WILD RICE FESTIVAL

WILD RICE CAMP Saturday September 8, 2007 Wild rice demonstrations are also available to school groups. Call the museum for information, 651-646-8629.
Wild rice grew abundantly in the regions not far from the Gibbs farm, and the Indian trail crossing the Gibbs land was used annually by Jane’s Dakotah friends to travel to their rice gathering sites near Forest Lake and the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes in Lino Lakes. Paul Red Elk will demonstrate the complex processing techniques required to bring wild rice into an edible form. This includes parching, hulling, winnowing and finally cooking. Visitors will be invited to participate in the processing. Rice is harvested in canoes or small boats using wooden ricing sticks. Ricing is usually done by two people, one to guide the boat through the rice bed with a long pole and one to knocks the rice grains into the boat. The "knocker" uses them ricing stick to bend the rice stalks over the boat, and the second stick to lightly stroke the the seed heads, dislodging the ripe grain.
Hand Harvesting rice in this way removes only around 15% of the annual yield leaving abundant seeds for wildlife and to reseed the bed for the next year.

	Freshly harvested rice will need to be parched which involves removing the moister content and then the sheaths need to be removed to uncover the seeds.
This woman is using a winnowing tray to knock the sheath from the rice.
	Here is an examples of rice with the sheath on and after it has been parched and the sheaths removed.
The color of finished rice varies from greenish gray to black to brown.

Learn more about Wild Rice by visiting the following pages at the Minnesota Department of National Resources website: Wild Rice Facts Minnesota Wild Rice Management Wild Rice Pictures and Description Photographs by Paul Red Elk