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Traditional Harvesting of Wild Rice
The Chippewa word for grain or berry is "min." To this, the adjective "mano" meaning "good" is added to make "manomin" or good berry. This valuable, annual aquatic grass grows in the shallow, mineral-rich waters of Rice Lake where it provides food for people and thousands of migrating waterfowl that stop at the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge each fall.
Wild rice has been harvested by native peoples for thousands of years on Rice Lake. The earliest known to the area where the Sioux who used "dugout" canoes and hand-shaped pottery to hold their harvest.
Harvest Time - Wild rice is traditionally harvested by two people, a "poler" and a "knocker." As the poler moves the canoe through the rice bed, the knocker bends the stems over and strikes the knockers together, allowing rice to fall into the bottom of the canoe. Some kernels fall into the water to re-seed the rice bed.
Curing the Rice - Historically, rice was dried by spreading it out on birchbark or blankets on the ground and continuously raking it to allow the air and sun to dry it. The rice was allowed to dry for a day or two. Another method was to spread the rice out on drying racks constructed from green branches and grass and placing the racks over the fire.
Parching - With the introduction of the cast-iron kettle during the fur trade era, parching became the preferred drying method. The rice is roasted in a cast-iron kettle over a fire and stirred with a cedar paddle. Parchers know the rice is properly dried when they pinch a kernel between their fingers and the kernel breaks. Parching usually takes about an hour to complete.
Threshing or Jigging the Rice - After parching, the rice kernel is further loosened from the hull by strenuous foot thrashing, also known as "jigging." The common method of jigging is to dig a small pit in the earth, line it with wood slats or a blanket, place a closed bag of rice into the pit, and start treading. To assist balance and help the treader control the amount of weight applied to the rice, two poles are placed alongside the pit in a V-shape.
Winnowing - The final step in processing wild rice is "winnowing,"or tossing the rice in the air. Using a winnowing basket, or "nooshkaachinaaganan," the rice is tossed in the air numerous times to allow the lighter weight chaff to blow away, leaving the rice kernels ready for cooking or long-term storage.
