The joys of 'seng hunting
When I was growing up in the hills of southwestern Virginia, many of the men I knew were 'seng hunters. Most of them hit the woods in search of the prized ginseng root every fall more as a hobby than as a means of making a living, but several of them were quite successful at supplementing their meager incomes by digging and selling wild ginseng.
I would often accompany my brothers and uncles on their 'seng hunting outings, and before I knew it I was hooked as well. By the time I graduated from high school I had already logged Lord knows how many hours walking the woods and traversing the hills and "hollers" that make this part of the world so amazingly beautiful.
There is a certain magic about striking out in search of wild ginseng. The troubles of the world seem far, far away when the only things you can hear are the sounds of birds singing in the trees and the rush of a nearby mountain stream as it makes its way "down the holler" towards the river.
People began hunting 'seng here in the Appalachians almost as soon as they arrived on the scene some four centuries ago, and I grew up reading stories about how they hauled sack after sack of the freshly harvested roots out of the mountains by mule and horseback. Ginseng plants were plentiful then, and the roots were huge by modern standards. But the joy of finding an elusive four prong is just as powerful today as it was then, perhaps even more so considering the fact that they are much less ubiquitous today than they were back then.
The feeling of exhilaration I get after spotting a large pod of those tell-tale red berries or the distinctive pattern of ginseng leaves among the thick mass of foliage is like no other feeling I have ever experienced. And when I take a look around and find that there are several other "bunches" of 'seng besides the one I first spotted, that amazing feeling is intensified even further.
Yep, 'seng hunting has always been one of my most enjoyable pastimes, but in the modern world where most kids are more interested in playing video games and hanging out at the mall than slogging through the woods, I'm afraid it's becoming a dying art.
If you live in an area where ginseng grows in the wild, you might want to give ' seng hunting a try yourself. Here are a few tips to get you started:
1 - Always get written permission from the landowner before entering private property and obey all "No Trespassing" signs.
2 - If you happen to stumble upon a plot of ginseng that you even suspect might have been planted, leave it alone and exit the area immediately. Your life and liberty just might depend on it. After all, ginseng poachers are reviled like few others on the planet, and if you get caught in the vicinity of someone's 'seng patch you're quite likely to be treated like one even if you aren't.
3 - Look for ginseng on hillsides facing north or east. As a rule of thumb, if the sun strikes the hillside in the mornings you just might find 'seng growing on it. But if the sun hits it in the afternoon you probably won't.
4 - Look for plants that like the same type of habitat as ginseng. If you see black cohosh, stinging nettles, jack-in-the-pulpit and ferns, you're probably in an area where 'seng will grow.
5 - Start your search near the bottom of the hill, then move up the hill in a zig-zag fashion until you reach the top. Look for spots that are thick with vegetation, looking both near the ground and higher up. Pay special attention to small depressions in the hillside and around fallen trees that appear to have been there for some time. And always be on the lookout for those tell-tale red berries!
6 - When you spot a bunch of 'seng, pull out your tool of choice and carefully dig up the root after placing any berries on the plant under the blanket of leaves covering the ground. Take care not to cut or break the root as you're extracting it from the soil.
7 - After you finish digging up a root, stand up and take a good look around. Where there is one ginseng plant there are usually others nearby.
8 - Do your part in helping preserve this amazing plant in the wild by digging only mature roots (plants with at least 3 prongs of 5 leaves each) and planting any ripe berries found right there on the spot where you found them.
Well, there you have it. Happy 'seng hunting!