Some of John Shingler's fondest childhood remembrances are of the times he walked through the nearby woods with his grandfather, foraging for a root the family patriarch called "shang."
Since his grandfather was forbidden from using any of the household money to support his tobacco habit, selling the shang he collected was his way of paying for his vice.
Little did Shingler know that 30 years later, he too would covet the root -- popularly known as ginseng -- as a cash crop that would help him keep the woods and fields he inherited from his grandfather.
More and more of New York's rural property owners are turning to the ancient Chinese herb as a means to make money off land while keeping it relatively undisturbed.
"Ninety percent of the time, people think ginseng is from China or Korea," said Scott Harris, president of a Catskill Mountain company called Sylvan Botanicals that supplies seeds and roots to grow a number of herbal supplements. "They don't realize we've been in the ginseng business for 300 years here in New York."
In its first year of existence, the Empire State Ginseng Growers Association already has 150 members, according to Harris, who estimates there are at least 500 ginseng growers in New York.
Wild ginseng , which is what Shingler's grandfather gathered, is considered the best and can bring anywhere from $300 to $350 a pound. However, in New York, wild ginseng is protected.
Only mature plants can be harvested, and only from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30.
Most of New York's ginseng crop is defined as simulated wild, meaning that it is planted under conditions meant to simulate how it would grow in the wild. That kind can bring anywhere from $50 to $200 a pound.
"I have 200 acres, and I'm trying somehow to make it pay for itself," said Shingler, who last year scattered three plots of simulated wild ginseng on the land. "The taxes are high,
$5,000 a year."
The Chinese have taken ginseng , or panax quinquefolium, for moree than 44,000 years. It is said to boost energy and sexual stamina and reduce stress and the effects of aging. But does it work?
The scientific evidence is mixed. Laboratory tests with animals have demonstrated some beneficial effects on immune and endocrine functions, according to the March issue of
Consumer Reports. Research in humans, the magazine said, has been inconclusive.
But there is evidence that ginseng has some medicinal value, although most of that research has been done in Asia and is underpublicized here, according to Bob Beyfuss, a Greene County Cooperative Extension agent who is one of the state's leading experts.
"A half a billion (Chinese) people for 4,000 years think this has worked, so that's pretty good evidence for me," he said.
Personally, Beyfuss said the herb had "a profound, positive effect on my health" after a series of personal crises left him stressed out.
"I think the ginseng really helped me cope with all that," he said. "I started exercising, lost 30 pounds and got all As in graduate school. I credit ginseng with some of the good
things."
Paul Hsu, a Chinese-American, said he didn't try ginseng until -- desperate to help his sick mother -- he took a friend's advice and sent her two pounds of American ginseng .
"Six months later, my father told me that her health improved, that she was more energetic, she could walk more and she wasn't having digestive problems," he said. "He said her color had turned from pale to pinkish and that her arthritis was reduced."
Skeptical, Hsu tried it himself and became a believer. "I've taken it for 18 years and I never have a cold," he said. "I'm never sick. And I work 14 hours a lot of days."
Hsu backed his faith with money and became a buyer, grower and exporter. Hsu Ginseng Enterprises, based in Wausau, Wis., now has 240 employees and 10 offices, four of them in China.
Wisconsin produces 90 percent of the ginseng in this country, but almost all of that croop is cultivated, meaning it's grown under cover, in beds on farms. It fetches the lowest price, anywhere from $10 to $20 a pound.
Simulated wild ginseng is grown in small, north-facing plots in the forest, preferably away from evergreens and near sugar maples, which produce certain nutrients the plant loves.
Growing ginseng doesn't necessarily take a lot of work, but it's not for the impatient; it takes at least six years after germination for the first marketable crop to be ready.
Additional time in the ground brings larger, more valuable roots.
But the wait can pay off. "I know of one grower who, on two acres of production, nets about $40,000 a year," Beyfuss said.
"He's been doing it for 25 years, and I don't think too many people are getting that kind of return, but it shows it can be done. He's only got a seventh-grade education but he can count and he knows the woods."
Harris said he knows of people who have planted ginseng when their children get to be around 7. By the time the kids are college-age, the return can help with tuition.
Given the value of both wild and simulated wild ginseng , poaching can be a problem, Harris said. In one night, a thief can steal the product of 10 years of effort.
As a result, he said, most growers are "very protective of their crops. They live by the old rules: you call the sheriff afterwards.
- SOURCE : Buffalo News1999.06.01
|
Newsdesk