Located in the heart of ginseng country (Marathon County, Wisconsin, U.S.A.), Hsu’s Ginseng Enterprises, Inc. is the largest American Ginseng farm operation in the United States. Paul C. Hsu, the first Chinese grower in North America, has been growing the highest quality American Ginseng since 1974, and currently has over 1,000 acres of prime ginseng farmland available for cultivation. The corporation was originally founded as a mail order business and has since become an international enterprise. At Hsu’s Ginseng Enterprises, growing the best American Ginseng isn’t an easy task.
The first step starts on our farm, and involves creating raised beds for the gardens, weeding, picking berries for seeds, and maintaining the garden, much of this work is still done by hand. It takes about four to five years before ginseng is harvested, and there are many tedious steps involved during these years to make sure that the product reaches maturity.
Once the product is harvested, the roots have to be washed and cooled. The roots are washed by a large piece of rotating machinery that washes the roots and sends them down a large conveyor belt which places the roots into crates. Once in the crates, the ginseng roots are then stored in a cooler for multiple days to prepare them for the drying process.
After the roots are removed from the cooler, the next step is to spread them on a screen and put them into a kiln. The ginseng roots are dried slowly in the kiln and heated at a temperature of 70-100 degrees. This process allows for the roots to obtain their unique flavor, and also helps preserve the potency of the root. The roots get their wrinkled look from this drying process, which also plays an important role in the final quality of the root.
The last step is taking the dried product and sorting it by different grades so that it can be weighed and packaged. When sorting and packaging our ginseng we follow current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) which involves using control rooms and documented manufacturing processes to ensure that you receive the highest quality ginseng that we can offer. We guarantee the quality of ginseng because we oversee the process from the soil all the way until the finished product reaches our customer’s hands. Our international operations and scope allow us to maintain control of our ginseng supply chain and we are continually focused on giving our consumers the best health food products that they desire.
We welcome you to tour our Farm and Corporate office anytime throughout the year. Due to the volume of tours we do, please call to set the date with our tour director. Come and see how ginseng is grown here in the heart of ginseng country. You can even sample and purchase some ginseng products to take with you or to give as gifts!
Please call 1-800-826-1577 for further details.
We look forward to seeing you here in the heart ginseng country!
Hsu's Ginseng Enterprise Inc 