North Bay Trading Company Wild Rice

There’s only one place on Earth that consistently produces truly wild, naturally-grown wild rice with a grain of half an inch or more in length, and that place is along the glacially-scoured rocks at the edge of the pre-Cambrian shield, in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Wild rice from this area grows in harmony with nature, without pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, and without efforts to tame naturally occurring fluctuations in lake water levels.

No one knows why this particular part of Canada’s vast, untrammeled wilderness lake country produces such exquisite rice. Perhaps it’s because the water is some of the world’s purest. Maybe the ancient, mineral-rich bedrock provides just the right nourishment for a thriving rice crop. The northern latitude, with its long days of summer sunlight, may be ideal for full ripening. Most likely, it’s a combination of these and other natural phenomena. 

North Bay’s Canadian organic Wild Rice is easily distinguished from common, shorter-grained paddy “wild” rice grown commercially in California and Minnesota. Developed in 1968, the paddy variety grows in shallow, man-made ponds where the water and its chemistry are controlled by pumps and dikes.

A small, family business, North Bay Trading Company is a certified member of the Organic Producers Association of Manitoba, Inc.

Background info:

Wild rice was essential to survival of the first peoples who occupied North America’s central woodland lakes region thousands of years ago. In an area of poor soils and short growing seasons, wild rice kept famine from taking its toll, especially during the region’s long, harsh winters.

An early Ojibway name for wild rice was Manitou gi ti gahn, which means the plant the Great Spirit gave us. That name has now been shortened to manoomin (derived from min, meaning seed and Minido, the name for the providing spirit).

Traditionally, during late August and early September, Ojibway people gathered for the harvest in family groups along the shores of wild rice lakes. It was a time of camaraderie, hard work, and offerings of thanks to the spirit givers. Harvesting was by birch bark canoe. Sticks were used to bend and tap the wild rice plants, making ripe hulls fall into the canoe.

On shore, fresh wild rice was spread on mats, to dry in the sun. Some was put over a fire to dry quickly for the First Rice Feast or Migwetch Manoomin. (Migwetch is the Ojibway word used to give thanks.)

After the fire-dried rice was cooled, it was jostled against wooden slates, to loosen the chaff. Next, it was put in small pits lined with wood or clay. Then, men treaded on the rice using light, dance-like steps to separate the chaff. Final winnowing was done by women, who used birch baskets to toss and catch the rice. While in the air, the chaff blew away.

When there was enough clean rice, it was time to cook the First Rice Feast. The meal typically consisted of boiled and popped wild rice, fresh fish and fowl, and berries that had been picked and dried during the summer. Ceremonial servings were made for the spirits and left thoughtfully at attractive resting places in the nearby woods.