction. This caused the jitters to get worse.

I finally had to get up, stumble down the hill slowly through the trees, only to find that the lack of depth perception in the darkness had tricked me into thinking the faint light I was seeing was much farther away than it actually was. The light was coming from a rotting log with fungi growing on it.

*Whew!* No ghosts!

The Foxfire books, on the other hand, DO contain ghosts, in Foxfire 2 and 9. There are 12 books in the series, plus many “spinoffs”. I cannot vouch for the spinoffs, but of the original 12, each one offers something to make me want to read it again.

Foxfire books are compilations from The Foxfire magazine. The Foxfire magazine began in 1966, written and published as a quarterly magazine by students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, a private secondary education school located in the U.S. state of Georgia.  The articles were based on the students’ interviews with local friends and family about daily life and practices in the local Appalachian culture. They captured oral history, craft traditions, and other material about the culture.

The articles are a slice of Americana that is quickly fading away, and was even doing so back in the early days of Foxfire. Collected in the pages of the books below are stories similar to what our own grandparents and great grandparents would tell us. With the Appalachian folks being so practical, these books show us a way of life many would love to trade away their corporate America job in order to experience.

Unfortunately, reality shows us how unlikely that is. So we get to relive the lives of our people that made up some of the backbone of America through the articles, and usually learn a few handy skills along the way.

I received my first one when I was around 11 years old from my Grandmother. Whenever a new one would come out, I’d get it for a birthday or Christmas. Through a house fire, multiple moves across the world, and a divorce, I’ve owned several copies of each. Now I have them neatly stacked in my Kindle, and I find them MUCH easier to carry these days because of the Kindle.

These books taught me many of the skills I still use today. Sure I help instruct at Green Earth Survival School, so I get to use some of the more archaic skills I’ve learned, but I also use many of the other skills in everyday life. Many of my carpentry skills developed from what I’ve learned in these books, as well as gardening knowledge, animal raising, and how to treat people. The books are a wealth of knowledge

The topics covered in each book include but not limited to:

(Click the link to take you to Amazon)

The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing.

Foxfire 2:  Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shucking S, Wagon Making, and More Affairs of Plain Living.

Foxfire 3: Animal Care, Banjos and Dulcimers, Hide Tanning, Summer and Fall Wild Plant Foods, Butter Churns, Ginseng, and Still More Affairs of Plain Living

Foxfire 4: Fiddle making, spring houses, horse trading, sassafras tea, berry buckets, gardening, and other affairs of plain living

Foxfire 5: Rain-making, blacksmithing, bear hunting, flintlock rifles, and more…

Foxfire 6: Shoemaking, 100 toys and games, gourd banjos and song bows, wooden locks, a water-powered sawmill, and other fascinating topics.

Foxfire 7: Traditions of mountain religious heritage, covering ministers, revivals, baptisms, gospel-singing, faith healing, camp meetings, snake handling, and more.

Foxfire 8: Southern folk pottery from pug mills, ash glazes, and groundhog kilns to face jugs, churns and roosters; mule swapping, chicken fighting, and more

Foxfire 9: General Stores, the Jud Newson Wagon, a Praying Rock, a Catawba Indian Potter–And Hant Tales, Quilting, Home Cures, and Log Cabins Revisited

Foxfire 10: Railroad Lore, Boardinghouses, Depression-Era Appalachia, Chair Making, Whirligigs, Snake Canes, and Gourd Art

Foxfire 11: Homeplace, Wild Plant Uses, Preserving and Cooking Food, Hunting Stories, Fishing, and More Affairs of Plain Living

Foxfire 12: War Stories, Cherokee Traditions, Summer Camps, Square Dancing, Crafts, and More Affairs of Plain Living

They can be found used in several places as well, and most libraries carry them. I’d suggest grabbing one, and learning a little of this country’s Appalachian history.

…and how to tan a groundhog hide for the head of the banjo it taught you to make.

Peace,
db

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