Sold My Ginseng Roots for 2008

Sold my roots the other day at $410 a pound dry. I found some more the last few days and just went ahead and sold it as green while I was at the dealers anyway. I made well over $30 an hour this year again.

I'm thinking about putting together a guide of some of the techniques I've been developing to find more ginseng. The ones I've came up with have easily doubled the amount of ginseng I've found this year. The one I mentioned a few weeks ago enabled me to find a LOT more that I would have never found without the idea I came up with. Some of the other techniques enabled me to dig twice as many roots as the people I dug with even though they spotted about the same amount of plants. One of them joked that I should write a book and sell it, which got me to thinking. If I can help other people find 25-100% more ginseng, then it would be well worth the price for the information.
So, I'm going to put together a guide and if I think the final work is high quality, I will offer it for sale on the internet.

Dug My First Ginseng of 2008

I went 2 out of 3 days over the weekend and found quite a few roots. Probably about 2 and a half pounds green. The weather is still very hot so I didn't stay but a few hours each time. I saw a lot more ginseng than I saw last year though in this area. A lot of nice four prongs, too. I also hear a lot more people are looking for it this year because of last year's high prices. That combined with the abundance of it this year is going to have to bring the price down. I'm going to call my dealer soon and see what they expect the price to be. They can't buy it until Sept. 1 I think.

How to Clean and Dry Wild Ginseng Roots

After I get home with my ginseng roots, I like to soak them in water for a bit. Then I fill the sink with water and take an old soft toothbrush and gently brush the dirt off the roots. You do not want to use a stiff brush or scrub hard or you'll end up breaking the skin covering the root.

Now you may hear some people who disagree with this and say that you should just rinse the dirt off under running water or to just soak them or whatever. They may also say that it is good to leave dirt around the rings as it looks better and adds value. All I can say is that I guess it depends on what your dealer prefers. I cleaned my roots more than adequately a few times, just soaking and rinsing them and rubbing off any obvious dirt that was left with my fingers and rinsing them again. When the roots dry they shrink in size considerably and thus look dirtier even though they looked really clean before. My particular dealer (who has been in business for a very long time and pays a better price than the dozens of other dealers I have contacted) complained about the amount of dirt on them, but still paid me full price. That's why I started using the soft toothbrush. It's still fairly quick and does a better job and my ginseng dealer likes the end result better.

After you get your ginseng roots cleaned, the next step is getting them dried out. First the don'ts. Do not put them in an oven or microwave or on top of a wood stove, etc. Do not set them out in the sunlight. Drying them fast or in the sun discolors them and the buyers do not like that.
If you have a screen or tray with a screen bottom that is perfect. If not you can use a tray, a shallow box, paper plates, a baking sheet, etc. and line it with paper towels. Place your roots on whatever you use in a single layer and spaced out enough that they aren't touching. Now you need a place to set them. Somewhere that stays 85-90 degrees with low humidity would be ideal. Places like this would include attics, storage buildings, or maybe your garage. Make sure mice or other rodents can't get to your ginseng. Drying will take probably at least 2 and maybe 3 weeks depending on the conditions, the size of the roots,etc. When it is dry it should break clean with a snap rather than bend.

In my next post we will discuss selling your roots.