REAL wild rice (not farmed wild rice)

[tuburcinor]

Hello all. I am very desperate to have some wild rice in time for Thanksgiving (only 16 days away!!!). I have tried contacting the two sources in Rebecca's book, The Splendid Grain. They are Manitok Wild Rice and Leech Lake Wild Rice Co. However, it seems that the phone numbers are no longer valid. I've tried searching online with discouraging results. I fear that these companies are no longer in operation. Does anyone have any updated contact information for these companies? If not, could someone direct me to a reputable company that sells organic wild-harvested wild rice? If possible, I would like to purchase from an Indian-owned and operated company like the ones Rebecca explains in her book. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated!!! Thank you!!!

[Rebecca]

Regrets, I've no current information on Indian Reservations that sell their own hand-harvested wild rice. As per my book's instructions, you can tell by looking at the rice whether or not its cultivated or wild. Hope this helps.

[tuburcinor]

Thanks, Rebecca! I appreciate your taking the time to reply! I love your book the Splendid Grain, by the way. I checked it out from my local library and was and still am enthralled! As for the wild rice--what about the two companies listed in your book--Leech Lake Wild Rice and Manitok Wild Rice? Are those no longer in operation? Please let me know if you know of a good source for real wild rice. I don't want to buy the paddy-grown, cultivated variety, but I don't want a wild variety that is sub-par, either. I have found a few sources online that seem promising, including one that parches the wild rice using wood. I'm afraid to spend the money on wild rice that will be disappointingly low-grade.

[Rebecca]

You're welcome. I'd call your mail order sources and ask them your telling questions. Yes, my two sources from many years ago are no longer in business.

[Indy]

Rebecca,

It must be Thanksgiving month again, because I too am looking for a flavorful wild rice, with not much luck so far. BTW, thank you for writing The Splendid Grain as well as the whole foods encyclopedia and the quinoa book ... I bought copies of all 3 and couldn't live without them.

Recently Eden Foods started selling packaged organic whole grain wild rice, but after cooking it according to their directions, I was mystified by its lack of flavor. Although their package nutrition analysis confirms that this wild rice contains 3 grams of dietary fiber per serving, the grain itself has lost about half of its bran covering, which may explain the blandness right there. Here is a link to the Eden page with a nutrition analysis of their wild rice:

http://www.edenfoods.com/store/product_ ... #nutrition

When I phoned Eden Foods last month to find out how "whole grain" their wild rice is, the woman answering the phone did tell me that the Eden Foods buyer has visited his wild rice supplier several times. In addition, the buyer specifically has asked the supplier to do no scarification of the wild rice, and the supplier claims that scarification is not done on any of their wild rice. Hmmm. I remember that in your books you explained that wild rice is harvested by canoe and wood-parched in the fall, so that may mean that the Eden Foods packaged wild rice is from last year's crop, which may partly explain the flavor drop.

Rebecca, where do you buy your wild rice? Thanks for any current leads ... many of us are just about ready to start tearing our hair out over this issue of where to find flavorful wild rice. Note: If you cannot offer any leads on purchasing wild rice, could you at least speak with someone at Eden Foods to clarify the cause of the flavor problem with their wild rice? Thank you very much.

[Rebecca]

Here's my source:
Leeach Lake Indian Band of Ojibwe, Division of Resource Management., 115 6th Street NW, Suite E, Cass Lake, MN 56633 800-442-3942 or 218-335-7426. I've a call into Eden and will let you know what I find out.

[Indy]

Rebecca,

Thank you so much for giving us a source of wild rice and for your phone call to Eden as well. Yesterday I did my big annual shopping trip at Erewhon Market in Los Angeles and bought the wild rice from their bulk bins because it looked and smelled so good. (The bran covering was completely intact, and was uniformly dark, which if I recall correctly means that some fermentation has taken place during the rice drying process.) I'll let you know how it cooks up.

BTW, both this Erewhon wild rice and the Eden Foods packaged wild rice are about one inch in length. The Erewhon wild rice is very slightly fatter throughout the grain, although that may be because it has maintained its bran covering.

In my phone call last month to Eden Foods about their packaged wild rice, I expressed skepticism about whether their wild rice truly qualifies as whole grain for 2 reasons:

1. Close to half of the bran coating on each grain is gone.
2. The recommended cooking time is suspiciously short, 25 minutes or so if I recall correctly; how can that be an adequate cooking time for truly whole grain wild rice?

On a more positive note, here is a page from a website I found, owned and operated by Native Americans in the Great Lakes area, selling various wild rice products:

http://nativeharvest.com/catalog/1/wild_rice

Winona LaDuke, the Native American activist, is involved with this group. I will sample some of their products, as well as your Leech Lake source, and let you know my experience with all of those.

Here is another web page from another Native American group in the Great Lakes area that has a bit more information on wild rice, but no way to sell it online:

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/r_wild.html

I include it here because they have information that was new to me on part of what has been going on with the supply of wild rice. It's not good news, but at least it is the truth:

"...elders from Northern Minnesota ricing areas report that nearby off-reservation commercial paddies are experimenting with different laboratory breeds of zinzania aquatica which are cross-breeding with the natural tribal wild rice, and the natural types are being replaced by undesired new hybrids on many lakes. Nobody likes this, but there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to stop it. Tame, paddy rice is big business for large food corporations, today, so the Jolly Green Giant is taking over from the Manidos who gave the rice to the people."

[Indy]

Happy New Year 2010 to all!

Here is a link for an online source of wild rice. I found it when I saw one of their wild rice products for sale at my local Co-op market.

http://www.greyowlwildrice.com/retail.shtml

Later I will take a closer look at their product line to see how the quality stands up.

Bye for now.

[Rebecca]

Grey Owl wild rice is a hybrid grain that is harvested using hovercraft. It's not wild wild rice. For full story, see my book http://rwood.com/Books/sg.htm