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Coal river. Close-up of ginseng. Southern West Virginia.

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Coal river. Close-up of ginseng. Southern West Virginia.

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Summary

People who harvest wild botanicals from the woods can sell their wares to local brokers like Randy Halstead, the proprietor of Randy's Recycling in Peytona, West Virginia. Halstead annually brokers hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wild herbs (leaves, bark, and roots) from the mountains, including bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictoides), ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius), wild ginger (Asarum canadense), virginia snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum), indian turnip (Arisaema triphyllum), sassafrass (Sassafras albidum), sumac (Rhus vernix?) , witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), and wild yam (Dioscorea villosa). Halstead also recycles non-ferrous scrap metals, including aluminum, copper, and brass. But the bulk of his income is generated by ginseng (Panax quinquefolia). As a buyer of ginseng, Halstead can tell at a glance whether the roots are wild ginseng (worth hundreds of dollars a pound, dried), or "tame seng" (cultivated and worth around $30 per pound at the time of the interview). He can also tell from the shape of the root which counties in West Virginia the root came from, because soil differences affect the root's ability to grow, causing some to be elongated, others to be "bulby," as Halstead put it. The prized "stress rings" on a root are produced through soil density, which wrinkles the root's outer membrane.

date_range

Date

01/01/1995
person

Contributors

Halstead, Randy (Depicted)
Eiler, Lyntha Scott (Photographer)
place

Location

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Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

Public Domain

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