TOPIC: TNhunter 2013 Season...

TN - Dont know if you'll be getting out any more this fall, but it looks like you had a pretty good digging season this years. Congrats buddy!

I am in Jefferson City! I hope to get to my brother-in-laws nephew's place tomorrow and dig some seng. Since it is much lower in elevation from where I dug the seng on the 16th and 28th, it is possible that the warmer and somewhat drier weather has caused some to turn yellow there. It is getting so hard to dig seng anymore! We had literally hundreds if not more places to dig seng before I went in the Service in 1972 but now with all of the out-of-staters buying up and posting everything and the NF Service limiting harvesting, a person around here can hardly find any place to hunt. If I could sell my' home, I would purchase a hundred acres or more of prime Ginseng growing land and I would plant Ginseng on most it. However, before that could happen, I would need to do some more upgrading on my' home!


Frank

Here is something else Cole and I harvested from the edge of our field this week.

With all the rain we had this year - lots of Muscadine berries on the vine.

My kids and I just love these things and eat them like crazy.

With this big bowl full of them on the bar in the kitchen it puts out a sweet smell that you will notice each time you walk thru that area.

Also picked a rounded over 5 gal bucket of pears this week - going to make some pear preserves. Yum

Muscadines, Pears and Ginseng - now that's fall !



TNhunter

TNhunter,

Now you had to go and make me hungry didn't you!! My maternal grandpa used to grow muscadines, pears, apples, peaches and plums and I remember eating a lot of them when I was little.

On another note, I finally made it down to my brother-in-laws nephew's place yesterday to dig so seng. I found and dug a lot of seng which I will show in another Thread once I get all of the pictures uploaded to my' PC. There were lots of flat tops, 2 prongs, 3 prongs and even a few 4 prongs. I only found 6 or 7 plants that had yellowed and were dying out for the season. It was very evident as to why these had turned yellow as over top of all of these yellowed Ginseng plants, the shade canopy was much thinner and they were getting quite a bit of direct sunshine in the afternoon. Too much sun and due to them being at the end of the growing cycle for the year, IMHO, is the main reason that some plants are turning yellow around here. While it has been cool on several occasions in this location (foothills of the Smokies in Sevier County), I don't believe that the temperature ever dropped below the middle 40's in the area I dug the seng, so frost was not an issue. Due to having much less rain, it is possible that the lack of moisture is a factor. However, with every root that I dug, I found that the soil was slightly moist, especially after digging down 2 to 3 inches or more.


Frank

TN I always enjoy seeing all of your pics from the garden the trees and streams

Those Muscadine berries actually made my mouth water

God bless you Cole and the Family brother.

Isa_3:10 Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

Thanks for the good comments everyone...

5prong - I do consider it a good year. Looks like most all of us had a good year this year. I am thankful for that.

Frank good luck in those east TN hills. Every now and then we will go over there and vacation a little and I always look at those hillsides that go up and on and on and think - man it would take you a long time just to search out one of those hill sides. You all are blessed for sure there in those mountains.

Billy - thanks for the spoken blessing my friend. There is power in that and I pray blessings back on you and your family.

Hope you and Caleb get a big old buck this year. Cole and I got out yesterday evening and fixed up a deer stand and of course I had to look around on the hillside some. No luck - Looking sort of bare around here already. I would have liked to gone on another hunt this week but it is fall break for the kids and I have been doing family stuff all week. As much as I would consider a nice seng hunt a good family vacation, to bad, I am voted down by the majority which includes my wife and daughter.

We are going on a trip up to Nashville tomorrow so they can get in some shopping and there is a big old Bass Pro Shop in that mall, so Cole and I will get in some shopping to.

Good luck to all that are still getting out there some this season and hope you all get a great price for those roots you worked so hard for.

TNhunter

Well I just could not stand it and got a few hours free this morning and had to go one more time.

Hunted a nice place that I found lots in 3-4 years ago and left a lot of smaller 3 prongs there.

Today I only found 5 with tops still up and all were yellow and 3 of them had prongs gone already. Only one still had a few berries on it.

I would say that probably 1/3 or so may still be up around here and the rest are gone for the year.

Below is the first one I found, looked like one prong had been browed by deer - otherwise a decent 3 pronger - berries were full-plump.

TNhunter

Here is what the root looked like.

Makes a nice pic when you show the dirt it was dug in, with the root and berries.

This is the only one of the 5 that I found that still had a complete 3 prong top on it.

The top was not impressive but it had a nice root on it. Weighted 0.7 oz.

Found this one growing nearly at the top of a north facing hillside.

Last pic..

The 3 best roots after cleaning.

That one on the bottom right is between 25-30 years old.

That one will be going in my keep & eat pile.

Have a great weekend all and to those that are still hunting - best of luck.

You may not find many from here on out, but those yellow tops are just an outstanding site for the eyes !

TNhunter