 | As this page is quite personal, it seems like an ideal place to bid you a warm welcome and thank you for visiting our site. If you have the time and the interest, you can click on "NEXT" to be routed through the entirety. Otherwise please feel free to use the navigation buttons on the left side of the screen to visit just the areas of our site that you wish. In early 1969, I received an all expense paid trip to the Republic of Korea courtesy of the United States Army. There I was stationed in Panmunjom, the DMZ site of the Military Armistice Commission meetings. During off duty hours, I traveled around a bit and had the opportunity to become familiar with ginseng which up until that time I had only heard of. I sampled ginseng tea, ginseng wine, and a variety of other ginseng products. I saw ginseng under cultivation in Kyunggi and Kangwon - - two prime ginseng growing provinces. Ginseng's taste and its reputed healing powers attracted me. Much later, when I returned to the United States, I brought with me a love of ginseng and the love of my life, a wife who had known ginseng as long as she could remember. Civilian life led me down career paths that were far removed from growing ginseng. Over those years we often wished we could grow some ginseng of our own; but we had the mistaken impression that we needed a longer growing season similar to Korea's. In the early 1980's, an old Korean friend newly arrived in the United States happened to mention that ginseng could be grown in the U.S. and quite likely in Maine. That was the ignition spark we needed. My mother grew up in a farming family. She and my dad had always had a vegetable and flower garden. From them, I had learned basic gardening. One of my uncles was a full time farmer from whom I also learned. Both my wife and I gardened in our back yard for fun, exercise, and the quality vegetables and flowers we could grow. Monthly gardening magazines offered additional growing information and ideas. We knew that with specific knowledge of ginseng culture, we could learn to make that grow too, and thrive. We decided that more than just growing ginseng, we wanted to grow the very best ginseng. After considerable work in gathering that information, we planted our first seeds and rootlets. Maine Mountain Ginseng was no longer dream but reality. - - -Raymond Jones | ||
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