Rootman to answer your question in my opinion. I think wild ginseng should sell for no less than $500:00 a pound and from their to$600:00 dry and no less than $144:00 a pound wet. I remember for years that if ginseng got to $450:00 the old timers where very happy one year it went to $550:00 and they where tickled to death.
Lets look at some facts
1 - ginseng grows wild it does and was giving to us it does not cost any thing but your gas,time,eats,& drinks to go out and to find it, and of course your labor.
2 - Ginseng has never reach 700:00 dollars but one time and never reach 900:00 but one time in 100 years.
3 - in the past 10 years if you add the total of the highest price at the end of the season together in my area and then divide it by 10 you will see that the average price for ginseng is not as much as we all want it to be coming out to an average of around a little less than $500:00 a pound dry to us diggers, remember I have been a digger a long time and I always will be a digger so long as it is the good Lords will.
4 - So to me the diggers should always get from $500:00 to $550:00 to be treated fair and from $550:00 to $600:00 to be treated very good anything more is another great blessing from the good Lord like the only 2 years in history where it was 725.00 and 900.00 to me when those years come thank God for it, but remember that based on an overall average those 2 seasons boosted ginseng from back in in the 90`s to what it is in the 2000`s and made the aversage be what it should be today. Without those two seasons the average would be around $400:00 every season or less.
5 - Seeing that what i have written here is based on actual facts and not my opinion from being involved i know that what i am saying is true we should expect between $500 to $600 a year at this time area and hope each year for the blessed years where it sores above the reasonable amount.
6 sometimes it seems as though we forget how much we love doing this and make it a debate seems as politics to me lately it has not been and will never be just about the money that i can make from ginsenging,but it has allot to do with my heritage and what i have learned my children and what they see in the mountains when they go with me and the beauty of all that God has giving to us I pray that nothing ever takes that from them and that nothing ever takes that from me, because if the zeal and passion for what i love to do is not enough, then i have forgot the true meaning of the gift. I have never taking a guitar lesson yet i can play with any musician skillfully never ask the Lord to let me love his word and his blessing as a child yet I do, I was never entered into fishing tournaments to win them yet i can fish with anyone, am i boosting ? No im just trying to say that God gives us many talents and gifts, ginseng hunting is one more good thing that the Lord has giving to us, let us not talk only about great Gaines, but also remember the gift its self and the Lord will provide us with enough gains always he never fails us, why worry so much with the price the price, where is our faith.
Billy.
