November 2005 | Choice Eating

Go Wild

For an authentic holiday, look to a native food staple: Wild wild rice

by John Lux

Winter in the Upper Midwest is a test, and always has been. In the days before immigrants from Europe settled in what are now Wisconsin and Minnesota, the native Chippewa, Menominee and Ojibwe struggled to survive through months of sub-zero temperatures and deep snow until spring freed the woods and waters from winter’s grip.

What got them through was wild rice. With twice as much protein as white rice and one-third more than brown rice, wild rice meant survival. Harvested from lakes by teams in canoes in the fall, wild rice was dried and stored for months, a sure supply of nutrient-rich food.

Wild rice is not a member of the rice family at all, but a self-propagating annual grass. While it still grows wild through northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and nearby parts of Canada, 95 percent of the wild rice you buy today isn’t really wild, but cultivated in paddies that are drained for mechanical harvest. To increase yields, hybrid varieties have been developed and most commercial farmers use chemical herbicides and pesticides, in part because draining paddies leaves the plants out of the water and unprotected part of the year.

And in an ironic twist for a plant native to the wetlands of the Upper Midwest, half of all cultivated wild rice is grown on irrigated land in arid northern California. The rest is grown in Minnesota.

Only about five percent of wild rice sold these days is hand-harvested in the traditional way. And many of the harvesters are the descendants of the Native Americans who started it all. The rice is harvested from a canoe, using only a pole for power and two sticks as flails to knock the mature seeds into the bottom of the boat. The seeds are sun-dried or parched over a slow fire to crack the hulls, then the grain is threshed (traditionally by tramping) and winnowed.

Many cooks think that, besides being a natural product, hand-harvested wild rice is tastier than the cultivated variety, and several small purveyors in Minnesota and Wisconsin sell the real thing on the Internet and by catalog. One seller that adds social consciousness to health consciousness is the White Earth Land Recovery Project on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota. Besides paying fair-trade prices to individual harvesters, the project uses proceeds to buy back land taken from the tribe in the 19th century.

Founded in 1989 by Winona LaDuke, who was Ralph Nader’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election, the project has bought 1,600 acres of land so far, according to Becky Niemi of the Land Recovery Project staff.

Last year, the project bought 50,000 pounds of green rice from tribal members at $1.35 a pound, considerably above the market price, according to Niemi. “We are No. 1 in production of hand-harvested wild rice,” she said, “and we pay the highest (prices to the harvesters).” That amount of green rice was processed on the reservation, producing 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of finished wild rice, which sells at $8.50 a pound at retail.

“It’s organic but not certified,” Niemi said, adding that cultivated rice doesn’t have the taste or even the look of the natural wild rice. Besides being sold on the group’s website the rice is bought by The Smithsonian Institution and various co-ops in the Twin Cities.

Closer to home, Mickey Kaucher, whose Chicago Diner at 3411 N. Halsted St. is a mecca for North Side vegetarians, sells a lot of wild rice at this time of year. “I love the really raw taste of wild rice, even though it’s not raw food,” he said.

Kaucher said there’s “a big range in quality” of wild rice on the market, but price is an issue. “We’re not Charlie Trotter’s, we’re a diner,” he said. He generally buys high-quality cultivated rice. “The good stuff can go for $9 a pound, and we’ll buy 25-pound bags at harvest time.”

Tips for Preparation

Jo Kaucher, chef and co-owner of the Chicago Diner, advised, “Clean wild rice very well before cooking, and if there’s much water when the rice is done, it can be strained. Cooking times vary, depending if I am using a gas or electric stove — sometimes it takes almost an hour to cook.” The little bit of extra effort pays off, considering its versatility. “Wild rice is great in stuffing, in a chilled grain salad and is fun to add to soups and pilafs,” Kaucher said.

Andrea Chesman, the Vermont cookbook author known for innovative treatment of vegetables, said wild rice is such a variable product that the home cook can’t just put it on the stove and walk away. “You can’t always count on all the water being absorbed.” she said. “You have to watch it. When the majority of the grains have burst open but there’s still water, take it off the stove and drain it.”

Chesman said she’d never serve wild rice plain the way she would white or brown rice. “It’s fairly strongly flavored,” she said, but “it’s tamed by the orzo in this recipe.” For more information, visit ww2.nativeharvest.com.

John Lux is a Chicago area writer who specializes in food writing and likes his rice wild.