Picture of the day - May 19, 2005

American Ginseng: Appalachian Mountain Gold

The hills and "hollers" of Appalachia come alive every autumn with "seng hunters" scouring the forests searching for their own special type of gold: ginseng. For centuries, the root of the ginseng plant has been one of the region's most popular cash crops.  It all pretty much began with the legendary Daniel Boone. During his expeditions to push the American frontier ever further west, Boone and his men gathered and exported many tons of ginseng to Asia as a means of financing his expeditions. Many of those roots were harvested right here in the mountains surrounding Abingdon, Va. At the time, his bounty netted around 50 cents per pound, an unbelievable sum for that period. Today, American ginseng sells for about 400 times that amount! Revered for thousands of years by the Chinese for its medicinal value, ginseng has just recently developed a sizeable following in the U.S., thanks in large part to recent studies that have proven that the Chinese were right all along - ginseng is one powerful herb, and American ginseng is the most potent variety of all! Today's picture features several "bunches" of American Ginseng that I found growing in the woods this morning. As a young boy growing up in the beautiful mountains of southwestern Virginia, I was surrounded by ginseng "hunters". Some of my uncles and cousins harvested it each and every year, with the proceeds making up a significant portion of their yearly income. In my early teens, I caught the bug myself and began spending countless hours searching for it in the woods around my home near Damascus, Va. I spent so much time seng hunting that I could spot a "bunch" from 50 feet away... quite a feat given the fact that even experienced seng hunters will often walk right past a bunch and never see it since it blends in so well with the other mountain vegetation. It's been many years since I last went ginseng hunting, but I can still spot it right away when it's nearby. I guess it's like riding a bike - once you "learn" seng you never forget it... it's part of my Appalachian mountain heritage.   Picture Of The Day Homepage Interesting Articles