ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our gratitude goes out to members of our respective families who have, knowingly and otherwise, contributed to this book. Over the course of many generations and through the gifted hands of countless cooks, they have loved the mountain setting, garnered a living from its soil and gifted us with a grand inheritance. Their legacy, rich in tradition and taste as well as being redolent of the folkways of mountain food, is one we strive earnestly to honor and perpetuate in this book’s pages.

In addition, we want to express appreciation to Jason Brady, university library specialist in special and digital collections at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library, and Mike Aday, archivist for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for gracious assistance in not only locating vintage photographs but also optimizing them for publication. Don Casada has generously shared his knowledge of the region and his photographic skills. We are also indebted to Kate Jenkins and Zoe Ames with The History Press. They have provided stellar guidance, admirably prompt responses and welcome expertise at every step along the way.

Finally, we both acknowledge a deep and enduring debt to those countless southern Appalachian culinary wizards who have practiced and perpetuated the region’s foodways over many generations. They are our lamplights and lodestones reminding us of the deeply rooted truth of a venerable historian’s adage: “You can’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been.” We can only hope these pages are, in some measure, worthy of where we have been as we travel the path they have laid for us.