ZIZANIA AQUATICAWILD RICE is not actually rice. It’s an aquatic grass that grows wild in the thousands of lakes and ponds of the upper Midwest region of America. Early French explorers saw it growing in the water and called it rice.
Traditionally, the grain—called manomi—was harvested as a staple food by Native Americans of the Ojibway tribe and other nearby tribes of what are now Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It sustained them over the long winters.
Harvesting the grain from the wild traditionally is done by two people in a canoe. One guides and propels the canoe through the stand of rice plants, the other has two sticks, one in each hand. One stick is used to sweep the seedheads over the canoe, the other to rap the seedheads so the grains fall into the canoe. Commercially grown wild rice uses modern harvesting equipment. California is now the world’s production leader of the grain, where it’s grown in the waters of the Sacramento River delta.
Until the 1970s, wild rice was expensive because it was all harvested wild from the Great Lakes regions. Then commercial growing began in order to satisfy the huge demand. That makes wild rice the only grass grain domesticated in historical (rather than prehistoric) times.
THE ORGANIC FACTOR
Even commercial growers plant wild rice in natural settings, and so it’s almost natural, if not certified organic.
NUTRITION
Nutritionally, wild rice is a champion, with 12 to 15 percent protein that’s high in lysine and methionine. It contains more of the B vitamins of thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, and folate than other cereals. It’s high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, and potassium. And its fat is unsaturated. Because it’s heat-treated to loosen its tight hulls so they can be removed, the grains develop a nutty flavor and chewy texture in processing that has given it a reputation as “the caviar of grains.” Even the Ojibway parched the grains to remove the hulls, and undoubtedly to improve the flavor.
Share This Article
