Wild Rice

by Lisa Vines

Growing up in the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee, I knew two kinds of rice: regular white rice and wild rice, which was called Rice-A-Roni and came in a box from San Francisco. That—San Francisco—was wild. Now I know that rice comes in many more varieties: refined white rice, brown rice, enriched white rice, basmati rice, sweet or glutinous rice, Wehani rice, Japonica, and wild rice—which is not a “rice” at all, but rather the seed of an annual water-grass. Indigenous to North America, wild rice provided an opportunity for a Thanksgiving event for some Native Americans. The Ojibway tribe celebrated the rice harvest with a feast called Migwetch Manoomin (loosely translated, “to give thanks for the seed to the Providing Spirit”). The Ojibway, Menomini and Cree tribes of the north-central region of northern America relied on the grain as a staple. They introduced the European fur traders to this highly nutritious grain, one of four species of wild rice.

The Ojibway harvested the rice in late August and early September, using birch bark canoes to travel to the plants and gather the ripe hulls. Processing involved many steps. The Native Americans spread the fresh rice on mats in the sun to dry, although to speed up the process for the First Rice Feast they dried the rice over a fire. Once cooled, the rice was treated to remove the chaff. Men and women shared the labor. Men tread on the rice to separate the chaff, and women winnowed it. Fresh fish and fowl and wild berries accompanied the freshly harvested wild rice.

Wild rice (zizania palustris) is the official state grain of Minnesota, where a license is required before harvesting the rice. But there, as in California and Wisconsin, the rice is cultivated in paddies, making it an oxymoronic “cultivated wild rice.” The Bulk section of the Coop, however, carries organic wild rice from the North Bay Trading Company—which, according to their website, comes from the “glacially-scoured rocks of the pre-Cambrian shield, in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.” An American company located in Wisconsin, they process rice from Canada, purchasing it lakeside from the harvesters. Harvesters must have leases from the Canadian government and travel in airboats to gather the mature seeds. It’s also a beautiful grain— long, luxurious and dense in color. High in protein and carbohydrates and low in fat, wild rice compares quite favor- ably with other cereals. It contains more of the amino acids lysine and methionine than other grains, even wild groats. It is high in potassium and phosphorus, as well as in the B vitamins thiamin, riboflavin and niacin.

The Coop’s “Shopper’s Guide to Rice” states that wild rice “has twice the protein, four times as much phosphorus, eight times as much thiamin, and twenty times as much riboflavin as other rice varieties.”

Coop shoppers interested in serving a bit of native Thanksgiving this year would do well to consider adding wild rice to their food line-up. The North Bay Trading Company recommends a simple wild rice recipe, as well as a stuffing recipe.

Sources

E.A. Oelke, T.M. Teynor, P.R. Carter, J.A. Percich, D.M. Noetzel, P.R. Bloom, R.A. Porter, C.E. Schertz, J.J. Boedicker and E.I. Fuller, “Wild Rice: Alternative Field Crops Manual,” online at www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/wildrice.html.

North Bay Trading Company website: www.northbaytrading.com

“Rice: The Co-op Shopper’s Guide” (HWFC) “Wild Rice: Minnesota’s State Grain,” online at www.mnwildrice.com

Organic Canadian Lake Wild Rice Basic Recipe

Expands 3–4 times when cooked.

Wash wild rice with cold water; drain. Put 1 part wild rice and 3 parts water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Then cover and simmer strongly for about 45 minutes. Drain, or let the steam off for the last few minutes of cooking. For the great flavor and chewy texture of this wild rice, stop cooking when the rice is tender and looks like a slightly opened hot dog bun—not exploded like popcorn. Serve piping hot with butter, salt and pepper. Store uncooked wild rice in a clean, dry place. Cooked wild rice freezes beautifully.

Wild Rice Stuffing

1¼ cup finely chopped celery
1¼ cup finely chopped onions
1 TBS butter or margarine
1½ cup dry bread crumbs
4 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp parsley flakes
1¼ tsp curry powder
dash of pepper
1¼ tsp salt
1½ tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1 cup slightly undercooked wild rice

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