Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir by Jim Casada

University of Georgia Press, 2022 6×9 Paperback ISBN: 9780820362120

You better grab a chair and sit a spell! Jim Casada’s new book, Fishing for Chickens: a Smokies Food Memoir, is much more than a superb collection of heirloom family recipes. Capturing the hearts and minds of generations of family and friends from the Great Smoky Mountains, this cookbook provides a fantastic collection of more than 170 handed-down recipes. But beyond that, it will also leave you warm as toast with its heart-touching stories and anecdotes about growing up in a culture immersed in living off the bounty of the land.

If you are wondering if there is any secret meaning to the title of Casada’s book, you need to look no further than his “Yardbirds” chapter, where you will get a hefty dose of the author’s unapologetically written reality of living on a farm. Casada is a master when explaining the cycle of life.

Turning the pages of Fishing for Chickens will feel like turning back time.

Not so long ago, life was simple, days seemed longer, and a sustainable way of life was at the core of southern Appalachian culture. Gatherings were a way of connecting with family and neighbors and always celebrated with all the traditional staples and fancy foodstuffs.

This book arrives just in time for those who respect the meaningfulness of close-knit family traditions and the joy of harvesting and preparing food with loving hands and hearts. Vintage black-and-white photos provide a glimpse into the lives of the families who thrived in this uniquely special rural community. Fishing for Chickens would make an excellent addition to your prized recipe books, or a treasured gift for someone you love.

Vintage photos as pictured in Fishing for Chickens—hog butchering photo and Clementine Enloe going fishing are courtesy of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park archives. The left photo is a baby picture of Jim Casada with Grandma Mimmie Price Casada.

If this generous portion of comfort food—so wonderfully revealed in Fishing for Chickens—leaves you craving more, Casada’s 2020 book A Smoky Mountain Boyhood: Memories, Musings, and More will, without a doubt, hit the spot!

Jim Casada will gladly sign and inscribe your copy.

The book is $28.95 + $5.00 shipping.

Jim Casada Outdoors, 1250 Yorkdale Drive, Rock Hill, SC 29730-7638 USA

Jim Casada