I buy a lot of it in the grocery store l. Always wished I lived where it grew. I’m too old to be doing it now. But I would have loved to have had that opportunity.

Not nowadays but did a lot when I was in school, was a good way for a kid to make some pretty good money

A lot of wild rice nowadays is actually farmed, i know several large farms in northern Minnesota that wild rice is the major crop

Lufkin, the stuff you are purchasing in store is most likely cultivated. It's good enough.


IMHO the rice gathered in lakes and rivers is better.

I didn't know they farmed it, anyone have pics of a field of it?

Yeah, i figured it was just like everything else in the stores. Since I don’t know the difference, I guess it’s just fin.

I use to harvest every fall on Spur Lake..Northern Wisconsin...Lotta work

Interesting post...it does sound like a lot of work. California grows miles and miles of it. OTG

I flew it on for ducks got it flown on for $5 an acre by a crop duster this was in the 80s. Met him at 2 different airports and flew it on 2 state areas. He asked if I wanted to fly with him. After first load those men know what they were doing but clearing trees at low altitude was not for me. One area we got a big rain and washed it down to corner of area and wood ducks muskrats and the like cleaned most of it up. The other area I don’t even remember what airport I used I also had it flown into mud flats and produced well. But like jap millet the red wing blackbirds hammered it. Only got one shot as I could not get budget approved the next year. Picked the rice up in the Boot Hill of Missouri think it was la belle variety spelling might be wrong but in 80s a lot of rice was grown in the Boot Hill and most likely still is. They raised it there and had rice levees. It looked cool till the blackbird got into it. I’m sure a lot that fell got used by waterfowl. One area that flooded early was a hunting area. The other was a refuge back then flying it on was the logical method

Lots of wild rice beds in the rivers and lakes in our area. Was fast money in my younger days.
Most everyone worked with a ricing partner.. Had the choice of poler or beater or take turns.
Number one rule was if you're gonna fall in... Don't tip the canoe.
Back then ricing was only open certain hours on certain days. Was never sure I was always legal but the profit was more than the fines.
Lots of times a buyer was at the boat landing when we pulled in...
I wore a stocking hat because the bugs and worms were always headed for higher elevation and every so often just had to remove hat and shake them off.
Still have tools of the trade...

I have some friends that do it every year, most on a small scale, one has a sizable operation and he does dry for other harvesters. I Have ridden in a canoe with one harvester once and that was enough for me not to get real interested in getting more involved. I did not like to see the bottom of the canoe moving with all the bugs, beetles etc. crawling around on the wild rice.

BRyce

You can buy it from Minnesota. Just google it.

Sounds like free ain’t cheap.

It's farmed in SE Mo, and you will end up in jail if you so much as touch it on Minn., it belongs to the native Americans.

Just spoke to a guy at lunch today who harvests real wild rice. He said the black stuff you buy in stores is farmed wild rice. The real wild rice isn't black it's white. Based on that, I guess I've never eaten real wild rice. I do still like the black stuff you buy in stores. He said when he goes this September he will save some for me.

I used to pick it back in the 60's and like it was mentioned before, it was another way to make some pretty good money besides trapping back then. I used my ricing money to buy the wedding ring for my wife in 1970. I was usually the picker and would sit amongst the crawly worms and getting a rice beard stuck in your eye or throat was no picnic either. The ricing push pole with the duck bill is an important tool in my trapping boat. I won't leave home without it.

Father in law grew up in Cass Lake, MN. Up until a few years ago he and his brothers still made an annual trip and harvested a bunch. They're all getting older an haven't done it lately.

My pantry is about out, I'm hoping he's either making one last trip or has a source!

Plenty is still picked by hand in Northern MN, or by air boat in Canada.

Late August through mid September is the main time it is picked here. Under state rules we’re only allowed to pick from 9 am to 3 pm…so those with a day job are limited to weekends to pick. I used to pick it every year…but work obligations, family vacations, and kids going back to school have pretty much prevented me from doing it recently. A good day two people will pick around 150-200 pounds in a canoe. A 300 pound day is kind of a benchmark for the serious ricers. Season usually ends when we get big winds or storms near the end of season that will knock all the remaining grains off the plant.

The wild rice you see in stores is generally cultivated wild rice. The rice grains in the head of the plant don’t all riped at-once. They pick the cultivated rice with a combine, and the process has to be done so even the immature grains can still be utilized. How they process the rice results in the different colors and outside textures of the rice. Most of the hand harvested rice around here is a light brown/grey in color when processed. It usually finishes just under half the weight of the fresh picked rice.

The price has really gone up after a couple bad years of production. Back to the point where you can make pretty good money picking rice again now. Finished hand harvested rice goes for $15+ a pound around us, while you can find the cultivated rice for half of that. The partial/broken grains is usually what you see advertised for the lowest price.

That is incorrect.

Trapper 7. I prefer the real wild rice. I think it has a better flavor and cooks easier.

Don’t know where you got that from, public land public use, except for reservation lands it’s open to anyone lots of people still harvest it for extra money or their own use and most are not natives most of the natives I know around here have no interest in doing it because they get casino money and harvesting wild rice is hard hot work at the best of times, the ones who do are usually on the older end of the age spread you don’t even have to be a resident of the state just need to buy a license

You can get a day or season license if your a resident but only a day one of your a nonresident, native band members even nonresident ones with a valid band membership don’t need one

I have been thinking about getting out this year and doing a little for my own use and a couple weeks ago I found a fantastic spot that has a exceptional stand of rice, looking at it I started getting that old feeling like I was looking at acres and acres of rat huts

Is it a long process to clean up for eating? How clean does it get?

You are right about the band members not interested in harvesting the rice. The DNR lowered the lake level on a lake nearby so the band members could harvest the rice. I have yet to see any band members ever out there. My neighbor is not happy about the DNR lowering the lake level on that particular lake because when the water level was high they used to troll for northerns with daredevils on cane poles. Now, it's too shallow to navigate with a small boat and motor.

Plenty of the natives up here harvest it.

Lufkin, most of the people I know who harvest it takes it to a processor to get their rice cleaned

I find this pretty fascinating.

One of my favorite meals after a long day of ice fishing is to pan fry some fillets, take some precooked wild rice toss it in a skillet with some pollo seasoning and saute it for a couple minutes.

I can 100% see that. Envious.

It’s not really that hard to do unless your doing hundreds of pounds at a time,

1 first it’s spread out on a sheet or tarp and allowed to dry

2 after it’s dry it time to remove the husks many at this point parch it by heating it on a flat piece of metal or in a pan stirring it so it doesn’t scorch to further dry it and kill any remaining rice worms, then it’s spread out again and worked to loosen the husks, originally natives did this by dancing on it which you can do or take a flail and beat it

3 Winnowing it comes next, we used to first take it and toss it into the air using hands, shovels or grain scoops ect, we would pick a nice windy day to do this, takes some time but you can usually get most of the husks off but there is always some that have to be removed by hand, we would wear leather gloves and rub it between our hands for this

If your only doing 10 or 20 pounds for your own use it’s not really all that hard no more then canning garden produce but doing large amounts then taking it to a processor is worth it

As a kid we would do around a hundred or so pounds for our own use which we do by hand the rest we would sell