I typically share a food related post on Mondays. Many times its an actual recipe, other times it’s a food related memory or story from days gone by, or it might be a story about food processes like making syrup or milling corn.
As you might imagine I’ve collected quite a few books on Appalachian foodways over the years. Many of them are out of print, like Mountain Cooking by John Parris. Others were written many years ago but because of their popularity have stayed in circulation with reprints ever so often.
The year of 2022 brought a book on southern Appalachian foodways that will no doubt become the standard for scholars, researchers, as well as home cooks who are interested in the amazing food, food processes, and food stories of the Smoky Mountains and the southern region of Appalachia as a whole.
The book, Fishing for Chickens A Smokies Food Memoir was written by Jim Casada. I simply adore the book! I can’t really point to a favorite part because I enjoy it all. The stories, the recipes, the imparted knowledge about food processes that are no longer utilized today and ones that are still common—it’s all perfect for someone who has an interest in the foodways of Appalachia.
When the book first came out I published a post about it, you can go here to read it. I also interviewed Jim about the book. We had a grand time talking—you can hear the conversation here.
Folks across the area have been reviewing Fishing For Chickens A Smokies Food Memoir since it first came out. A recent review by Jeff Minick in the “Smoky Mountain News,” got me to thinking about a certain part of the book. You can see his review here.
Minick shared the following quote from the book as he pointed out the major change canning jars brought to putting up food for future use: “All I can say with certainty is that my mother, grandmother, and virtually everyone I knew embraced canning with something not too far removed from religious fervor.”
If you’ve been reading the Blind Pig and The Acorn or watching Celebrating Appalachia for any amount of time you know we love putting up food. Whether it’s the food we grow in our garden, the meat The Deer Hunter harvests, or the apples that are plentiful in our region we enjoy the personal connection to our food that comes from preserving it yourself.
The Deer Hunter and I both grew up in families who did the same so it’s as common as pig tracks to us (a saying I’ve heard Jim Casada say more than a few times). Yet the quote I shared above caused me to study on the people who were putting up food for their families right when canning jars became available. I can imagine the wonder they felt at having a new, easier, handier, better way of putting up even more food to keep the wolf of hunger away from their door. That had to be a glorious time where indeed as Jim pointed out most folks surely “embraced canning with something not too far removed from religious fervor.”
As someone who’s makes their very living celebrating and preserving Appalachian culture and heritage I know Fishing for Chickens A Smokies Food Memoir will be a reference book I turn to over and over. I dare say it will be as valuable to me at the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English. While Jim’s book is precisely what someone like me needs, it’s also perfect for today’s modern world. It’s truly a treasure trove of historical information, heartwarming stories, and practical information for anyone who cooks today.
For the last Thankful November giveaway of 2022 I’m giving away a brand new copy of Fishing for Chickens A Smokies Food Memoir written by Jim Casada. Leave a comment on this post to be entered. *Giveaway ends December 9, 2022.
You can pick up your a copy of Fishing for Chickens A Smokies Food Memoir on Jim’s website here (scroll down to see the book as well as Jim’s previous book A Smoky Mountain Boyhood: Musings, Memories, and More. Both would make dandy Christmas presents for someone on your list or for yourself!
Last night’s video: Cleaning out the Greenhouse and Warming by the Fire in Appalachia.
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Oh how I wish my parents and grandparents were still here. So many questions that were left unasked. So many stories never told. I know my Mother canned but I have no recollection of seeing it. I do remember jars put away in the pantry. The ones with meat were too strange looking for me! However, as a new wife I embraced canning. I was married in September but we had purchased a mobile home we were waiting to move into after the wedding. I would go over and can tomatoes and green beans so I had things in out little pantry. I stopped for many years and have started back a couple years ago. This year I started over 60 tomato plants and other vegetables to grow in tubs. I gave about 30 of the plants to friends. It was fun going to visit and see how their harvest was coming! So needless to say I canned many jars of tomatoes. My last jars were canned in October!
Thank you for sharing the joys of Appalachia with us. Blessings.
Have always been interested in the evey day of Appalachian cooking, the bake, boil, pan fry of it that most of my family thought so common that they didn’t write it down. For me that would be turnips, sliced thin and fried in Crisco. Last time I picked turnips from my grandma’s garden I was in college home for winter break. She heard the old car Daddy had got me for school kicking up gravel in the lane and met me at the door, handed me a pail, and nodded toward the patch. “Fore you lose the light” was all she said. Well, the stars came out before I was done and right overhead was Jupiter riding the scorpion tail high. That was the sign she’d go by. Harvested after the first good frost brought on a sweetness, she said. I stood at the stove while she cooked and every once in a while she would slice me a raw piece. Sweet as could be with that bit of spice. I wish I knew how to do that.
I would thoroughly enjoy this book! I do think that canning with Mason jars did come slow to some parts of the country. The poorer regions, to be exact. It was/is expensive to get all of the equipment at once. I think that some folks held on to the old ways alot longer. Canning is still going on in my house, as I type. Canning up the last – turkey soup from our Thxgiving dinner leftovers (we do Thxgiving later than the actual day). Hunting season ended yesterday, so no more venison to can & the soup is the last thing. Sometimes I drag everything out & do jam over the winter, when I am bored. But no pressure canning to speak of. I am exhausted. I put up more than I ever have and have stacks of filled jars all over the house, as I ran out of room to keep it in either pantry! I honestly don’t want to look at a canner again for several months, as I not only did my own canning but taught several people and canned for others, too.
Oh! I’d love to win a copy of this book! I’ve been canning for about 30 years, & I remember my mom canning tomato juice & green beans. Both my mom & mother in law taught me about canning. As I get older we keep thinking we’ll pare the garden down a little bit, but I can’t imagine not canning! I believe we’ll always have beans & tomatoes to can. I think as long as I’m able, I’ll be canning something or other for the rest of my life. 🙂
Tipper, I read a lot of books about Appalachian heritage etc. I have not heard of this one though. Definitely looks like a read. I lie books with how to do, Ad recipes. Please consider me for this book. Whoever receives your blessing should be forever grateful. I definitely will go to his website . Thank you
I would love to have a copy of Jim’s book. Coming from a family with heritage steeped in Appalachian heritage, I enjoy studying more about what’s becoming a lost art. Thanks for your posts!
I learned about Jim Casada through your blog and have enjoyed reading his monthly newsletter for sometime now. I’m sure this book would be a great read with many interesting stories from Jim.
I love cookbooks. Would love this one with old recipes that have been passed down, I hope my girls will keep up the old traditions of canning and raising our own food. I try to encourage them but at this time in their lives they aren’t too interested, but I was the same in my 20’s, I helped Mom and Grandma but I would rather be doing something else. I would love this book and I will pass it along to my girls when the time comes. Thank you for your generosity.
I’m so thankful there are books like this around that share the old ways of preserving and preparing food. 🙂
Food is a language we all understand. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!
I’m so grateful I have quite a few of my mamaw’s half gallon jars! Momma always talked of how someone from “the government ” came around to show them these new things. Not sure some of the mountain people took too kindly to it at first, but with time I’m sure it was so much better for them. This book sounds wonderful! Thank you for your gracious giving!
It’s so nice of you to do a give away like this. I just happened on it tonight when I was telling Mom how much I enjoy watching your videos..then I hopped over here so I could tell Mom about this website. I am gonna post links to her so she can come visit this page and your youtube. I think she will really enjoy it. Just naming off a few of your food articles she said took her way back to being a kid and brought on memories of her Parents and Grandparents.
This book sounds like a real winner. I get Jim’s monthly newsletter and always read it with interest. His recipes especially. Adding this book to my library would be a real treasure. Also looking forward to the new cookbook which will soon be available.
With money so tight and costs of things going up, up, up, we have been talking about the need to put up more food. I need a refresher course, as I haven’t been able to can food for awhile. I had my neck broken in a car accident (drunk driver). After 2 neck surgeries, 4 back surgeries, and having to learn to walk again, I’m ready to start a new. I would love to have a copy of this book! I wish I knew a fourth of what the “old timers” knew!!!
this book sounds so very interesting. i would love to have it. my friends and i love to read.
A dear friend of mine who loved to cook and bake always said we shared the habit of reading cookbooks like novels, lol. I especially enjoy a cookbook that has stories with the recipes.
Have a great week y’all.
I love cookbooks that have stories in them. They are the best!!!
Well I’d have to say my husband would love this book. He has kill 3 deer. This we canned all of it. It us really delicious.
would be delighted to have a copy of the book
I would love to have a copy of this book! It’s so fun to have stories and history along with recipes.
I do love your tales of life in the Smokes.
I lived there for a while with a view of the layered blue and gray and purple hues of the mountains on the foggy mornings. I am thankful for the memories, and your stories.
Oh, I would love to own this book….if I don’t win it, I am going to give it to myself for Christmas! I love Jim’s writing and I love to cook.
I remember Granny canning on an old wood stove. It was amazing how hot it got in her kitchen.
Jim’s stories are almost as filling as the food. And anyone that knows me can testify that I love to eat. I appear to be several meals ahead. A friend just gifted me with a quart of pickled green tomatoes and yesterday I received a jar of sorghums.
I Love the book cover with all the jars lined up on the porch… I’ve always dreamed of having a larder so I can gaze at all my preserving. It would be the best!
I love reading! I would really like to read this book!! I enjoyed the video last night telling about the Deer Hunter find the real old book of poetry that he brought home to Katie!! I collect old books! That one sounds so interesting!!
Sounds like a wonderful book! I really enjoy your blog and you tube videos!!!
Thanks so much for the opportunity to win this book. I read Mr. Casada’s blog each month and enjoy it so much. Watching your post last night (and your previous woodstove chats) brought back so many good memories. Our family used to heat our home exactly the same way with almost an identical stove that my daddy made. I still have the stove but no longer use it unfortunately. Agree that there is no better heat that a woodstove. please keep the chats coming as I so look forward to them on Sunday nights.
Cookbooks read like novels to me; if there are stories to go with the recipes, so much the better.
Oh my, Tipper, what a fine giveaway! Jim’s book is already on my dream list of books I’d like to read, so winning a copy would be wonderful! And since my freezer has been sending up warning signs of giving up the ghost, I’ve been trying to rely more on canning and less on freezing, so this book would surely be an incentive and practical inspiration.
This book sounds amazing. I watch your vlog regularly and enjoy seeing you and your family as you go about your days. I am a midwestener and live pretty simply and frugally and do many of things you do. Thanks for always sharing so many interesting things.
You introduced me to Jim Casada years ago. I don’t remember if he did a guest post, or if you mentioned Jim Casada Outdoors, but I signed up for his newsletter. Your Blind Pig and the Acorn daily postings, along with Jim’s monthly newsletter, provide me with a warm feelings and a taste of home on a regular basis. Thank you both!
I would love to have the Fishing for Chickens cookbook by Him Casada! I can remember many dishes prepared by my Grandma, but not how she cooked them. I would love to try my hand at some of them.
Oh my goodness how I would love that book! I cannot thank you enough for all you share, Tipper. I know one never gets too old to learn.
Thank you for all you do and share with us through you blog. The cookbook would be a wonderful read and addition to my collection.
We are deer hunters, which means that we eat a lot of venison. Between bow hunting, rifle hunting, muzzleloader hunting……and four men hunting, we were very fortunate to put many pounds of meat in the freezer. Yesterday my eldest son, put 103# through his grinder, so they will not worry too much about the price of ground beef.
A cute story: My eldest grandson was about 3-4 and was going to a steak cookout with his other grandfather. He looked up at him and said, “Grandpa, what kind of meat is this?” Grandpa said, “It is beef, Tyler.” Tyler, seriously replied, “Grandpa, I don’t eat anything but venison.” We still love this story. Tyler is now 25 and is one of our deer hunters.
I would love a copy of Jim’s book.
As a resident of the hills of Pennsylvania, I have discovered so many similarities between our backgrounds. I really enjoy these posts. Thanks so much!
I’m so excited for a chance to read the book. I thoroughly enjoy your blogs and watch everything you tube tutorials. your twins are precious . their music is the type I grew up on and don’t miss an episode. Paul is entertaining as well!! thanks again Charlotte from Alabama 🙂
This sounds like a good book, I`d love to have a copy. Thanks for all of your great stories and recipes!
I would really like to win a copy of this book!
Thank you Tipper,
I’m new to your site this year, I so enjoying your videos, your sharing of traditions, love your music, your life story. I especially love when you read the books of Appalachia. I like to listen to right before bedtime to relax & reflect on life, the old ways, precious times. Reminds me of my sweet Granny & Grandpa, my parents who are 87 & 90 now, they have so many beautiful stories of successes & struggles of depression times & on. Rich traditions of kindness, giving, caring. Gods blessings to you & your family always Tipper.
~ Jilly in SD (South Dakota)
I’ve really enjoyed your thankful posts throughout the month and just want to say again how thankful I am to have found your videos and blog this year. You and your family have truly been a highlight!
I loved your interview with Jim, he seems like he’d be a great guy to share a cup of coffee and some reminiscences with!
Would sure enjoy reading Jim’s book; we are blessed that mountain folks are still putting down on paper Appalachian tradition whether it be about food, life, or history of most some important aspects regional culture. Our sincere thanks to all continuing to do so, Tipper.
I would love to win this book. Thank you for all you and family do to keep our ancestors history alive so it will NOT be forgotten by the younger generations.
I love cookbooks! What a wonderful gift! I sure appreciate you, Tipper!!
I’ve mentioned before how the kitchen was where you would always find my Mother doing what she seemed to love doing – cooking and putting up. Daddy would put in the garden and was always gathering it up and bringing it inside to Mother. He hunted too and you just couldn’t beat Mother’s Milk Gravy & Biscuits with fried squirrel. They both would work together to do the canning.
I’m going to check out those books as I do think anyone would love to read them.
Enjoyed your vlog of cleaning out the greenhouse and sitting by the wood stove. I hope you get the snow your wishing for but I don’t (LOL) want any. I sure did enjoy it when I was younger. I remember watching you and the family take a hike years ago after you had a beautiful snow. You were going up the mountain and Matt saw tracks that he identified as a cat and it had I believe doubled around you all. Can’t remember if it was a Painter or a Bobcat but as beautiful as that forest covered in soft white snow looked, those tracks would have sent me scurrying back to the house:)
I began watching and reading recently your vlogs and blog. I’m thoroughly enjoying. In honesty, I don’t know why I never thought about the foods of Appalachian families. I think I had grown accustomed to thinking only about the music and not the land and what it can offer us. It’s been so refreshing to learn. I’ll have to check out some of these authors that you have cited and excited to learn more!
Even though I don’t cook alot, I love to read cookbooks and this sounds like an interesting.
Thank you for introducing us to Jim. It’s great getting to read about him! Happy holidays.
I did go back and read the article Minick wrote about Jim. I liked the part where Jim compared the living back then to be “lived an existence that in some ways was not all that different from pioneer times.” I remember those days, and they really were different from our existence today. My grandfather even had one of those wooden slats on a door to lock it inside much like you see in the old westerns.
I am so grateful for all the work done by you and others on our Appalachia. I see your viewing and reading audience is increasing, as I knew it would.
I would be happy to have a copy of Fishing for Chickens. I read Jim’s blog each month and enjoy the recipes. They have a homey touch. And for sure looking forward to the cookbook you are doing together. With your combined recipes and stories it’s going to be great. And Tipper-thank you for another great give away. Everyone have a wonderful day.
Count me in!
I’d love to read this book.
Somehow, in reading the comments so far today, I get a sense there is a story within them untold as yet. Most likely there are several. I’m just not sure exactly what it is, or they are. Maybe Don’s phrase about growing up “at the apex of childhood” comes closest, for me at least. In my often awkward way, I’m trying to say the sum of the reactions to your original post become each day the story of a “community” met on your front porch and you prime the pump with the first story. Among ourselves, we find out we are more the same than different. Is that, perhaps, the story we re-learn each day?
Some of my favorite childhood memories are working with my mom during the summer to can our garden stuff. Mom always made a huge garden and she did pickles, tomato juice, green beans; not to mention all the stuff she froze. She and my dad converted an old outbuilding next to the house into a canning kitchen and my sister and I spent many hours out there with her, sometimes until well after midnight.
“I think of my canning as fast food paid for in time up front.” –Barbara Kingsolver
I would like to leaf my way through this book but I have over 200 cookbooks that I need to do something with now.
I would love to have this book to gift to my good friend Cyndi. Her father and his twin grew up on a poultry farm just outside of Weaverville. I was lucky enough to visit and relax with coffee as the sun and fog rose over the smokies. I grew up in a cow town in Nebraska and my mother, a dietitian, always had a garden that provided the BEST tomatoes year after year. My sister and I helped with the chickens. She taught me how enjoyable food can be and encouraged me to become a dietitian. Over 40 years helping people to enjoy food has been a passion. My winter garden is thriving and we plant more every week. Love all you write about. Take good Care. George
I have been wanting to read this book for some time know! Would love to win!
It sounds like a wonderful book, a treasure to read over and over.
Thank you for the opportunity to win this book! I would love to read it.
this definitely sounds like it would be right up my alley…i grew up like many in the mountains preserving food and do to this day…
I would love to read Jim’s book and I will one way or another. I’m saving the link to buy it if I don’t win it here.
How delightful to have the opportunity to win this book, and if not , I’m going to buy it!
My family has had chickens at various times and we never thought of fishing for them.
Let the holiday cooking begin.*******
Mornin’ Tipper and all y’all readers!
I feel like we are a little family.
My family always had a huge garden because my Great- Grandpa was a farmer. So when I was a kid I remember scraping corn with some tool to get the kernels off to can them. We canned everything but being a kid I didn’t handle the hot jars nor got involved in that part of the process. Recently, I revived an interest in canning. After all these years, I was a bit nervous and was quite frankly overwhelmed with the whole idea. However, Mom helped me as we made her homemade tomato soup. How I love that soup! I found out canning isn’t as hard as I had it in my mind to be! And the soup….Aaaaaahhhhh!
Now I am researching “brining” not pickling so I can preserve lemons! My Dad gave me the three Foxfire books he had bought from local thrift shops. What a ton of information in those! I would love that book you are giving away. I truly would appreciate it!
Anyway, have a blessed Christmas season! Enjoy every minute because they are precious and time moves faster these days! Thanks for your daily cheer in my inbox.
This is a wonderful book. After you mentioned it the first time and I watched the interview with Jim I ordered a copy and just love all parts of the book from the recipes to the stories. Congratulations to the lucky winner of this book.
Oh, Tipper, this book sounds fabulous! I’d be so proud to win it! I got my love of putting up food from my homesteading pioneer grandmother’s, including one from Kentucky. Blessings to you and yours!
Jim’s writings remind me of the Fox Fire books. I joined his blog. Love the conversational style. As many others, I would enjoy the book.
I am too thankful for so many Blessings in our lives. As we enter the Christmas Holiday season, I can’t help but look back on friends and family no longer with us. Many of the ladies we have lost the past 2 years were avid sharers of their recipes. We miss them of course and also that sharing of so many beloved recipes that put smiles on friends and family. I have a collection of cookbooks myself, not as large as it used to be as I have passed some of them along to others. the cookbooks you mention remind me of those collections of recipes shared throughout family and friends. Thank you so much for sharing so many wonderful memories and the sharing of so many wonderful recipes and history of your life and those before you in the Appellation’s.
I’ve been reading your site for many years. So enjoy learning about the ways of living and cooking. I tried putting up food as you term it. For me it was a lot of work and a brand new experience. Old timers learned the value of preserving food for winter eating and enjoying. I would live to own a book with new recipes.
This is the first time that I have commented on one of your giveaways. Jim has a way of spinning a story that is unique. It came as a surprise to me. I grew up in the country outside of Bryson City was on the high school basketball team with Jim, he was a year ahead of me and a year behind my wife. I can picture people that he barely mentions because I knew who he dead referring to. I even worked for the same company his father did during vacations from college. Would love to have the book, it is one of the few that I do not have. Have not been able to work into a retired budget yet. My favorite of his books is the one about fishing in the Smoky Mountains National Park.
No better way to encourage folks to celebrate Appalachia than to offer a chance to win one of Jim’s books, Fishing for Chicken. Not only is Appalachia know for it’s good foods, food preserving, story telling, encouragement, but also for the generosity of it’s people.
Tipper, you beam Appalachia and we appreciate you celebrating all our heritage everyday! Thank you!
I don’t like risky things so I went ahead and bought a copy from your link to his website. Thanks for letting us know of this book and for sharing your knowledge.
I have Jim’s book, A Smokey Mountain Boyhood and found that my boyhood life was similar to Jim’s in a lot of ways, especially the food. I don’t know about the times before canning jars, but do know that my mother and grandmother would can, freeze, or dry any and everything thing they could if it could be used for food. The only meat we ate was rabbit, squirrel, chicken and pork that had been preserved in a salt box. There were no deer in my area in the 50’s and 60’s. Flour, cornmeal, sugar, coffee, tea and milk after the milk cow was sold were the only things bought at the grocery store. Eating a hot dog was an occasion for a celebration. I now look back and think about eating all of that good home grown food and realize we were eating high on the hog and didn’t know. We didn’t fish for chickens but just pulled the chickens used for eating out of an above ground coup, no free range chickens for eating, a free range chicken was considered to be a barnyard buzzard.
This book sounds so interesting. It would be a joy to have it. I would love to have been sitting by the fire with you and Matt. The sandwiches and hot chocolate made my mouth water!!!! I so appreciate and enjoy your family. Take care and God bless ❣️
Hello from Chicken Ledge here in Eastern TN! Just started following you – from a reel on Instagram where your quizzed your daughters on different words and sayings, There are no chickens on The Ledge (yet), my husband and I just started our homesteading journey, but hopefully soon!
I have so many memories of my family putting up food. My Daddy and my Grandfather always had a very large garden. My Mama,Grandma and my sisters and I started canning as soon as the first green beans came in. Canning lasted all summer . It was hot!No air-conditioning, gas stove , fans blowing, windows opens. That was many years ago as I just turned 72. We don’t can much any more but I will always have the memories . I would love to have a copy of FishingFor Chickens so if I don’t win I will buy one for myself.
MERRY CHRISTMAS !
So thankful for those of you who share the folkways of our people. It made us who we are and I’m blessed to be a part of it.
I Love your site, I read it everyday. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, now live in Tennessee so I can relate to most of your stories.
I Love the old ways .I would love this book for My Sisters ( I have 7 and had 5 Brothers,thankfully I have 1 still with us)
We’d Love to share this Book!
Thank You for keeping Appalachian ways alive!
I would love to have the book. My mom canned all summer, and so do I.
I love the name of the book and would love to have a copy!
That book sounds marvelous! I’ve been watching your videos on YouTube and loving them. Thank you so much!
I would love to have Jim’s book! I love reading your blog every morning and my husband and I both enjoy watching your videos. Please keep up your important mission, Tipper!
I look forward to your posts and videos every day. Both of my parents were raised in very rural Alabama. I can’t tell you the similarities of our upbringing.
I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas season.
Wow! I just love the name of the book & would love to read it!!
I love cookbooks! I really enjoy using the recipes that are collected by people and published in the cookbooks that are than sold as fundraisers, usually for the women’s groups at our local churches. In those books you always find recipes that are not listed in your nationally published cookbooks.
Jim’s cookbook sounds fascinating to me. Learning about the old ways that food was preserved would be interesting and possibly could be a future reference that would be handy to have. I can food from our garden every year and this year I added leather breeches to that list of food preservation methods I use thanks to you and your videos. Have a wonderful day!
Here’s an upaid promotional…..
Don’t throw this note in the litter for a copy of br’er Jim’s book, but let me note that it is something of a mate to Jim’s earlier childhood memoir, “A Smoky Mountain Boyhood” – which touches on foodways, but without the focus or details of “Fishing for Chickens.”
The title is self-explanatory – it’s about growing up on the sunny side of the Smokies under circumstances that are far removed from those here today. I, of course, grew up in the same house as Jim – it’s the house my wife Susan and I live in today. She grew up in Charlotte, and is the one who insisted that we buy the house from Jim and our sister Annette, so we could retire here. She has no regrets, and loves small town life.
There are many positive things about where we’ve come from in three quarters of a century, and I realize that we all tend to see much of the past through rose-tinted glasses. But when I consider the overall set of circumstances that folks the age of our children face in raising their children here today, and compare it with those our parents faced three quarters of a century ago, there’s no question that we were blessed beyond measure to grow up in the time and place that we did.
Our father, in his later years (he died at 101 years old in 2011), noted that over the course of his life, he had seen things improve consistently – until the latter part. Much of that observation had to do with the circumstances that parents faced in raising a family. I think it was his way of telling me that we had faced a more challenging time for child rearing than he and Mama, and that it it would be even more difficult for our children. As was so often the case, Daddy was spot on.
Ironically, there is far more in common between my wife’s and my childhoods – hers in what was then a sleepy southern town and mine here in the mountains – than that of my childhood here in the middle of the 20th century and a childhood here today.
So when you read Jim’s memories in either “Fishing for Chickens” or “A Smoky Mountain Boyhood,” you might well be reading about not just the wonderfully blessed days of our own youth, but the apex of childhood in America.
Good morning Miss Tipper, I just what to thank you for all you do on this platform as well as your YouTube channel (btw it’s my favorite channel on YouTube) I look forward to watching over there & reading over here every time you post ANYTHING!!
As Robbie Lynn loves the recipes in all the books you share with us, I’m more interested in the history of the folks from whom all the recipes originated from and the stories they share of days gone by.
Gonna go watch these videos you’ve shared on here today, which I think I’ve watched a few of them before but can’t get enough of this kind of stuff.
THANK YOU!!!!
Tipper,
I’ve never Fished for Chickens, but I am fishing for this book.
I love Mr. Casadas’ play on words for the title.
The title of the book – Fishing for Chickens – really tickled me, as I could just envision that in my mind. My mother canned so much from her garden and also jam and jelly she made from wild berries. Reading Blind Pig and the Acorn, as well as watching your videos, has really taken me down memory lane.
Loved the video of you interviewing Jim! I’m sure it has been so exciting putting together your own cookbook with Jim, can’t wait to get it, I have always lived cookbooks!
His comment about how delighted the women were over canning and how things improve over time, made me think of how I would like to have a freeze dryer. I do love to can and preserve food for my family. Times we are living in every skill we can learn could possibly become beneficial.
My wife’s family grew up in Appalachia (Harlan County, KY) and we’ve had the pleasure of visiting there several times. I enjoy cooking and am always looking for more recipes!
Please put my name in the hat for Jim’s book. I have really enjoyed getting to know you and your family through You Tube in 2022 and am looking forward to connecting on the blog. God bless you and yours this Christmas season and always!
The book sounds like something I want to read, either through winning or by buying. My mother canned and so do I. A couple weeks ago I canned some cranberry chutney (recipe I found on All Recipes and then thoroughly checked out if I could can it safely). What satisfaction to see many jars lined up after being processed. I still make my mother’s recipe for peach-orange marmalade, a family favorite.
Thank you for telling us about the book.
I love all of the topics you write about, but next to Appalachian folklore, I think I love your posts and videos about food (growing, preparing, preserving, etc.) the best. I would really love a copy of Jim’s book; it sounds delightful! Almost every time you write a book review, I find myself looking for a copy of the book on eBay or one of the other online bookstores to purchase. I especially loved the ‘Dorie’ book and it’s become one I recommend often to others. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the cookbook you and Jim are writing too. Thanks for doing a wonderful job preserving the heritage of Appalachia. Your work will live on for a long, long time to come.
Question…is there any way you could add links to Corie’s and Katie’s soap and jewelry sites on your web page too? Thanks!
Kay-thank you! Here’s the link to Katie’s shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StameyCreekCreations and to the shop where Corie’s sells her soap: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePressleyGirls 🙂
Thanks!
Glad people like you are preserving not just food but also our heritage!
Whether I win it or not, I have to get this book for a friend who is a retired British chef (and who is now watching your cooking videos with a religious fervor!) He’s tried your cornbread and biscuit recipes so far and loved them both.
I enjoyed your interview with Jim about this book, and would enjoy having a copy for myself.
I have ordered Jim Casada’s book, and cannot wait for it to arrive. As far as your vlog yesterday, it is sooo wonderful to hear you two talk about the past and hear things I have not heard in years. You guys certainly peak my interest in your memories and in turn remind me of my past and memories. Already looking forward to Friday, God Bless you guys and please tell Granny hello.
Tipper, although I grew up in Michigan, my family is from Southern Illinois, not too far from Kentucky.
It always amazes me at the sayings from Appalachia that are exactly what I grew up saying. And so much of the food is the same, and what it’s called is the same. For example, we always called white bread, light bread.
Thank you so much for sharing your home and family with us. When I watch your videos, it takes me back to my Grandma’s kitchen and a very happy time for me.
Mrs Tipper my wife and I just love all the things you put out here on Appalachian ways. We enjoy watching you, the deer Hunter, and the girls. All of y’all are so endearing, and we look forward to spending an evening with old friends here and there when we get the opportunity. Just please keep it up, God bless and keep you and your family always.
Morning Tipper, Always love to have time to read your posts. Though I’m city born, we moved to KY about 2000. My blessed mom who passed at 91 in January of 2020 was an avid cook, and actually so was my wonderful dad who cooked for 3000 men on a battleship during the war. I was raised to appreciate good food and also to be self reliant. Mom collected cook books and while she was living with me, I had library shelves built for her to put her treasured books. It was a tradition for mom and I to browse through one of her new/old books which spanned from country cooking to fine culinary dining and being of Polish and Italian descent, we would be trying all sorts of yummy recipes from the homelands. Thanks for all you do. You make this complex life we live today more manageable and memorable.
“canning with a religious fervor” definitely occurred before I was born ! They may have been freezing the corn at the time, some from the garden & some from the patch across the road, but Mama (pregnant w/me ) fell at the 3 steps at the backdoor & chipped a bone in her ankle. The next day ,maybe same day,she was back at it with that foot propped up some way w/ a pillow. Some had said whatever they canned might not come out good , her being pregnant,as you have heard tell too. Rarely did I remember anything going bad when I was little. Thanks for letting us know about the Jim Casada books!
I have Jim’s book Smoky Mountain Boyhood and really enjoyed reading it. This book Fishing for Chickens A Smokies Food Memoir is on my wish list and one I hope to add to my library sometime. I’ve read Mr Casadas writings in outdoor magazines for Years and he has always been a favorite writer of mine. I found out about the Blind Pig and the Acorn by reading his book “Smoky Mtn Boyhood”
Fishing for Chickens! Love the title – that’s a hoot!
your description and links for this books has made me desire a copy. what an opportunity from such a great storyteller