wild rice

[Powder]

Does anyone know how much green wild rice is selling for per pound?

[Jim Panfish Uran]

1.50 here in white earth!

[laportian]

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is paying 1.75. they will be done buying this Sat. I bought four thousand pounds off of Bowstring last Tuesday for 1.50. Need finished rice? I got a bunch. I'm going to rice thru the weekend then hang it up for the season. Jim how was Big Rice? I bought thirty thousand pounds out of there last year. Seemed to have alot of ergot in it.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

What the heck are you buying so much rice for lol.... The rice is getting riper, they opened it up prematurely last weekend, and it was horrible. They closed it for 4 days and that helped. We went out today, my brother and I, on big rice, and got 5 sacks. It was a heck of a lot better, the water is low, and it makes it tricky getting back in, but it's worth it!

[Powder]

Thanks for the information. I'm not looking for any at the moment, I was more curious what the going rate was. We get just enough for ourselves, a few hundred pounds of green rice. Do you think the wind we had today will knock the rest off? Where do you guys have it processed?

[Pinusbanksiana]

How does a guy purchase say 50 lbs of this hand picked rice? Where do I go?

[shefland]

Does anybody know the reason why there are hours for riceing? I've asked 2 wardens and they do not have a clue?

[laportian]

Jim- I riced twenty days from 8/15 to 9/8 and wasn't able to hit a 300 pound day. Wish our rice commitee was smart enough to close beds that they opened too early. Half the beds they opened were never even checked to see if they were ready! I buy lots of rice for MCT(other duties as assigned) and about 6 or 7 thousand pounds green for my own little side business. I sell bulk rice to 3 coops and make a handy little profit from it each year.

Jackpine-I'd go to a processor and ask. Lots of guys still out trying and all of the big buyers are done buying, except maybe White Earth. Or put an ad up in the Bemidji C list.

shefland- I was told by members of our rice commitee that the reason for the short hours is that a rice bed will not all ripen at the same rate. It happens over a few weeks and that if people were allowed to harvest all day the beds would get thrashed up so bad it would not be any good. I know beds that are harvested for two weeks straight. You can rice on the same stretch a day or two later and it will still kick out ripe rice if it hasn't been pounded real bad.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Yeah we never could crack that 300 pound mark this year either. Close, but no cigar. They opened Big Rice lake a little too early and she is pretty tracked up now, but still tons of green rice out there. The wind saturday and monday took a good share of the ripe stuff, but by this weekend there will be some good rice to be had.

White Earth is looking to buy another 50,000 pounds it sounds. They should be able to buy that by Monday I would say.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

A pic I took while out ricing a couple of years ago...

[reinhard1]

i've never went riceing but i imagine it's got to be a process with a lot of effort involved. hobe you get a good harvest with that effort. nice pic also. good luck.

[laportian]

My finished product. This was harvested from Bowstring on 08/28/12. It was processed at the Gerhke Mill in Cass Lake on 08/30/12. Best stuff I've had in 5 years.

[reinhard1]

it must be quite a process. why is the wild rice i buy in the plastic bags in the stores so dark? your's is a lighter color. does it just get darker over time?. good luck.

[laportian]

I'm glad you asked that question. The reason the rice in most grocery stores is dark is because it is not really wild rice. In the mid sixties the University of MN started creating a variety of wild rice that would withstand being mechanically harvested. They genetically engineered a product that had a thicker hull that would be harder to damage if harvested with a combine. Thus paddy rice was born. It is farmed all over North America in manmade rice paddies. The end result is a product that has such a thick hull on it that it takes up to an hour(if ever) to soften up. It is also parched in propane cookers.

Now on the other hand the real Mahnomin is a very fragile grass grain that is genetically specific to whatever body of water it grows in. It is traditionally harvested by two people in a canoe. One person stands at the back and "poles" the canoe thru a rice bed. While the other person is seated in front of the poler and "knocks" the ripe rice off the rice stalks with ceder sticks that are about 3ft long. And if your knocker is respectful and gentle the bed will produce more ripe rice throughout the season. There are usually buyers around the landings so you can sell your rice or take and get it finished for yourself. Most of the guys that finish rice up in these parts wood parch the rice. It imparts a smokey flavor to the rice that the paddy rice guys can't produce. In the end your rice should have a nutty flavor with hints of smoke. That is real rice.

This is very serious business in these parts. Before the season started we had ceremony for the rice bed and we feasted the bed. And each morning before we begin harvesting tobacco and prayers are offered. The night before we began this seasons harvest we had a sweat lodge to purify ourselves and the night of the last day we went out we closed the season with another lodge to give thanks to the Mahnomin for providing for us.

[Chris Haley]

The dark/black wild rice is grown commercially. For the best wild rice, buy the lightest colored rice you can find/afford. That rice looks amazing!!! If it were mine I know I'd be heading into sparkiling waters in bemidji and boulders in walker to sell it. Truly fine dining restaurant quality.

How much do you sell it for?

[laportian]

I get $8.00 for my packaged rice per pound and If I sell in bulk quantities I sell at $7 per pound because I don't have to package and handle the stuff as much. I'll probably post to the HSO classified sometime today.

[BartmanMN]

Cool information Laportian. Sounds like quite the spiritual process.

[mallardnwalleye]

Nice!!

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Here is a video I put together of me and my brother out harvesting wild rice this past weekend....

Check it out