Where did wild rice originate from?

Answer 1

Wild Rice. Wild rice in not officially classified as rice, but is in fact a different type of grass that grows a long stalk and thrives in deep water. It was traditionally grown wild in the lakes of northern United States and southern Canada. It is still grown this way in Minnesota and other northern areas. Indians harvested the rice in canoes, and then parched (primitive parboiling) the grains. Much of the wild rice from Minnesota is still harvested and parched with methods similar to the past. Parching give the wild rice a strong flavor. All wild rice is sold with the bran on the kernel (like brown rice) and this gives it its black appearance. In California today, wild rice is mechanically farmed and harvested and then parboiled using modern methods. The quality of California rice is more consistent.

Answer 2

The Algonquin, Ojibwa, Dakota, Winnebago, Sioux, Fox, and Chippewa tribes used wild rice as a staple in their diets. They called it manomin or mahnomen, after the Menominee tribe and referred to wild rice as “good berry” and “the precious grain sent by the Great Spirit to serve as food.” It was the centerpiece of their Megwetch Manomin Feast that followed the first harvest. The stores of wild rice sustained them during the long, cold winters when the lakes were frozen. Wild rice was so valuable that tribes sometimes waged wars over harvesting territories. Chippewa people carried small pouches of wild rice with them whenever they traveled.

Indians gathered wild rice over an expansive of area North America from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi Valley. Archeologists found charred remains of wild rice in threshing pits.

The early French explorers called wild rice folles avoines, or “crazy oats.” Wild rice got its name because the explorers noticed Indians gathering it in the waters of the Great Lakes region. Jonathan Carver, an Englishman from London, came to explore North America and wrote Travels through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768. He reported that wild rice was the most important of all the native wild food plants in the country.

In those times, the annual harvesting of wild rice began a month before actually reaping the rice, when tribes gathered at their chosen harvesting lakes to stake out their favorite spots. In late August and September of each year, during the period known as “rice moon,” the ricing chief would declare the proper day for harvesting. Then pairs of women slowly roamed the grassy lakes in their birch bark canoes. One would take her place at the front of the boat and paddle with a long pole. The other used two long cedar or juniper sticks to bend the tall grass-heads and gently shake the seeds of the pale-green stalks into the bottom of the boat. Some of the grains would fall back into the water and become the seeds for next year’s crop.

Because the seed kernels do not all ripen at the same time, the women made several trips at intervals of four to six days to harvest the seeds that continued to mature. This three-centuries-old gathering method is still used today, which explains why this wild-crafted grain tends to be expensive. Today, the men of the tribe share the harvesting task.

When they are harvested, the seed colors range from tan to light green, to varying shades of brown, and to black. They are about 25% moisture and have the aroma of green tea. They were taken to the rice camp or back to the reservation and heaped into large piles to ferment by the heat of the sun for as long as two weeks. The lengthy fermentation process turns the wild rice black, and gives them an aroma like black tea. Following fermentation, the wild rice was cured or parched over smoke fires from two to four hours to dry the hulls. The drying process is essential to prevent mold.

The dried wild rice was placed into lined, shallow pits, and the young children would dance on the grains to loosen the hulls. The rice was then strained through blankets to separate the chaff from the kernels. Later, the wild rice was put into bags and hand-pounded with clubs to loosen the hulls. The women then winnowed the grains by lifting their filled birch-bark trays and tossing the seeds into the air, allowing the winds to carry off the hulls.

By the early part of the 20th century, only clear lakes and rivers of the most northern regions of Minnesota could still support the growth of wild rice and provide the Indians their staple food.

In 1972, farmers began cultivating wild rice in paddies, a practice that hurt the incomes of Native American Indians who depended on selling their wild rice. About 80% of the wild rice grown in the United States today is cultivated in paddies in northern Minnesota, the Upper Mississippi Valley, California, Washington, and Idaho. The seeds do not grow well in stagnant water, and growers had to develop varieties that adapted well to their new environment. These hybrid varieties mature at the same time. The plants are then completely cut down with mechanical threshers and processed with mechanical parchers and winnowers. In the final stages of processing, rubber rollers remove the hulls and create small cuts in the grain that shortens the cooking process.

Airboats have brought about recent improvements in commercial harvesting of the truly wild rice, while newer techniques for parching, winnowing, and hulling have been a help in saving time and labor. For example, the wild rice is winnowed on the reservations in large 30-gallon drums with paddles inside that loosen the hulls as the drums are turned. Still, it takes about three pounds of seed to yield one pound of wild rice kernels.

Wild rice is also grown in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Southern China. China grows another species, Z. latifolia, which is sometimes called Manchurian wild rice. The Chinese use these plants not for their cereal grains, but for their broad leaves and young shoots. The leaves are used to wrap dumplings, while the shoots are cooked and eaten like asparagus.