Well I'm sending my Botanist retainer to farm stalks of Ramie atm
Had him gather some other stuff before tooi'm sure it'll be useful for leveling up WVR/CUL/ALC crafts

The normal lv51+ "botany" ventures gatherable stuff are much more useful than the junk the exploration ventures bring, and give nice exp if you are online to send them back every hour or so, imho