Re: JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD SEEN IT ALL, by MH

If I remember right the 'Sang buyer in this county was getting almost $90.00 a pound for wild ginseng last year. I'm sure he makes far more when he sells it. The mountains used to be full of it, the slope down to my house spring was covered with wild ginseng 30 years ago, but it has been hunted and dug almost to extinction. Our local weekly newspaper always carries an announcement when the 'Sang buyer comes around.

My great-great grandmother and great grandmother were Cherokee "Yarb" doctors and midwives. My Grandmother has told me of wandering for miles over the mountains in search of healing yarbs (herbs). Gensing was plentiful but a large hand was a great prize and the locals kept their best 'Sang patches secret.

Its so sad to see much of our natural beauty being plowed under for housing developments for Walmart and Tyson bigwigs. A whole way of life is disappearing and will never return. Twenty years ago one could hardly walk in the woods in April without finding a big patch of Morel Mushrooms, now they are another rare find since commercial buyers started invading our rural area.

Right now I can't even afford a bottle of cheap gensing capsules, but I wish y'all the best with this auction. Someone will get the treasure of a lifetime.