2010 Event Schedule

Each Children's Heritage Day event consists of a series of hands-on workshops, during which participants will see demonstrations of traditional skills and learn basic practices and tool usage in order to create their own unique souvenirs to take home. The day also includes old-timey games and other activities.

This event's workshops, for ages 8-12, include:

Blacksmithing - demonstration by Barry Stiles, then particpants get to hammer heated metal into their own decorative wall hook.

Dairy Craft - demonstration by Maria Loveless, then particpants get to milk a goat and make butter from the milk.

Bark Berry Buckets - demonstration by Joe Williams, then particpants make their own bark berry bucket from poplar bark and other supplies.

Woodworking - demonstration by Perry & Michelle Bourlet, then participants will use shaving horse and draw knife to carve their own walking/hiking stick.

Children's Heritage Days run 9am–3pm, rain or shine. Cost is $40 per child, with a $5 discount for additional siblings. Lunch and snack are provided. Parents are welcome to observe and assist. Sunscreen is recommended. For safety reasons, particpants are asked to wear long pants and closed-toe shoes, and to not bring music players or cell phones. Pre-registration is required, and attendance is limited to 12 children per event. The registration form can be downloaded here.

Each Children's Heritage Day event consists of a series of hands-on workshops, during which participants will see demonstrations of traditional skills and learn basic practices and tool usage in order to create their own unique souvenirs to take home. The day also includes old-timey games and other activities.

This event's workshops, for ages 13-18, include:

Blacksmithing - demonstration by Barry Stiles, then particpants get to heat metal in the forge and hammer it into their own decorative wall hook.

Broom-making - demonstration by Carole Morse, then particpants will construct their own broom from broomcorn and other materials.

Bark Berry Buckets - demonstration by Joe Williams, then particpants make their own bark berry bucket from poplar-tree bark and other supplies.

Woodworking - demonstration by Perry & Michelle Bourlet, then participants will use shaving horse and draw knife to carve their own walking/hiking stick.

Children's Heritage Days run 9am–3pm, rain or shine. Cost is $40 per child, with a $5 discount for additional siblings. Lunch and snack are provided. Parents are welcome to observe and assist. Sunscreen is recommended. For safety reasons, particpants are asked to wear long pants and closed-toe shoes, and to not bring music players or cell phones. Pre-registration is required, and attendance is limited to 12 children per event. The registration form can be downloaded here.

**NEW LOCATION THIS YEAR** Join Foxfire from 10–4 at the Rabun County Civic Center in downtown Clayton, Georgia (just a few miles south of the old location in Dillard). Meet students who help create The Foxfire Magazine and talk to some of the ‘contacts’ - the folks whose lives are presented therein. Watch demonstrations of many traditional skills and talk with the folks who enjoy keeping these skills alive. Crafters on hand are usually displaying pottery, wood carving, handmade musical instruments, blacksmithing, spinning and weaving, folk art, basket weaving, cornshuck dolls, coopering, broom-making, and much, much more. Lunch will be available from various vendors on the grounds, there will be games for the kids, and live bluegrass and gospel music from local artists on stage throughout the day. The Festival’s massive one-of-a-kind raffle often features as many as 80-100 unique and interesting items donated by area businesses, usually including gift certificates, decorative knickknacks, paintings, pottery, and much more. Come learn about traditional skills, enjoy the music and fun, and help support the students of Rabun County and the preservation of their Southern Appalachian heritage. Admission is $4 for ages 11 & up, $2 for ages 6—10, 5 & under free.

All proceeds from the raffle and gate admissions help to fund Foxfire’s student work programs right here in Rabun County, helping our students further their education and work experience while allowing them to build stronger ties to their community and heritage.

***This year's Fall Heritage Festival will be held in conjunction with the Rabun/Clayton Mountaineer Festival, another local Appalachian gathering which includes a variety of participatory events—a greased-pig chase, greased pole climb, and many other contests—along with a beauty pagaent and a street dance prior to festival day. Visit the Mountaineer Festival's website for more details on their events. More information will be added here when it becomes available.***

2010 Foxfire/Julia Fleet Scholarships

As a young girl, Julia B. Fleet
developed an affinity for the North
Georgia Mountains and their residents.
Ms. Fleet came to Foxfire in 1989
while searching for a way to contribute
something significant back to the
area where she had spent so
many pleasurable days.

For over 30 years, Rabun County High School students involved in Foxfire programs have received scholarship funding from The Foxfire Fund, Inc. These scholarships are currently funded by an endowment established by philanthropist Julia B. Fleet. The Julia Fleet/Foxfire Scholarships are awarded based on four main criteria—student participation in Foxfire programs, each student’s potential for success, their demonstrated financial needs, and their academic achievements.

After their time in the Foxfire Magazine classroom, helping to preserve the heritage of Southern Appalachia
while building ties to the community and their elders, four graduating Rabun County High School seniors
were awarded new Foxfire/Julia Fleet Scholarships. Stephanie Dunlap (left), Alex Owens (right), Richelle Coalley
and Laura Daniti (not pictured) joined ten previous graduates in sharing this year's $25,000 in scholarship funds.

The Foxfire Book of Winemaking

Our Newest Release, September 2008

Taken from student author Kelly Shropshire's introduction:

"Blackberry wine is good for
the tummyache and it's a
good cure for diarrhea, too.
My mother used to keep it all
the time. It only took a little—
I'd say a quarter of a cup."
—Mary Pitts

For many people of the Appalachian mountains, winemaking is as much a part of their culture as the mountains themselves. Made from the fruits and berries native to the land, homemade wine has been used for everything from curing stomachaches to cooking and, of course, just plain drinking.

Many early settlers came to the South and brought with them the ancient methods of winemaking. Despite admonitions against the evils of strong drink by Bible Belt preachers, winemaking caught on. Over the years, many unique winemaking methods, as well as types, have evolved. There are those like Lawton Brooks, who use the natural yeast on the fruit itself to make their muscadine wine. And others, like Granny Toothman, who refuse to make their wine in anything but a stone jar. Blackberry, dandelion, corncob—the types of Appalachian wines are as diverse as the people who make them.

"Wine is the most wholesome
beverage in the world. That
goes back to the Bible.
The Lord gave Paul grapes
and told him to make wine."
—Bill Park

We first became interested in winemaking during preparation of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery. We began learning of mountain people who still made their own wines at home from the fruit they had grown themselves. Here was something we’d never done before—a documentation of winemaking in the Southern Appalachian mountains. Toting tape recorders and cameras, we set out on our interviews—and we usually found ourselves directly involved in the winemaking process. We gathered grapes for Bill Park, crushed blackberries for Harry Pitts, and gutted a pumpkin for Effie Lord. We found that the various types of wine were endless—as John Bulgin puts it, “You can make wine out of anything but a rock.”

Now, we offer to you our finished product. This is a book for the amateur winemaker interested in learning the skill, as well as for the experienced winemaker interested in unearthing the roots of winemaking in this region. And most important, in the tradition of Foxfire, this is a book intended to preserve a small piece of our heritage and to pass along the traditions of the people of the Southern Appalachian mountains.