Hand picked and hand parched 100% natural lake wild rice from Northern Minnesota and Canada. This specific rice is hand harvested by Native tribes the old fashioned way with a canoe and paddle. One person uses a long pole to push the canoe slowly through the rice beds. The other person, seated in front of the poler, uses a pair of smoothly-carved “knocking sticks” to pull the rice stalks toward the canoe and gently knock loose the ripened grains of rice. This technique ensures that only ripe grains fall into the canoe while unripe grains can continue to ripen for later harvest. Some grains, knocked loose by the wind, settle into the bed of the lake as seeds for the next year’s plants.
Processed for Optimum Quality
Soon after the green rice is harvested it is parched (roasted) to remove moisture. Premium Hand-Parched Wild Rice is processed in the traditional way, by hand, using wooden paddles to gently stir the green rice in parching pans over a wood fire. These methods reduce the cooking time for finished rice and preserve the distinctively robust natural flavor that sets it apart from the inferior paddy-grown, machine-harvested products that dominate supermarket shelves. After the rice is parched, it is winnowed to remove the dry outer hull, called Mazan in the original Ojibwe language.