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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Thanks roxanne.  By the way, your email came to me only, I figured others on 
the list might be interested in this ginseng stuff (I know how aggravating 
making sure email "reply to" addresses, can be)


--- On Sat, 10/25/08, roxann <roxann AT ancientearthwisdom.com> wrote:

> From: roxann <roxann AT ancientearthwisdom.com>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] economics and ginseng
> To: bobford79 AT yahoo.com
> Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 8:02 AM
> I haven't heard from the ginseng world at large, yet. On
> the whole, they're a pretty tight-lipped bunch ;) Our
> local buyer takes out loans early in the season to buy the
> roots from local diggers and then repays himself later when
> he sells it on. Well, I'm thinking it works this way all
> the to China on larger and larger loans and I'm sure
> that's the snag.
> 
> Last year was a boom year for ginseng diggers. This year is
> a bust. It goes that way sometimes and that's the good
> thing about perennial crops- you can leave them in the
> ground if the prices aren't good enough and they only
> increase in value. My business has been selling the rootlets
> for transplanting and I can't seem to grow enough. This
> year I'll plant more and maybe next year there will be
> demand or maybe not, but if not I'll transplant them out
> into my own woods and that will be okay, too. I'm not
> making my living from that...I'm still working in the
> lab where the men are a LOT more civilized than where Bev
> worked. (But everywhere I've worked until this place was
> pretty much as she described-or as Gene described in the
> poem).
> 
> Roxann, NW AR
> http://blog.ancientearthwisdom.com (Ozark Musings from the
> homestead)