TOPIC: Harvesting a few roots for my own personal consumption from land I own.

Hey Folks..

As most of you know I keep some of my own wild root harvest each year to consume thru out the year.

I have 4 roots left at this point from what I saved back last fall. That is not going to get me thru to this fall so I will have to harvest a few roots this summer.

I have plenty of wild root growing here on my home place that I could dig a few to get me thru.

But I also own an 800 acre tract of land (share and share alike, with my brother and two sisters) and it has some decent ginseng on it too. I hunt it every 2 or 3 years... out of all that land only a small portion (3-4 hollows) has any ginseng in it.

It is a little difficult owning land with your siblings... no matter how good you get along, you might not all agree with what to do with the property. My Dad left us in the co-ownership situation when he deeded the property to us back in 2004.
We have talked about dividing it up, harvesting timber off it, selling part of it, but basically never could get all 4 to agree on exactly how that would be done.

In the end, to get along with everyone else we have decided it will be best just to sell the entire tract, and divide the money equally. That is about as fair as it can get.

We have entered into a sales agreement at this point, and the closing will happen sometime in the next few weeks.

So my plan is to go out there (perhaps this weekend), or on Monday (I am off work on Monday)... and harvest 10-15 nice older roots to add to my eat pile. I might even make a tincture like Hill did with the roots harvested.

For those that might not know the Tennessee Ginseng Laws... The Harvest Season (and other restrictions) applies to roots harvested for sale. It does not apply to roots you harvest (off your own property) for personal consumption.

My Grandfather bought this property in 1976 and we have been hunting off it for all those years, including hunting ginseng. My brother and one of my nephews also hunt ginseng. I have never planted any wild simulated out there, because of the joint ownership situation.. did not want to plant ginseng, that my brother and nephew might find and harvest.... co-ownership sort of complicates things.

The timber was last harvested (select cut 14\" and larger) back in 1978-1979 by my Grandfather. It has some good timber on it now.

After selling this property, I hope to find a nice tract of land that I can purchase by myself, with the potential for growing wild simulated, and ideally with some creek or river frontage to help with my other addiction (fishing)

If I do get out there and harvest a few eaters, I will take some Pics and share them here.

TNhunter

Why not buy some of the family land with ginseng already on it rather than starting over?

Like I said... it is complicated when there are 4 owners.

Dividing it complicates it even more... surveys, easements, and brother and sisters that all have to agree and everyone has to feel that they are being treated fairly. What seems fair to one, can easily be seen as unfair to another.

Even the best of siblings are going to be different individuals with different wants and needs. Some older and ready for retirement, others younger and more interested in turkey hunting... than retirement.

All of you that have kids, do them a favor if you leave land to them... divide it up for them and say, you get this and you get that. Don't leave them as co-owners of something like land and expect 4 individuals to all agree on what to do with it.

All of you that have siblings... have you ever disagreed with them on anything ???

We tried, discussed other options, did not agree, and ended up with sell it all and divide the cash, which is one method we can all agree is fair to all.

I have 30 acres in my home place, where I have been planting wild sim for 5 years now. Got lots of seng growing here.

I would have liked to have one 50 acre slice of the old family hunting tract, that had some nice seng growing on it, but it did not work out like that.

I think I can shop around and find a place even better. Like I said my ideal location would have seng growing potential, and access to a large creek or small river for fishing.

We'll see how that turns out.

TNhunter

I understand. I have rarely been in agreement with my brother and sister.

Well it rained on and off last night and then most of the day today.

I was trying to decide between fishing and going out to the old hunting tract of land to hunt some ginseng there one last time.

Since I figured the creek would be up and muddy... I went seng hunting. It rained steady on me all morning.

I have been hunting seng on this old family tract since around 1978... and know the place like the back of my hand.

I went to 3 hollows that I knew would produce some good root and ended up with right at 6 ounces of nice seng. No 4 prongers, but dug several nice 3 prongs.

Again all of these roots are being harvested for personal consumption, not for resale... which is legal in my State.

Since it rained on me all morning did not get many pics of tops, just this one of the first decent 3 pronger I found.

TNhunter

Below is a pic of the best of the roots...

One of those roots was 25 years old, possibly a little older.

I love those long necks full of flats.

I sliced that older root up into thin slices for eating.

I have found that if you slice them really thin, then they are quite tender when eating.

That one root made all these slices.

The rest of the 6 oz of root, I sliced it up in longer thin slices, leaving smaller feeder roots and root necks in tact.

Stuffed two pint jars about 3/4 full (slightly packed) and covered with 100 proof vodka.

I figure making a tincture out of these roots will make them last me a long time.

This is my first shot at trying out a tincture. There are lots of folks on youtube showing how to do it. It seems pretty simple.

One question I have is on the time to leave the roots in the vodka. One video I watched on youtube was making a tincture out of dried valerine root, and they said to leave it in the alcohol for 6 weeks.

Hill - if you get to read this one - got any pointers on this part ?

Below is the youtube vid I watched. Looks like this guy has some experience at it, so at this point I plan to leave the roots in the vodka 6 weeks.



TNhunter

I usually let mine set for 2-3 weeks. You can taste it and see. At that point I can't see it getting any stronger. After that is done I'll fill it up again with maybe just a little extra root for the second round. At a certain point it reaches an equilibrium and can't extract anymore from the root until fresh alcohol is added. That for me seems to happen at about 2 weeks. You'll know it when you see how amber the liquid gets.

The last time on my second run, I threw it in a blender and the let the root particles settle out and it only took 2 days.

I always mix the two batches together once finished. I guess one doesn't have to but I always have.

Hillhopper