Wild Rice Camp

So, in honor of Thanksgiving Day, here is my favorite recipe for wild rice.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked wild rice (hand-harvested)
  

  Just cooked rice...not a picture of this dish...sorry!

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 green pepper, diced
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• garlic (as much or as little as you’d like)
• slivered almonds (I use a small package)
• one stick of butter (1/2 cup)
• add later…one can chicken broth ~(14 oz)

Hi wild rice enthusiasts!

Well, the work is over and now its time to enjoy the fruits of our labor, finished wild rice. The whole processing experience can be nerve wracking. Here you’ve spent hours and hours cramped in a canoe, built up blisters on your hands and suffered sore muscles and aching joints for days on end and now you’ve dropped your rice off to be processed. Will I get my rice back? Will it be over processed? Will it be broken? How much will I get back? Hmmm…I suppose we could avoid all of these questions if we just processed our own. I tried that last year….small quantity. Now I’m back with a new processor.

Relationships are what I think it takes to get rid of those questions. Find someone you trust, someone that gives you a good product every year, and someone who runs a clean operation. I’ve had rice over parched, and this year I think my rice was a little over processed (threshed). Of course, that is a matter of opinion as there seems to be a range for color preference. I prefer mine a bit darker, this rice is almost white. So…maybe another processor next year?

Better yet – time to consider developing a wild rice processing co-op. A small quantity processing co-op where people can come and learn how to process their own rice, or have it processed while they watch for a small fee. I know, I know, this is not something easily built or organized. But I like the idea. Let me know if it sounds good to you!

Bottom line, whether the rice is brown or shades of grey…mmmm, it tastes delicious when cooked and served in a bowl! 

Feeling stiff and a bit sore this morning, but wearing a smile on my face. Around the Bemidji area we seem to be getting rice. Yesterday the man and I harvested about 70 pounds off a ‘local lake’ and it was falling nice – very ripe. Streams are pretty much done, lakes are slowing down. News from NW Wisconsin is that they have had another poor season. I seem to recall many storms going through that area this summer, similar to what we had last year. Anyway, two poor years over there, harvesters are bummed.

Equipment that all should have: turkey hunting stool! I LOVE it!! It’s a small webbed stool (4 legs) that has shorter legs in front, longer in back…just guessing cause I don’t want to go out and measure it I’d say 4 inches/6 inches. Keeps you at a nice angle, yet off the bottom of the canoe – and comfy! I highly recommend one if you’re the knocker. Awesome! – later

Yes, it’s that time of year….itching to get out on the wild rice lakes, itching when I’m out there! Big accomplishment this year – got the husband in the canoe, not a place he normally likes to be. Give him a fishing boat and motor and he’s thrilled – a pole and a canoe…he actually wasn’t that bad! 70 lbs on the first day. I think I’ll keep him!