with Flaxseeds and Coconut Milk
Janice Feuer-Haugen
Mar – Apr 2022 • Vol 3, No 120
Few people outside of Minnesota ever taste or even see traditional wild rice. Their long, thin “grains,” with their nutty flavor, chewy texture, and nutrient density are quite a delicacy. My husband grew up on a farm in Minnesota. Although he left many years ago, his two sisters still live there. So, each year, we receive a Christmas gift of truly wild, hand-harvested, Minnesota -wild rice. Although it resembles rice and is treated, prepared and enjoyed like rice, wild rice is actually unrelated to rice. It is an aquatic marsh grass.
Truly Wild, Wild Rice
Traditional wild rice is gathered by hand by “ricers” in a canoe. In this 19th century image, one woman holds a forked push pole. The other two women each have a wooden flail to knock the rice into the canoe. Finishing the harvested rice involves fermentation, followed by smoke curing, by parching the wild rice over fire, gas or steam heat. This is done to dry the wild rice in order to loosen the chaff, so it can be winnowed away and removed from the kernel. Watch this process on YouTube by searching for: Dancing and Winnowing Manoomin.
