Making Sure That the Plants Identified Are Ginseng By Digging Up a Plant, Tasting, and Examining the Root

Ever since the kids and I found ginseng, we’ve been fascinated by it. Finding it, studying it, seeing shapes in the physical roots, and drinking it in tea. But we’re also worried about ginseng. For one thing, it gets stolen and too frequently the thieves don’t respect the “take” failing to plant the berries into…

Blue Cohosh growing within a ginseng patch.

Ginseng for consumption for sale

Large Four-Prong with Green Berries

Large Four-Prong with 21 Leaflets

Dr. Iris Gao has moved from mainland China to Middle State Tennessee University in order to study Wild American ginseng. It just so happens that we have a lot of the root at Coal Creek farm in Eastern Tennessee. Dr. Gao visited recently with her colleague Dr. Elliot Altman (aka the hemp doctor) and Andrea Bishop, who…