Ginseng picking a lucrative hobby in U.S. Appalachia

By Andrea Hopkins

RAINELLE, W. Va, Oct 1 (Reuters Life!) - After five hours hunting ginseng in the U.S. Appalachian mountains, Steve Wood produces a small plastic bag containing his day's haul of the prized root a little sheepishly.

"I doubt it's worth a dollar by the time it dries," said Wood, 49, fingering two tiny carrot-like roots through the plastic.

"I got over a pound last year, but it's not as abundant this year. It's been too dry."

Wood's real job is truck driving, but he finds happiness in the hills of Appalachia, where he's been digging ginseng since he was a boy -- one of thousands here who prize the root not as medicine but as a source of extra income.

It takes 100 to 300 small roots to make a pound of dried ginseng, no small task considering the plants are well-hidden, loved by animals and often picked over by dedicated diggers.

But over 200 years of demand for the root -- considered an all-round tonic in parts of Asia -- has made ginseng one of the most valuable wild commodities in Appalachia, an isolated and often impoverished region stretching across America's eastern interior.

"Some years you make money, some years you don't," said Wood with a shrug. "I just love being out in the woods."

Some 4,590 pounds of wild ginseng were dug in West Virginia last year at about $435 a pound -- bringing some $2 million in extra income, according to Robin Black, the resident ginseng expert at the West Virginia Department of Forestry.