Wild Edibles: Long Grain Wild Rice

Since I have been home and trying to embrace Vermontian pastimes, my brother-in-law Dan Lovell, has invited me along on his quest for wild edibles growing locally and around Vermont. Given my profound love for nature and secret desire to self-sustain, Into-the-Wild-style, I eagerly took up the offer. So far I have been harvesting wild blackberries in the woods behind my house, learning to hunt and identify wild edible mushrooms, and most recently, harvesting wild rice in the marshes of Lake Champlain.

On Tuesday morning, Dan, his friend Frank and I adorned ourselves with camouflage chest waders and prepared ourselves to tread the knee to waist-high waters of Lake Champlain's Sandbar State Park. There was a slight drizzle and overcast skies, but we felt comfortable that it would hold out. We stepped into the marshy landscape, where the tall grasses danced above our heads. Each carrying a five-gallon-pail, we grasped the fronds of the rice and banged them around inside. The ripe grains shook off, and the young ones remained on the plant.  It wasn'tbefore long that the bottoms of our pails were lined with grain, and most unexpectedly, Spiders.  They must have been living on the rice, Dan Explained. When we had our fill (about half a five-gallon-pail between the three of us) we decided to head out. 

While I sat in the back seat looking after the rice, I also kept the spiders at bay as they continued to climb the walls and spill out of the bucket.  I enjoyed observing them because they were unlike spiders I had seen before. They had very long front and back legs, and the ones in the middle where short.They also had an elongated body. There colors ranged from redish brown to light green. I saw one at rest and his legs were stretch out in front of him and in back of him, making him look very long and thin. Then I realized, "Wow! They must live on the rice, because they actually look like it." Nature is awesome that way. 

Above Photo: A spider at rest next to a grain of wild rice.  

Above: A glance at our harvest after the spiders were "taken care of."

Now that we've harvested, it's time to process. Each grain of rice is protected by a husk. Its now our fun job to separate it. SOUNDS LABOR INSTENSIVE. Well, maybe not. First off, we need to dry it out. Thorough drying will make the grains hard and the husks brittle. Then we can simply crush it by stomping on it with our feet or what have you, which will separate the undesirables from the goods. 

To dry out the grains, we spread them out over a couple cook sheets and popped them in the oven for a few ours on WARM. Dries them out right nice :D. They're actually still there now...