Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America's Most Valuable Plant [Hardcover]

Kristin Johannsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2006

American Ginseng has a strange and perilous history. It has one of the longest germination periods of any known species, and only two environments in the world have offered the ideal growing conditions for wild ginseng. The first was the forests of northern China, which disappeared over a millennium ago, and the sole remaining habitat is the Appalachian Mountain region of eastern North America, an area now threatened by logging and mining. Chinese legend says that ginseng is the child of lightning. The two elemental forces of water and fire fight in an eternal struggle, pouring down rain and snow and blasting the earth with lightning. If that lightning happens to strike a spring of water, the water disappears and in its place grows a ginseng plant -- the fusion of yin and yang, water and fire, darkness and light, and the life force that moves the universe. American ginseng has become perhaps the most treasured of all herbal medicines, promising good health and longevity to those who consume it. Fortunes have been made and lost on the plant, which was America's first export to China -- before our nation even existed. The strange, twisted, man-shaped root today commands as much as two thousand dollars a pound in the hot, noisy ginseng markets of Hong Kong, and a wealthy collector might pay as much as $10,000 for a single, perfect specimen. Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America's Most Valuable Plant unfolds ginseng's past and its future through the stories of seven people whose lives have become inextricably bound to it: a huckster, a field researcher, a farmer, a ginseng "missionary," a criminal investigator, a broker, and a cancer researcher. Each of these individuals brings a different perspective to the elusive root -- and each is consumed by a different dream. Kristin Johannsen threads her way though remote woodlands in the Appalachians to observe the fragile plants slowly putting out leaves as part of a three-year growing cycle, during which time the ginseng is vulnerable to both poachers and growing suburban sprawl. She contrasts this with the huge commercial growing fields of Marathon County, Wisconsin, where among potato fields and paper mills, ninety percent of the country's ginseng is produced. Johannsen explores the brisk black market trade in the panacean root and the efforts to save the wild species and its native habitat, and she ends her story in the laboratory, where researchers are investigating ginseng's anti-cancer properties. An absorbing journey into the many worlds of this mysterious and potent plant, Ginseng Dreams tells the extraordinary story of America's little-known natural treasure and the spell it casts on those who seek it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though the ginseng root is a mainstay of Chinese medicine, it's as American as apple pie: in fact, for over 300 years, Americans have exported ginseng to China. Today an acre of ginseng can bring a farmer $100,000. Travel and environmental writer Johannsen (Ecotourism in Appalachia: Marketing the Mountains) takes readers into America's ginseng fields and forests. Ginseng is one of the most devilish plants to cultivate, taking up to a decade to be ready for market and growing in only the most specific conditions. Despite the root's persistent popularity, the difficulty of farming ginseng, the constant threat of poachers and the dwindling number of wild ginseng plants has rendered its future uncertain. Instead of focusing on the medicinal powers of ginseng to those who can afford it, Johannsen paints a picture of the poor in Appalachia who still rely on wild ginseng to provide some cash in lean times. Unfortunately, she lapses into long descriptions of ginseng farming that would bore all but the most devoted horticulturalist. For many, ginseng holds the promise of perfect health and miracle cures. Johannsen shows that, for just as many, ginseng holds an even more American dream—that of instant riches. (Mar.)
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Review

"A Book Sense Notable Pick Johannsen's book brews up an intriguing tale. By the end, the twisty root has corkscrewed its way into your heart and mind. Five stars." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Johannsen paintsa clear picture of the mythic nature of ginseng: its medicinal properties, commercial vagaries, and finicky growth requirements leading to gold rush-style boom or bust cycles. While other writers have focused on how toproduce and use ginseng, Johannsen instead writes with a journalist's eye, poking into the offbeat nooks and crannies of this mysterious plant." -- Library Journal

"For many, ginseng holds the promise of perfect health and miracle cures. Johannsen shows that, for just as many, ginseng holds an even more American dream" -- Publishers Weekly

"This is a narrative that sings of the earth and the people's relationship to that land. It is the story of a humble root that bears the promise of health and wealth and happiness." -- Ron Pen, University of Kentucky

"Kristin Johannsen has written a beautiful book that answers every question I ever had about ginseng, and some I hadn't even thought of yet. However, Johannsen has done more than create a font of knowledge about ginseng. Instead she has provided us with a wonderful study of a culture, preserving a way of life that may slip away far too soon. This is a tender, informative, wise, and lovely book." -- Silas House

"Kristin Johannsen reveals the fascinating, and often hidden, world of American ginseng through the stories of the people who inhabit it. She describes, with equal grace and felicity, the centuries-old culture of 'sang diggin' that pervades the hills and hollows of Appalachia; the dramatic contrast between Hong Kong's towering glass skyscrapers and the modest traditional medicine shops that thrive in their shadows; the enticing but uncertain enterprise of ginseng farming; and the compelling new western research evidencing ginseng's efficacy (long accepted in China) as both aphrodisiac and cancer treatment." -- W. Scott Persons, author of American Ginseng: Green Gold

"The descriptions of the woodland habitat of the plant itself and the pleasures of hunting ginseng in the leaf mold of a damp autumnal forest did make me want to go for a tramp in the woods." -- Washington Post Book World

"Together, Ginseng Dreams presents a tale that provides the reader with an illuminating, compassionate, and often entertaining view of Appalachian ginseng harvesting." -- Douglas Deur, Agricultural History

"Ginseng Dreams is a delightful book for anyone who enjoys light reading about such a fascinating plant/medicine/folklore icon. [It] is well researched and appeals to both professional and lay persons who are interested in both herbs and the unlikely merging of cultures from Appalachia to Asia." -- Robert Beyfuss, Herbalgram

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; 1 edition (March 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813123844
• ISBN-13: 978-0813123844
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,285,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A small plant with a big story, April 9, 2006

By 

viktor_57 "viktor_57" (Fairview, Your Favorite State, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America's Most Valuable Plant (Hardcover)

I grew up eating ginseng root and drinking ginseng tea, often being told of its curative and healthful properties. I always took such claims with a grain of salt, but occasionally I would hear of studies purporting to validate ginseng's restorative ability in the endurance of rats. Unknown to me then, an American variety of ginseng grows in the eastern U.S. and has been harvested and exported for over three hundred years. Here was a story waiting to be told, and Ms. Johannsen's "Ginseng Dreams" tells it from the perspective of both the plant and the people whose lives have fallen under its spell.

As the book's subtitle suggests, the focus of "Ginseng Dreams" is the ecology and economics of American ginseng, with particular emphasis on the preservation and cultivation of wild ginseng in Appalachia and Wisconsin. A highly valuable Chinese export, with prices reaching $500 a pound, American ginseng attracts poachers who take plants from public lands. Along with the destruction of ginseng's natural forest habitat, the combination of greed, urban development, and ginseng's need for precise growing conditions-- just the right amount of shade on a slope neither too steep for runoff of valuable nutrients nor too shallow to pool water and not too crowded with other ginseng plants, for starters--suggest a bleak future for wild American ginseng, especially when enforcement of existing laws protecting wild plants is impotent at best.

Johannsen writes with immediacy and vividly of her various ginseng excursions, whether trekking through the shady forests of Kentucky with a field researcher, visiting ginseng dealers in the oppressive heat of Hong Kong, or attending a class with eager-eyed entrepreneurs on ginseng cultivation. Each of the seven chapters tells the story of a different person who is intimately involved with a different aspect of our relationship with ginseng, e.g. its growth, cultivation, preservation, conservation, trade, and research. She fills in her reporting with ginseng facts, folklore, and history, tying in the ancient tradition of the root as the most revered of medicinal plants, with the current economics driving ginseng poachers, to modern research on the its potential anti-cancer properties. "Ginseng Dreams" reads like a good yarn, and like any good yarn, it carries a moral. Our increasing demand for ginseng, both local and global, and the lengths we are willing to go to fulfill them threaten the American ginseng's survival at the moment we are beginning to unlock its secrets and unfulfilled potential.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars lots of discussion with little practical information, April 3, 2010

By 

David Dilcher (Gainesville, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America's Most Valuable Plant (Hardcover)

This book is a tour of Ginseng interviews with people who deal with, grow and have had some interest in the plant. It gives very little practicle hands on information for growing Ginseng.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seven personal stories are used to illustrate ginseng's problems and potentials, June 19, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America's Most Valuable Plant (Hardcover)

The use and influence of ginseng in the lives of seven who have invested their lives and money in its promise is documented in a history which blends botany and economics under one cover. Ginseng is consumed by hundreds of millions in Asia daily and commands a hefty price, but despite its high selling price, the future of American ginseng is uncertain - threatened by environmental problems. Seven personal stories are used to illustrate ginseng's problems and potentials.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch