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THE SALT BOOK by Pamela--Ed. Wood

THE SALT BOOK

By

Pub Date: June 3rd, 1977
Publisher: Doubleday

In the tradition of Foxfire, a hearty collection of articles on the old-timers and old-time practices of New England. Salt magazine was named for the sea culture and its salty people (""the kind that won't use two words if they can get by with one"") and Ms. Wood, a Maine high school adviser, has acted as ""midwife."" From the coast come windblown reports on lobstering in a peapod (""a row boat picketed at both ends""), fishing, shrimping, trawling, gill netting, and the regular and unusual activities back on shore; several get-togethers with a former federal agent net an inside view of rumrunning during Prohibition, always ""on the dark of the moon."" The landlubbers--at town meetings, a fiddle-head fern banquet, or at home--recall making snowshoes, building stone walls, or gathering and boiling down maple syrup. There are interviews with crusty survivors, instructions on building lobster traps and eating the catch (overcracking is a sure ""sign of the amateur""), and the lowdown on red as the most common barn color (it was the cheapest paint). Bait bags, wild honey bees, and smells ""so bad they'd gag a maggot.