The unfolding story of Pennsylvania ginseng
how do you know if its a four pronger and 10 years old??
more here.
The Wikipedia article has been taken over by herbalists--it's impossible to tell from reading it if ginseng is a drug, a food, a dietary supplement, all or none. What you do learn is American Ginseng promotes Yin energy, cleans excess Yang in the body, and calms the body. The reason it has been claimed that American ginseng promotes Yin (shadow, cold, negative, female) while East Asian ginseng promotes Yang (sunshine, hot, positive, male) is because, according to traditional Chinese medicine, things living in cold places or northern side of mountains or southern side of rivers are strong in Yang and vice versa, so that the two are balanced.
I know we westerners are out of balance but this isn't helping.
But they're right, I feel cold, negative and female after reading that.
man root
wild grown regs
Care should be taken in digging ginseng. With a simple digging fork or trowel, commence digging about 6 inches from the stem. Remove the soil carefully over a 12-inch diameter circle, digging down until you can see the main ginseng root. This is important because the underground stem often proceeds horizontally before it joins the top of the true root.
Continue to loosen the soil to be sure all the main, tail and branch roots are exposed before lifting. Roots broken off and left in the soil represent lost money ... and the highest prices are paid for intact, un-damaged roots.
After digging, brush loose soil from the roots
Sometimes it is impossible to remove the mature plant without disturbing the roots of smaller, immature ginseng plants growing close by. When this occurs, replace the smaller roots and pack soil firmly around them. These will be available for harvest in future years.
This was the article with all the gunk.
The farming community in SW Ontario where GVB and I grew up used to have a lot of tobacco. Now many of those fields have gone over to ginseng. It's easy to recognise because they put up black nets over the crops. Picking tobacco was a right-of-passage, back-breaking, soul-destroying summer job for teenagers in our area and migrant workers. Dunno if ginseng offers the same kind of fabulous employment opportunities.
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- bill 5-04-2010 2:50 am
how do you know if its a four pronger and 10 years old??
- Skinny 5-04-2010 10:56 am [add a comment]
more here.
- bill 5-04-2010 1:05 pm [add a comment]
The Wikipedia article has been taken over by herbalists--it's impossible to tell from reading it if ginseng is a drug, a food, a dietary supplement, all or none. What you do learn is
I know we westerners are out of balance but this isn't helping.- tom moody 5-04-2010 1:06 pm [add a comment]
But they're right, I feel cold, negative and female after reading that.
- L.M. 5-04-2010 1:10 pm [add a comment]
man root
- bill 5-04-2010 1:32 pm [add a comment]
wild grown regs
- bill 5-04-2010 1:37 pm [add a comment]
- bill 5-04-2010 1:41 pm [add a comment]
This was the article with all the gunk.
- tom moody 5-04-2010 1:55 pm [add a comment]
The farming community in SW Ontario where GVB and I grew up used to have a lot of tobacco. Now many of those fields have gone over to ginseng. It's easy to recognise because they put up black nets over the crops. Picking tobacco was a right-of-passage, back-breaking, soul-destroying summer job for teenagers in our area and migrant workers. Dunno if ginseng offers the same kind of fabulous employment opportunities.
- sally mckay 5-04-2010 2:04 pm [add a comment]