Today we paddled back in time and harvested wild rice by canoe in the BWCAW. Mirroring the traditional ways of the Sioux and Chippewa in this region, we paddled and portaged our canoe to a wild rice stand.
The above video shows us using smooth wooden poles, called flails, to tap off the ripe grains of wild rice, we slowly filled the bottom of our canoe. The wild rice has a relatively short season and we fortunately made it out just before most of the rice had dropped naturally into the water.
The below photo shows a close-up of the wild rice grains before they are parched and finished.
Looks like you're going to have some wonderful Christmas gifts (hint, hint) of "home-made" wild rice!