• January 24th, 2014
• Comments Off on Native Harvest Wild Rice – Yielding Nature’s Best

In the deep parts of Minnesota where the land becomes more like swiss cheese, spotted with lakes and low land, a long standing tradition of the peoples whom have cultivated the land for ages continues. Metal canoes slap against wind blown marshes stuffed with sprouting rice while the people of White Earth pull the tufts of wild-grown rice. That’s right, real ‘wild’ rice.

Native Harvest is focused to “continue, revive, and protect [their] native seeds, heritage crops, naturally-grown fruits, animals, wild plants, traditions, and knowledge of [their] Indigenous and land-based communities.” A mission setting them apart by having some amazingly fertile waterways, ones that are not just worked but fostered to keep with tradition. There is real work, real hard work, to be done to have this wild rice. They are some of the few that don’t use cultivated seeds, allowing the land to thrust forth a bounty all it’s own. Each grain is placed in a skiff, then bagged up, and milled – each and every one – has had many hands of the native peoples all with an eye on keeping customs alive and their food sources as natural and un-industrialized as possible.

Native Harvest also brings alive the wild rice they gather – it’s rich and has a depth unlike any wild rice we’ve ever had. They say it tastes ‘of the lake’ and we can’t help but agree. It’s a profound experience, to cook-up a bit of hand-harvested heritage-packed rice – the aroma alone is like being transported, take a bite and away you go. The lake is all there, it stands far above any other not-really-wild rice out there.

We love Native Harvest’s wild rice and think it’s more than deserving of a place on our shelves. Experience the legacy of true wild rice. Love their stuff? Want to leave your favorite wild rice recipe? Drop us a line below – we’d love to hear from you.

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