TOPIC: Ginseng Reality Show coming to a holler near you

I am sure professional loggers feel the same way about Ax-Men, and professional gold miners feel the same way about Gold Rush, and professional legal moonshine makers feel the same way about Moonshiners. These are all Hollywood's skewed version, altered to get ratings, and make a quick buck on the expense of others.

In some cases it works. The main guys on Deadliest Catch crab fishing show make over $250,000 a year each just from pay from the show. I assume the Gold Rush, Ax-Men, and Moonshiner guys get paid pretty well, or they wouldn't have done it for more than 1 year.

Although it makes a mockery of what we all enjoy, somebody is making $ off of it, and in Hollywood that is all that matters.

YOU go, Hill.

I think you guys are covering what i would want to write. I just don't have much to add to what has been already said. I am of like-mind wih the rest of you.

Latt, your letter sounds great and I hope it has influence on the show. I personally have not seen it, but several people have told me about it. As bad as the economy has been in our county I hope people don't start tromping the woods and strip it as one of our local Forest Rangers told me that he knows of at least 3 nice patches in a state protected forest reserv e near my house. Perhaps all of the membership should write letters to the contact fella.

Pray people, pray.

Farmgirl

This note is in reply to Mortis' question about how many new members come as a result of this silly show.
I am a new member and it is not because of this silly show. I am studying Herbology and as part of it I will be planting several herbs that I already have knowledge of such as \"yellowroot\", my grandmother taught me about this one as a child. Ginseng just seems to be a natural addition to the olthers. I have very little knowledge about this plant and this wonderful website has been a treasure trove of information. Everybody has been so willing to share their knowledge. So give the new members a little slack as some of us do have the respect due this marvelous root.
Hope to receive help from you too, lets be fellow growers together.

Farmgirl

Thanks for that, Farmgirl. Hopefully you get all the \"slack\" you want here...
Planting goldenseal [goldenroot you mentioned, is something I am doing as well. Got about 100 in, snd am still firuging out how to keep the deer away from them.

We should post future I guesswe should post future stuff on the Goldenseal section on this forum, under the herbs area, I guess. I'm looking forward to reading more from you...

OK I couldn't help but to comment on the show last night. I firmly believe that not some but all of the show is \"Hollywood\" make believe..

Just to point out a few things below (and there were many) that were obviously staged.

Ole Georgia boy traded a hand full of seng for a tire. Lol The seng he handed over to the parts owner that he said he just dug was already washed. Wonder where he washed it along the walk to the junk yard. lol

Ole Snake hat \"Ross\" has got to be the funniest make believe character on the show. He runs around at night protecting his so called woods full of seng that we haven't even seen yet. Then he pops holes in the poachers truck tires in broad daylight. I mean if I were dumb enough to do that I would wait till dark at least. Then they retaliate and his truck gets lit on fire. lol

Then the old dude that went to Tony Coffman's place with 14.25 lbs of seng in a black trash bag and got $900 a pound for 14.25 LBS said he got $11,000 total. I am not genius but I think 14.25 LBS x $900 per LB = $12,825.
Plus don't ya think if there was 14.25 LBS of ginseng in the bag they would have showed it. That bag was stuffed with something but it wasn't seng.

Not sure how you fellas roll, but if someone shot out my tires I sure wouldn't tell them I would be back at the same spot the next day as ole Georgia boy did. I mean come on really. Secondly, I think I may have put one back in on there tire with that pistol he was carrying even tho he was out manned and out gunned.

And there is the \"General\". He over pays and gives bonuses on top of that to the diggers to buy from him but then offers the old guy less than he promised. That really makes a lot of sense now doesn't it.


I mean come on writers, I am not producer or writer but I could come up with better story lines than this.


The comedy value it priceless.

Latt

Farmgirl, although I am not a top dog on the boards here, I have been around for 4-5 years reading what other post. I was treated kindly when I first joined, and I plan on passing that along to any new members that sign up. I only commented that I was curious how much the show will cause a surge in interest in ginseng.

And to Latt, I also noticed a few \"flaws in the slaw\" in the show last night. The truck that got burnt out was not the same year/model as the white truck he was driving earlier in the show. Perhaps he owns 2 different trucks, who knows. Also, I like how the older guy walks out of the woods with 1/2 a plastic bag of seng, and says \"jackpot, got about 5k worth of seng there\". Later when he's selling the big bag to Tony, he says \"this is prime select seng\", yet earlier you see him diggin little 2-prongs with peanut shell sized roots. If that is prime select, I got acres full of babies around where I live.

Where I live the only people that might bother your vehicle would be pot growers or plain old theifs. most other diggers I meet in the woods are always friendily and offer to share the spot how ever I have met a few ---holes out there. If I came out of the woods and caught someone flating my tire and threaten my life somebody,s getting shot either them or me.I just hope this show doesnt make some dumb a-- think this type of behavior is ok and cause somebody to get hurt.

I was wondering if anyone else would pick up on the fact that the truck that was burned was not Mike Ross' Ford Ranger but in fact was a Chevy S-10. The big mistake here was Mike Ross going to this house without any pure evidence that someone that lives there is the person or persons who is poaching his' Ginseng. Then, to go a flatten two tires on one of their' trucks in broad daylight is real stupid. He should have gone to the door, state that he had heard that someone there is poaching his' Ginseng and give them fair warning not to come on his' property again. It is funny that in all of the episodes, not one Law Enforcement Officer is in any of the scenes! Yeah, they say that there was a Game Warden and a Forest Ranger in the first episode but we never clearly saw them, so I believe that was bogus.

Although the scenes were scripted, Greg Shook made the big mistake of 1) parking his' truck where anyone driving by or walking by could see the License Tags, and 2) parked his' truck where it could easily be seen although this was a somewhat less traveled logging type road. I have a Lifetime Hunting License for West Virginia which I purchased before I moved from there back to East Tennesee. When I have gone back to hunt, I try to park my' truck where no one can easily see the License Tags on the truck and try to park well off the road where the truck can't be easily seen. When I could not do so, I have had a few other (probably West Virginia hunters) folks stop by my' truck and I could hear them talking. However, no one ever damaged my' truck or shot out any of the tires. It is a good thing because I try to hunt within sight or ear shot of any sounds out of the ordinary around my' truck. Because of this, I can be in a position to identify the vehicle of the person(s) or the individual(s) if they ever did do something to my' truck within seconds or a minute. If someone ever did this to my' truck and their' truck is within a reasonable shooting distance, oh well, you get the idea of what will probably happen!

On another note, back on December 16th of 2013, I received an email from an Official with WAG TV based out of London. The Official was/hopefully still is, interested in talking to me about a Show or Documentary they are interested in doing about Ginseng. Although the email kind of fell into the back of my mind due to the Holidays and other things going on around my' house, I was able to locate it buried deep in my emails and I responded to it. If WAG TV is interested in doing a fact based Show or Documentary on Ginseng that may counter the crap shown on Appalachian Outlaws, then I am all for it. I will be sure to let you all know if anything comes from my response to the Official at WAG TV.


Frank