PEORIA --
Scattered through the forests of Illinois lie small plants with bright green leaves and crimson berries. Herb experts look at them and see gold.
The wild ginseng roots bring hundreds of dollars a pound.
Thousands of Illinoisans search for the herb each year, gathering a pound or two to make some extra money. A handful go further and make a business of growing it, either in the forest or shaded gardens.
Ginseng , prized in China as a stimulant and cure-all, is a tiny crop by Illinois agricultural standards. Only 7,257 pounds of the root were gathered and reported to the state last year. About 50 people are licensed to buy wild ginseng , which is protected by the government because of its dwindling numbers.
But to the true believers, "green gold" promises big money.
"It's certainly not an easy thing," said Dan Peters, a Champaign ginseng farmer and president of the Illinois Ginseng Growers Association.
"It's incredibly physically demanding. You can't pull tractors in among the trees and do this. You use roto-tillers and do a lot of weeding. The heat is fairly incredible in there, too."
Peters hopes to get $100,000 an acre, and he has 20 acres slowly maturing.
The key word is "slowly." Ginseng grown in the woods can take eight years to mature enough for harvesting, Peters said. Then the land must be left dormant for a decade before more ginseng can be planted.
Even ginseng cultivated in fields shaded by awnings takes four years to mature. And cultivated ginseng is worth far less -- $320 a pound or less. Growers say the working and waiting pays off -- and will pay off even more as interest in the herb grows.
Most ginseng is sold in Asia, where wild American ginseng is considered the most potent. But the American market is growing, too.
Peters sells to an Indiana bakery that makes ginseng muffins and bread. The products have emerged from the health-food ghetto and made their way into everyday supermarkets, he said.
Kirrby Hobbs of Pittsfield grows cultivated ginseng and has watched demand drop as people favored the wild roots. He thinks the future is in marketing ginseng products. His Mid-America Ginseng Products Inc. is trying to find distributors for everything from instant ginseng tea to heat- and-serve cornish game hen spiced with ginseng .
Hobbs said his grandfather started their ginseng farm more than 30 years ago. His entire life has been spent raising ginseng .
Cliff Herring is just getting started. A former Peoria welder now getting by on disability payments, he studies books on caring for the fragile plant and meticulously records his planting activities in notebooks. Herring sees the ancient herb as a way eventually to get back on his feet financially.
"It's a type of farming that takes patience," Herring said. "If a man sticks with it and keeps at it, he can make a good bit of money."
- BY : Christopher Wills - Associated Press
- SOURCE : Peoria Journal Star1995.10.24
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