Special Guest: Jim Hamilton, isan extension agent and county director at NC State Cooperative Extension and an adjunct professor at ASU, as well as a former instructor at Haywood Community College.

Jim has a Ph.D. in forestry and teaches workshops across the region including an upcoming date at the Meadowlark Smoky Mountain Heritage Center on August 28th. They will be discussing the generations of ginseng in the Smoky Mountains.

Tune in for this fun conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by clicking here.

Show Notes

Segment 1

Today’s episode starts off with our host Joseph McElroy announcing tons of exciting upcoming events that our audience can look forward to. From concerts to award programs, talk shows, and campfires, there are a plethora of events that people can enjoy in the Smoky Mountain and North Carolina region. After announcements, Joseph introduces the special guest of the day, Jim Hamilton. Jim talks about his journey to how he became a professor, county director, and so interested in ginseng in the local community.

Segment 2

Coming back from the break, the two talks more about turtles being the state reptile of North Carolina and bring up Jim’s nickname, Jimseng. Jim then talks about where that name came from and all the benefits and other facts about ginseng. He explains how he became interested in the local ginseng and where his passion originates from. They discuss how important ginseng is essential to the economy and go further into the different types of ginseng, their history, and their benefits. Jim tells stories of famous pioneers and explorers who came across ginseng, such as Daniel Boone, and how it served as a food source and for health purposes.

Segment 3

The next segment starts off with a discussion on stereotypes regarding ginseng hunting on television shows. Jim clarifies the negative stereotypes and misunderstandings of people illegally harvesting ginseng and that he works with people to specifically protect the ginseng in the local Smoky Mountains area. Next, Jim talks about where to buy ginseng and what he does with them. He explains how different countries, for example, Korea, and China, buy ginseng differently than how one might in North Carolina. Joseph then asks Jim about his book, The Last Entry, which is a fictional book that follows a young man in the mountain area.

Segment 4

For the last segment, Jim Hamilton and Joseph talk more about planting and growing ginseng in your own backyard. Jim talks about what he recommends people to do in the Smoky Mountain areas. He recommends taking a morning hike to watch the sunrise and local restaurants with great food for lunch and other fun activities that visitors can do throughout the day.

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00:34.710 –> 00:00:39.840 Joseph McElroy: hey thanks for joining us on this week’s episode of gateway to the smokies.

00:00:40.350 –> 00:00:47.940 Joseph McElroy: This podcast is about America’s most visited National Park, the great smoky mountains National Park, and the surrounding towns.

00:00:48.330 –> 00:00:56.940 Joseph McElroy: This area is filled with ancient natural beauty and deep storied history and rich mountain cultures that we explore with weekly episodes.

00:00:57.510 –> 00:01:06.480 Joseph McElroy: I am Joseph Franklyn McElroy, a man of the world, but also with deep roots in these mountains my family’s lived in the great smokies for over 200 years.

00:01:06.930 –> 00:01:15.450 Joseph McElroy: My business is in travel, but my heart is in culture today’s podcast is about generations of ginseng in the smoky mountains.

00:01:16.140 –> 00:01:27.690 Joseph McElroy: But first let me tell you about a little bit coming up, upcoming event smokies adventures sponsoring events at the Meadowlark Smoky Mountain Heritage Center this summer at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley.

00:01:28.140 –> 00:01:35.640 Joseph McElroy: There are four heritage-themed events already booked for July and August, including the plot this reunion weekend on July 9 or 10th.

00:01:36.030 –> 00:01:48.780 Joseph McElroy: With mechanical bear bait demos programs and music, then we have the dare Nicholson all-star band camp or concert with seminars, presented by iconic musicians on Saturday of.

00:01:50.160 –> 00:01:54.120 Joseph McElroy: July 17 along with a concert on Saturday night.

00:01:54.900 –> 00:02:03.480 Joseph McElroy: There are landing and Charles Miller lifetime achievement award program will be with the seminars, music, and talks will be on July 31.

00:02:03.750 –> 00:02:16.380 Joseph McElroy: And the Horrace Kephart festival weekend on August 13 and 14th two days, full of heights music programs with nationally known our author’s artists and filmmakers musicians and explorers will be.

00:02:17.010 –> 00:02:27.930 Joseph McElroy: There we’re also pleased to announce it, in addition to new big events in August, the mountain the Meadowlark mountain heritage festival on August 7 through he has to be.

00:02:28.230 –> 00:02:37.620 Joseph McElroy: This will be a fun-filled week weekend featuring Cherokee storytelling and mass carving from the incomparable David are Davey arch.

00:02:38.040 –> 00:02:49.800 Joseph McElroy: Traditional music with Tandon Silver and the meadowlark ramblers or frontier camp with period-correct demos pertaining to a variety of topics, including high tanning blacksmiths.

00:02:50.280 –> 00:03:06.360 Joseph McElroy: flintlock firearms Pottering wildcrafted hosted by renowned experts in their respective CEOs fields such as I a hatter Randall peers kin partner, Brian Nolan Charlie brown corey plot David Brown and much more.

00:03:06.810 –> 00:03:14.220 Joseph McElroy: And then the weekend of August 27 through 29th there’s a natural since traditional skills, we can.

00:03:14.700 –> 00:03:26.310 Joseph McElroy: for reaching a big featuring a variety of experts in their field, including ginseng expert Jim Hamilton is our guest today Abby Martin artemisia known owner and.

00:03:26.700 –> 00:03:36.450 Joseph McElroy: walk founder of the wonderful school award-winning Cherokee naturalist Tyson Samson Adam Bigelow of big a little bit technical excursions.

00:03:36.840 –> 00:03:48.630 Joseph McElroy: acclaimed author and naturalist Renae Winchester Harold health and hair loom seed expert author musician William Ritter was a previous guest on the show.

00:03:49.050 –> 00:03:58.830 Joseph McElroy: Plott hound program and book signing with Bob Plott and other guests and Jacob Morgan Plott Sunday morning traditional music and service with William Ritter.

00:03:59.130 –> 00:04:08.250 Joseph McElroy: And Sarah Ogletree along with additional music throughout the weekend, with Camden silver and the Meadowlark ramblers Michael Ogletree and William Ritter.

00:04:10.050 –> 00:04:16.590 Joseph McElroy: I also announced, we have the initiative may Maggie rainwater to the Meadowlark

00:04:17.700 –> 00:04:29.490 Joseph McElroy: Mountain heritage team who’s going to do PR and advertising for all events and podcasts and represent some of the top names in America and bluegrass music fields welcome Maggie.

00:04:29.910 –> 00:04:42.120 Joseph McElroy: Most events at the Meadowlark Smoky Heritage Centers smoking out here just centers is free from hotel guests and then there’s a mission fee for Non-guest call to 89261717.

00:04:42.540 –> 00:04:59.130 Joseph McElroy: To put book your rooms, or for further information, there’s any stuff going on, so do you listen to this podcast after the fact, and after the summer of 2021 reach out because there’s going to be stuff going on all year round and they’re all going to be quality events like this, so.

00:05:00.240 –> 00:05:15.270 Joseph McElroy: Our podcast today is about ginseng and culture ginseng in the smoky mountains and I wasn’t you know I look around for poetry sometimes and things related to what the guest is going to be talking about that’s meaningful to me.

00:05:16.620 –> 00:05:26.790 Joseph McElroy: And you know I didn’t find a poem at work, but I found a bluegrass song the original author was Norman Blake and I think he performed it as well, what I found one that was.

00:05:28.920 –> 00:05:36.690 Joseph McElroy: Something that involves the popular bluegrass legend Tim Rice, who has been mentioned several times on this show by

00:05:36.960 –> 00:05:51.300 Joseph McElroy: My Tim Cert and balsam range a couple of others and Darren Nicholson and also arrange will be here next week’s to talk about the bluegrass band camp and he’ll probably mention that maybe mentioned Tim Rice raw I will I prod them to anyway.

00:05:52.410 –> 00:06:02.100 Joseph McElroy: Anyway, the lyrics of this song are relevant, I think, to today’s show and so I’m going to read this army as I’m not a singer and I don’t want to violate copyright law so.

00:06:03.600 –> 00:06:14.130 Joseph McElroy: So about three miles from the bed to a yard from the reverse curve on down not far south of the town depot Sullivan Shack was found.

00:06:14.880 –> 00:06:27.360 Joseph McElroy: Back on the higher ground, you can see him every day walking down the line, with an old brown sack or crosses back and as long hair down behind speaking is worried mine.

00:06:28.590 –> 00:06:36.720 Joseph McElroy: it’s a long way to the delta from the north Georgia hills a tote sack full of urgency will pay no traveling bill.

00:06:37.860 –> 00:06:44.640 Joseph McElroy: Now I’m too old to ride the rails or thumb the road alone, so I guess I’ll never make it back home.

00:06:45.660 –> 00:06:48.420 Joseph McElroy: My muddy waters Mississippi delta on.

00:06:49.890 –> 00:07:01.050 Joseph McElroy: What is here the winters here they get too cold the damp and makes me ill can dig their roots in the mountainside of the frozen ground froze hard and still.

00:07:01.770 –> 00:07:13.350 Joseph McElroy: gotta stay on the foot of the Hill, but I make summer when things turn right the companies will pay high I’ll make enough money to pay my bills and bid these mountains goodbye.

00:07:14.280 –> 00:07:24.390 Joseph McElroy: Then he said, where the side it’s a long way to the delta from the north Georgia hills attempts at full of June saying will pay no traveling bills.

00:07:24.720 –> 00:07:35.190 Joseph McElroy: No I’m too old to ride the rails or thumb the road alone so I’ll guess I’ll never make it back to home, my muddy water Mississippi delta home.

00:07:36.210 –> 00:07:52.170 Joseph McElroy: Alright, so my guest today is Jim Hamilton who’s an acclaimed novelist who has a Ph.D. in forestry is a country as a county director for the nc state cooperative extension and as an adjunct professor at Appalachian State University, how are you doing Jim.

00:07:52.890 –> 00:07:56.940 Jim Hamilton: Great Joseph thanks for having me on your show on your podcasts great.

00:07:57.540 –> 00:08:02.730 Joseph McElroy: I’m so glad you’re here, so are you originally in North Carolina right.

00:08:03.030 –> 00:08:04.290 Jim Hamilton: I am not.

00:08:05.430 –> 00:08:22.830 Jim Hamilton: Originally yeah I hail from a little small town in Alabama southeast to Birmingham, where you can see, the last hanging toenail of the Appalachians from the highest point you know, on on the home property but I’ve lived in North Carolina now for about 20 years and.

00:08:23.580 –> 00:08:24.330 Jim Hamilton: You know it’s a.

00:08:24.570 –> 00:08:29.910 Jim Hamilton: Even though my kids were born here they’ll never be local you know takes like eight generations in a good killing.

00:08:31.410 –> 00:08:33.690 Jim Hamilton: The data to really qualify but uh.

00:08:33.780 –> 00:08:39.150 Joseph McElroy: yeah about 20 years ago people start accepting the Community, it might not call you can call your friend.

00:08:39.450 –> 00:08:39.750 Right.

00:08:42.780 –> 00:08:45.720 Joseph McElroy: So I was brought to your school or was that when.

00:08:46.230 –> 00:08:48.780 Jim Hamilton: I came to North came to nc state for.

00:08:49.020 –> 00:08:58.680 Jim Hamilton: For Grad school in forestry and wound up in in the mountains of looking at working with the Christmas tree industry, so I started.

00:08:59.790 –> 00:09:09.300 Jim Hamilton: started with cooperative extension and drifted back to hey over to Haywood county where I was and I taught a hey what Community college and then.

00:09:10.020 –> 00:09:19.020 Jim Hamilton: Then back up to Boone to sort of lead the shop here at the county extension office, so you know by I’m a couple of hours from the Meadowlark down there.

00:09:19.980 –> 00:09:21.720 Joseph McElroy: nc state, you know I went to do.

00:09:22.980 –> 00:09:23.520 Joseph McElroy: The.

00:09:25.320 –> 00:09:26.640 Joseph McElroy: nice little rivalry, I remember.

00:09:27.300 –> 00:09:28.620 Jim Hamilton: I took a class at Duke.

00:09:30.060 –> 00:09:30.810 Jim Hamilton: nc state.

00:09:32.010 –> 00:09:37.650 Jim Hamilton: The folks studying forestry at Duke would come over to nc state to take real for St.

00:09:39.270 –> 00:09:43.620 Jim Hamilton: Jude is the forestry student from the state we go to do to take the policy classes.

00:09:44.940 –> 00:09:54.870 Joseph McElroy: Well, I remember once going over to nc state or some fraternity brothers and we took cool so we covered a bunch of statues, is that something that they do now or did I don’t remember what it was.

00:09:56.100 –> 00:09:56.640 Jim Hamilton: Oh man.

00:09:57.000 –> 00:10:02.520 Joseph McElroy: All right, so you’re naturally to say that we just say, what do you do up there now.

00:10:02.550 –> 00:10:06.360 Jim Hamilton: What do you do, I just teach one class a year at

00:10:06.420 –> 00:10:20.760 Jim Hamilton: Appalachian state I’m an adjunct instructor but my day job is is with the cooperative extension and we’re the outreach arm for the university so we’re we provide you know research reach research-based and technical information.

00:10:21.210 –> 00:10:30.330 Jim Hamilton: To farmers, landowners master gardeners cattle producers Christmas tree growers, you name it we’re sort of the one-stop-shop for.

00:10:31.080 –> 00:10:43.170 Jim Hamilton: Agricultural information and property information in each of the counties every county in North Carolina has an extension office and I wound up here in Boone.

00:10:43.710 –> 00:10:52.050 Joseph McElroy: wow So if I wanted to start a BlackBerry farm and an iron Haywood county I’d be dealing with somebody like you.

00:10:52.110 –> 00:10:56.700 Jim Hamilton: Right that’s right you, you would call a bill Skelton is yours is the.

00:10:58.080 –> 00:10:58.980 Jim Hamilton: director yep.

00:10:59.070 –> 00:10:59.520 Joseph McElroy: I was.

00:11:00.540 –> 00:11:12.180 Joseph McElroy: I was sitting around at a party in New York City and some guy from St Louis said, you know we would buy you know talking about farm to table, he said we buy so many blackberries and we get hold of.

00:11:12.480 –> 00:11:18.300 Joseph McElroy: The we said, well, we got plays Landon and Haywood county that grows by a various real well so yeah.

00:11:18.330 –> 00:11:18.900 Jim Hamilton: Plenty of them.

00:11:19.980 –> 00:11:22.620 Joseph McElroy: Is it made me will ever come to fruition.

00:11:23.280 –> 00:11:23.850 Joseph McElroy: And certainly.

00:11:24.210 –> 00:11:26.100 Joseph McElroy: A party talk, but you know.

00:11:27.000 –> 00:11:28.230 Jim Hamilton: that’s right that’s right.

00:11:28.620 –> 00:11:30.960 Joseph McElroy: So every county Community college.

00:11:31.590 –> 00:11:42.780 Jim Hamilton: So I taught forestry for four years and Haywood Community college I taught soils introduction to forestry I taught dendrology, which is the.

00:11:43.260 –> 00:11:54.210 Jim Hamilton: Which is the identification of trees, and you know the most enjoyable thing, while I did there, I was the over the forestry club and I don’t know if you’ve seen the lumberjack competitions or.

00:11:54.660 –> 00:12:02.520 Jim Hamilton: You know I guess the ESPNC or D or one of the lower-level ESPN channels will show the steel still timber sports.

00:12:02.970 –> 00:12:15.870 Jim Hamilton: team so and Haywood still has a very active and very super competitive timber sports team, and you know learn how to how to throw an ax and run a run across cat saw and.

00:12:16.980 –> 00:12:23.010 Jim Hamilton: do a little single book chopping but that’s um it’s a true sport and it’s competitive.

00:12:23.370 –> 00:12:38.070 Jim Hamilton: it’s a competitive collegiate sport, with the schools that have to foresee programs, and it was always great to take you to know the two year Community college kids to a state, competition and have a whip up on the four-year colleges, you know timber sports team.

00:12:39.330 –> 00:12:45.210 Joseph McElroy: we’re glad to see that competitive North Carolina spirit exists still even at the College of Community college level.

00:12:45.300 –> 00:12:47.190 Jim Hamilton: Oh yeah yeah it was a lot of fun.

00:12:47.220 –> 00:12:56.130 Joseph McElroy: A lot of fun well we’re gonna take a break now, and when we come back a couple of questions I want us to lessen venture past, but then we’ll get into June say alright.

00:12:56.460 –> 00:12:57.060 Jim Hamilton: sounds great.

00:15:27.570 –> 00:15:33.840 Joseph McElroy: Howdy this is Joseph Franklyn McElroy back with a gateway to the smokies podcasts and my guest Jim Hamilton.

00:15:34.350 –> 00:15:47.010 Joseph McElroy: So, Jim I know we want to give the ginseng but I noticed a couple of things I was reading your profile and you speak fluent Spanish and I didn’t see anything other than you went to Paraguay, with the peace corps is that we learn Spanish.

00:15:47.820 –> 00:15:56.520 Jim Hamilton: I did I learned, Spanish and Guarani which is which I spoke more guarani when I was was when I was in rural Paraguay, but.

00:15:56.940 –> 00:16:02.430 Jim Hamilton: My wife is from Argentina so with a lot of help from from from her and.

00:16:03.000 –> 00:16:17.910 Jim Hamilton: And and regular visits with the family, my my my Spanish drastically improved because Spanish and Paraguay’s is sort of the second language so so yeah we speak a good deal Spanish at home, especially when I’m being chastised for something.

00:16:19.710 –> 00:16:26.610 Joseph McElroy: But it’s good, though I just thought that was an interesting thing I didn’t see where I learned, other than that what two years you’re very right yes.

00:16:26.610 –> 00:16:28.530 Jim Hamilton: yeah I’m a renaissance redneck.

00:16:30.030 –> 00:16:31.320 Joseph McElroy: that’s exactly what I am.

00:16:33.120 –> 00:16:41.850 Joseph McElroy: So, before we begin in the ginseng I had to say, I saw this you wrote you wrote an article called the turtles of the high country right.

00:16:43.080 –> 00:16:57.720 Joseph McElroy: And you’re already there the eastern box turtles, the only terrorist terrestrial turtle founder of the state in 1979 it was chosen to be the North Carolina state reptile I have to know why do we have a state reptile.

00:16:59.490 –> 00:17:09.630 Jim Hamilton: You know I I thought the same thing I know we you know, we have the state, the state flower in this in the state tree, the state reptile that’s a new one, to me, but.

00:17:10.050 –> 00:17:23.640 Jim Hamilton: Here here at the extension office out, you know, during the summer, we have people bring in turtles for identification we bring it to get snakes sometimes they’re in jars sometimes there with a head sometimes without ahead.

00:17:24.030 –> 00:17:31.590 Jim Hamilton: folks want to know you know what the animals are they find they find on their property so that’s another service that we provide.

00:17:32.220 –> 00:17:37.350 Joseph McElroy: The mountain North Carolina, especially with regards to turtle so I don’t want to get into it too much, but yeah.

00:17:38.520 –> 00:17:48.750 Joseph McElroy: yeah yeah it is okay good all right so so I heard that around the office, your coworkers call you Jimseng

00:17:51.240 –> 00:18:04.920 Joseph McElroy: And then you say you teach workshops and workshops on how to plan it you drink daily smoothies sprinkled with it, so I guess your expert on the subject, so why this intense interest.

00:18:05.250 –> 00:18:18.450 Jim Hamilton: And what the ginseng is such a unique plant with such a historical and cultural significance, especially here in in the western North Carolina mountains.

00:18:19.260 –> 00:18:35.130 Jim Hamilton: I had I known what it was, you know as a student of forestry natural resources, and you know when I started working in western North Carolina I would hear about it more and more and.

00:18:37.140 –> 00:18:44.550 Jim Hamilton: I’ve had friends with access to property actually take me, you know ginseng hunting, it is still.

00:18:44.940 –> 00:19:00.690 Jim Hamilton: juicing hunting is still a very integral part of Appalachian mountains and for a lot of folks it’s a supplemental form of income there’s a legal harvest season for it and there’s a there’s an international market for it.

00:19:00.720 –> 00:19:01.470 Jim Hamilton: But it’s a.

00:19:01.770 –> 00:19:05.220 Jim Hamilton: You know, in the fall during the legal season.

00:19:06.660 –> 00:19:17.430 Jim Hamilton: You have folks that hit the woods either you know they’re scouting out there, the place to put their deer stand, you know for deer season and while they’re out there they’re looking for ginseng, and if they find.

00:19:18.030 –> 00:19:22.830 Jim Hamilton: or come across a patch you know they’ll dig ginseng and there’s there are registered dealers who.

00:19:23.250 –> 00:19:32.190 Jim Hamilton: who purchased the root and the more I learned about it, the more curious I was about it, and you know to live here and working with a wide number of.

00:19:32.820 –> 00:19:38.010 Jim Hamilton: Property property owners and locals I just came to learn more about it and really.

00:19:38.460 –> 00:19:51.060 Jim Hamilton: You know that’s where my I guess passion for the plant comes from because it is becoming more and more scarce due to overharvesting and you, there are a few TV shows a while back that that that led to that.

00:19:51.390 –> 00:19:53.040 Joseph McElroy: Right well you know.

00:19:54.180 –> 00:20:14.520 Joseph McElroy: You know I picked that song ginseng to sell them for a couple of reasons, one that spoke to you know didn’t sing as a financial force of income and solving Scotch Irish right so it’s been a part of the Scotch Irish settlers economics for several hundred years right.

00:20:15.150 –> 00:20:24.540 Jim Hamilton: Right yeah it was so you know there are several species of ginseng as far as the plants concerned and the Asian ginseng

00:20:25.080 –> 00:20:34.140 Jim Hamilton: A pan so to get not to get too scientific, but the scientific name for Asian ginseng his pen X ginseng in the pen, X is the Latin for.

00:20:34.440 –> 00:20:44.730 Jim Hamilton: panacea for everything, because it was considered a plant that was good for everything was good for your heart, good for blood pressure regulation, good for.

00:20:45.330 –> 00:20:56.430 Jim Hamilton: Maintaining your blood sugar as a state as a stimulant and the in traditional Chinese medicine and in Asia ginseng has been harvested for

00:20:56.880 –> 00:21:07.650 Jim Hamilton: Five millennia, apparently, so you know over 5000 years apparently what you know wars and dynasties rose and fell related to the ginseng trade in China.

00:21:08.130 –> 00:21:19.230 Jim Hamilton: But then, in the early 1700s and 1716 there was a French jazz missionary Joseph fluffy toe who was stationed kind of outside of Toronto.

00:21:19.650 –> 00:21:30.690 Jim Hamilton: Many worked with a mohawk the mohawk and the Iroquois in that area, and one of his Jesuit Redland brethren in China had sent a little monograph over have a picture of.

00:21:31.230 –> 00:21:40.500 Jim Hamilton: Chinese Jen saying and describing the benefits of it and how it was used in Asia, and he had either seen it or spoke to some of the natives.

00:21:40.950 –> 00:21:47.520 Jim Hamilton: In that area and figured out that there was an American species of it, so he described it wrote it up drew it out.

00:21:48.210 –> 00:21:53.820 Jim Hamilton: described how it was used and submitted to some big consortium and in Europe.

00:21:54.330 –> 00:22:09.450 Jim Hamilton: And it was officially recognized and so by once it was sort of recognized it, you know it sort of formed an additional backbone of the American trade economy with China so that’s some of the kind of really deep historical roots that this this This plan has.

00:22:10.470 –> 00:22:23.070 Jim Hamilton: In 1784 it was Jim thing was was was in barrels shipped on the very first flagship of the United States to China to Canton on you know, a trade junket.

00:22:23.700 –> 00:22:34.740 Jim Hamilton: And, and even Daniel Boone you know who to reverse all over you know the smokies and here in the high country Western North Carolina there’s a reference to him and in 1787.

00:22:35.550 –> 00:22:44.490 Jim Hamilton: carrying a barge load of ginseng up the Ohio River and the barge actually sank had a capsized and he lost the barrels of ginseng

00:22:45.090 –> 00:22:53.760 Jim Hamilton: But you know ginseng used to be so plentiful in the mountains, that you know the story goes, as he said, well boys I guess we’ll just you know hit the woods and dig some.

00:22:55.110 –> 00:23:09.150 Jim Hamilton: He would hire and Daniel Boone would conscript or higher either Native Americans are locals to help them dig ginseng because it was part of the export trade to China, you know as early as the late 1800s or 1700s.

00:23:09.870 –> 00:23:17.040 Joseph McElroy: Now, did you know didn’t the Cherokee and other indigenous cultures use the route and sold it long before.

00:23:18.330 –> 00:23:18.960 Joseph McElroy: The.

00:23:21.510 –> 00:23:22.350 Joseph McElroy: settlers use it.

00:23:22.620 –> 00:23:33.690 Jim Hamilton: Oh absolutely you know it was used as a tonic I know that the Cherokee have specific words for it, the mohawk and the Iroquois would use it, I think they would.

00:23:34.590 –> 00:23:42.390 Jim Hamilton: I read somewhere that they would binge on it before going to war before serious negotiations.

00:23:43.110 –> 00:23:46.350 Jim Hamilton: Because of the energy aspect of it and.

00:23:46.890 –> 00:23:56.310 Jim Hamilton: And I, and again I read somewhere else, that you know the Cherokee said that you know ginseng was sort of like you know much like in Chinese culture ginseng a sort of like a person.

00:23:56.610 –> 00:24:01.830 Jim Hamilton: If it doesn’t work if you don’t honor the forests or if you don’t respect.

00:24:02.730 –> 00:24:08.010 Jim Hamilton: Respect ginseng in the woods around it, then, then it won’t let you find it, it will actually hide from you.

00:24:08.460 –> 00:24:23.490 Jim Hamilton: And as and as someone who’s hundred ginseng and it looked for ginseng in areas where I knew it was it can it’s it can be very tricky and difficult to find because it’s a very small, you know, a small cryptic little plant, you know, really.

00:24:25.200 –> 00:24:31.020 Jim Hamilton: Probably you know 300 years ago when it was more prolific and grew to the size that.

00:24:31.740 –> 00:24:42.750 Jim Hamilton: That it grew to before we started harvesting it, you know, a big plant might hit you in the hip you know, these days, if you find a plant that’s high enough to hit you in the knees that’s a decent sized.

00:24:43.620 –> 00:24:45.180 Joseph McElroy: And what color are the flowers.

00:24:46.020 –> 00:24:51.840 Jim Hamilton: So it’s got really tiny white flowers, it is flowering right now in in the smokies.

00:24:53.280 –> 00:25:02.580 Jim Hamilton: In here in the high country to so if you’re there it’s a small head of flowers that’ll turn into these really blood-red berries.

00:25:03.240 –> 00:25:15.150 Jim Hamilton: Later in the summer and a lot of folks who dig ginseng and hunting ginseng well start hunting it when the berries turn but you know number one, it makes them easy to find and number two.

00:25:15.900 –> 00:25:32.040 Jim Hamilton: You know it’s required that you replant those berries before you dig up the root because it’s a perennial plant, it can live for over 100 years it’s like I said it’s a really unique plant.

00:25:34.080 –> 00:25:39.060 Joseph McElroy: What would you say, are the most popular medicinal uses and.

00:25:40.110 –> 00:25:42.060 Joseph McElroy: You know how does it use.

00:25:42.990 –> 00:25:57.660 Jim Hamilton: So if you dig into the literature on ginseng there hasn’t been a ton of truly medicinal research on it in the United States now there’s a journal of ginseng research out of Korea.

00:25:58.050 –> 00:26:09.330 Jim Hamilton: Where they’re really delving into the medicinal qualities but energy has been the is the number one use and they’ve done a study, I believe it was a University of Michigan or Michigan state study.

00:26:10.560 –> 00:26:25.770 Jim Hamilton: Giving ginseng to cancer patients increased their energy levels in traditional Chinese medicine, so you know how I’m going to mispronounce this because that’s how my son the roots told me to say you know you have ya yin and Yang.

00:26:25.980 –> 00:26:33.990 Jim Hamilton: Right, I was corrected by Chinese you know a medicinal expert who corrected me said it’s yang Jim it’s not Yeng

00:26:35.430 –> 00:26:48.750 Jim Hamilton: So in Chinese medicine Asian ginseng, which is pan X gen saying is young ginseng it’s hot energy its heat the heat hottest.

00:26:49.530 –> 00:27:01.260 Jim Hamilton: So you take Chinese dancing in the wintertime if you’re cold or have chills you drink it in tea, or you, you know consume it and powdered form in a meal or as a supplement.

00:27:01.770 –> 00:27:10.920 Jim Hamilton: Well, American ginseng Pan X Holiness is yen energy so it’s cool energy it’s what you take.

00:27:11.550 –> 00:27:22.710 Jim Hamilton: What you take in the summertime when you’re really hot and you need that that that that boost of a boost of energy so it’d be like a really nice frosty cold CAP frappuccino.

00:27:23.370 –> 00:27:30.900 Jim Hamilton: You know in here in the US, we consume coffee, the way folks in China, probably consumed Ginseng

00:27:31.890 –> 00:27:37.530 Joseph McElroy: I’m trying to figure out things to take caffeine all the time, we will investigate.

00:27:38.280 –> 00:27:43.950 Jim Hamilton: Give ginseng a try, you know, during the summer, when I can find fresh ginseng oh.

00:27:44.610 –> 00:27:54.510 Jim Hamilton: I’ll pop a root into a smoothie it’s very bitter the route itself is very bitter so it takes the edge off the sweetness of a smoothie.

00:27:55.380 –> 00:28:05.820 Jim Hamilton: My wife, really, really, really likes ginseng in the smoothies, and yeah it gives you that you know it gives you the coffee, you know the coffee buzz without the jitters.

00:28:05.970 –> 00:28:14.700 Joseph McElroy: Alright cool well when we come back I’ll talk a little bit more we’ll talk a little bit more about economics don’t get into it it your book sounds great listening to.

00:31:00.840 –> 00:31:12.660 Joseph McElroy: howdy this is Joseph Franklyn McElroy back with a gateway to the smokies podcasts and my guest Jim Hamilton you were talking ginseng so Jim you know that song.

00:31:13.860 –> 00:31:26.220 Joseph McElroy: didn’t single cell but also brought up another thing and negative stereotyping of people hunting ginseng and southern Appalachian, what do you think about that is Is that true why, why do you think it happened.

00:31:27.030 –> 00:31:41.280 Jim Hamilton: Well, they were so they were a series of reality shows it came out right around 2013 that sort of corresponded with the highest ginseng price, you know to date ginseng hit.

00:31:41.820 –> 00:31:53.010 Jim Hamilton: Around 1300 dollars a pound in 2013 and about that time he had shown a couple of on the history channel there were Appalachian outlaws and you had smoky mountain money.

00:31:53.400 –> 00:31:54.990 Jim Hamilton: And hillbilly good.

00:31:55.500 –> 00:32:05.670 Jim Hamilton: And filthy riches and you know those shows just portrayed your you know what I think a lot of people perceive the Appalachians as.

00:32:06.120 –> 00:32:12.780 Jim Hamilton: A you know running around the woods of grabbing as much ginseng as they could to make a fortune.

00:32:13.260 –> 00:32:27.810 Jim Hamilton: And that you know the downside of that is that it drew a lot of and needed attention to the plant itself, which is already stressed as far as its population, and you know for Kennedy go so.

00:32:28.830 –> 00:32:37.410 Jim Hamilton: You know that the only bright side of those shows, and the stereotypes, is that the more people became interested in it, and I think.

00:32:38.070 –> 00:32:44.730 Jim Hamilton: A vast majority of them became more interested in it as something that they could plant.

00:32:45.630 –> 00:32:50.280 Jim Hamilton: In their own on their own properties here in the mountains or in their own woods and it.

00:32:50.790 –> 00:33:00.060 Jim Hamilton: You know it sort of is caused a really you know sort of reconnection for some folks who remember their parents or their grandparents taking them out as kids too.

00:33:00.510 –> 00:33:09.720 Jim Hamilton: You know, to hunt ginseng back in the day, so I mean that’s the only silver lining out of those shows because you know everyone thinks, you know moonshine bluegrass.

00:33:10.170 –> 00:33:24.660 Jim Hamilton: ginseng and it in it, you know those negative stereotypes are are are are just you know don’t represent you know the true art and science behind.

00:33:25.560 –> 00:33:34.440 Jim Hamilton: The wild harvesters who really are their true stewards of the land, and you know, there are poachers and you, you know if you Google ginseng poaching or.

00:33:34.860 –> 00:33:42.420 Jim Hamilton: ginseng and the smoky mountains you’ll see these articles and newspaper stories about you know people.

00:33:43.170 –> 00:33:56.970 Jim Hamilton: Illegally harvesting ginseng on in the great smokies, but you know I work with a lot of property owners who are interested in, you know, preserving the integrity of the plant and that you know those kinds of.

00:33:57.870 –> 00:34:03.060 Jim Hamilton: The preserving a part of their heritage in their childhood too.

00:34:05.070 –> 00:34:12.720 Joseph McElroy: So it’s fairly regular now right, and there can you say people have farms so there’s both the wild and there’s also the.

00:34:14.400 –> 00:34:15.900 Joseph McElroy: Culture cultivated.

00:34:16.080 –> 00:34:16.350 Young.

00:34:18.990 –> 00:34:31.170 Jim Hamilton: yeah they said that most of them, the majority of the cultivated ginseng, so the cultivated ginseng is grown on large commercialized farms, mainly in Wisconsin and then Ontario Canada.

00:34:31.620 –> 00:34:45.600 Jim Hamilton: you’re under it’s produced under shade cloth it’s heavily fertilized it’s till this heavily managed they harvested in about four years that’s the stuff that brings about 50 bucks a pound that’s the stuff that’s in your so be energy drinks your monster energy drinks.

00:34:45.960 –> 00:34:47.490 Joseph McElroy: as good as the wild stuff right.

00:34:47.850 –> 00:34:51.300 Jim Hamilton: Now that’s the stuff that cheap stuff goes into this little yellow jacket.

00:34:51.300 –> 00:34:53.850 Jim Hamilton: truck they might find that you know at the.

00:34:54.360 –> 00:34:56.250 Jim Hamilton: At the Kangaroo or.

00:34:56.820 –> 00:34:59.910 Joseph McElroy: You want to come to the mountains and get some of the real-life stuff right.

00:34:59.940 –> 00:35:13.890 Jim Hamilton: yeah the real now is the real wild stuff and ginseng is sold on how it looks and the older in larger the ginseng the better so most dealers who buy ginseng from local diggers.

00:35:14.280 –> 00:35:25.080 Jim Hamilton: are looking for plants that are a minimum of about 10 years old, and you can gauge the age and the quality of a ginseng root, by the way, it looks now.

00:35:26.010 –> 00:35:37.080 Joseph McElroy: Is there have been shops and places to buy and consumer-oriented ability to participate in ginseng in culture in the mountains that have popped up.

00:35:37.500 –> 00:35:49.350 Jim Hamilton: You know not not not really that you know, probably 99% of all the ginseng that gets harvested from the mountains in ends up in China or Hong Kong in some way or Korea in some shape or form.

00:35:50.550 –> 00:35:55.620 Jim Hamilton: yeah we have