TOPIC: A few newbie questions

Hello

My name is John Wienke but my friends call me Wink. I am new to your forums, and digging. I am hoping someone could give me a little advice.

I have been thinking about becoming a digger for a few years now but because of my old job I just never had the time. But things have changed and now I have the time to give it a try. I live in South Eastern Wisconsin and have permission to dig on literally thousands of acres. Last year I found and GPS marked many patches of ginseng, and goldenseal. Bloodroot grows every were in the county I live in along with many other herbs.

So I have a few questions hopefully someone will have the answers to. I have been searching the internet for buyers of wild roots, herbs, and botanicals in Wisconsin but all the results show just ginseng buyers in Wisconsin. I did find a buyer in Kentucky though with a 2014 price list of many different types of roots on his Facebook page, and he was nice enough to give me his phone number. I think he is a moderator here Billy Taylor?

Anyway it is almost spring here and bloodroot is going to start sprouting up next month. I was wondering if anyone here ever soled out of there own state? Kentucky is just to far to drive to sell my roots. If so how do you do business with your buyers packaging, shipping, and payment? Or does anyone know of any Wisconsin buyers?

Sorry for the newbie questions but any help, and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum Wink.
I think being a newbie it would be to your benefit to have someone like me to come up and help you. Show me all of your spots and I will only require half of what we dig.
Sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation to have a little fun. If anyone offers you the same deal, run away as fast as you can.
If I were you I would read as much on here as possible. You can also enter key words in the \"Search\" bar at the top right hand of the forum page. This will bring up past post pertaining to what you entered. Then you can generally find the answer to many of your questions if you read the post or threads.
Good luck.
Latt

Wink,

I live in TN and there are ginseng dealers is just about every county. I expect it may be like that in Wisconsin too... but not sure.

I found here on the wildgrown site a list of seng dealers in your state. See link below.

Most dealers that by ginseng also buy other roots/herbs... back in the old days they bought fur too.

Good Luck !

TNhunter


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www.wildgrown.com/index.php/Ginseng-Deal...Ginseng-Dealers.html

@Latt

LOL! No my spots are secret. Thanks for the advice though I will keep reading, and searching the forums maybe the answers to my questions are hidden somewhere within the treads.



@TNhunter

No, unfortunately there are not many ginseng dealers in Wisconsin, and none in my county. Most people in my part of the state don't even know what ginseng is. Lol, I suppose that's a good thing for me though.

Thanks for the list of ginseng dealers it looks like there are two within a hunderhead miles or so from me. I will try contacting them to see if they buy other roots/herbs.

Wink,

Welcome to the Wildgrown forums! We hope that you will hang with us and share some future stories of hunting and digging Ginseng, other herbs and maybe even Mushrooms! Don't pass up Mushrooms that are ready for harvest since you will be in the woods looking for Ginseng and other herbs. Some Mushrooms are quite valuable and can be sold on eBay, to restaurants as well as some Ginseng/Herb Dealers. You just have to learn everything you can about them, so that you don't harvest poisonous Mushrooms.

I can answer a couple of questions that you have. Without you having a Dealers License, Ginseng roots must be sold to a Dealer/Buyer that is licensed in your State (i.e. to buy Ginseng harvested in Wisconsin) whether they live in and operate out of Wisconsin or another State. Most other herbs such as Blood Root, Black & Blue Cohosh, Goldenseal (Yellow Root), etc., etc. can be sold to Ginseng/Herb Dealers/Buyers anywhere in the United States. I am sure that as long as the herb pieces (roots, leaves, stems or flowers - whatever portions that are in demand and bought) harvested by you are properly cleaned and prepared (green or dried) for shipment, that Billy Taylor will more than likely purchase them for you. Some of these are wanted and sold/purchased green while some of these must be dried to be sold/purchased. You just need to know what the Buyers want and how they want it!

Good luck and may your hunting and digging ventures be fruitful!


Frank