Getting some wild rice

The wife and i got out today for a few hours until her arms were tired. We got about twenty pounds in two hours. I was hoping for more . I’ve read that a good team can get three hundred pounds a day in six hours, that’s fifty pounds an hour. We got about ten pounds an hour. Anyone come close to fifty pounds an hour? I just don’t see it happening. I don’t know if she needs to hit it harder or what but fifty pounds an hour sure seems impossible. What say you?

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I’ve heard the same thing about 300 lbs in a day, and have seen some canoes at the end of the day that I can believe that. Obviously the big thing is being in a body of water that has a lot of rice, but then being able to “read” the rice and focus on the areas that it’s falling off the best and really working it. Of course more practice/experience helps.

I’m going out the next two days. I hope we can get close to that 300 lb mark, but I won’t be holding my breath.

We try to hit it pretty hard but no matter how hard we try we cant out rice or indian guide. He even takes a beer brake every 45 minutes. There is a lot more to it than just whacking some rice stocks.

I like the idea of a beer break every forty five minutes, but I’d need a pee break every ten minutes if I did that! Lol . I like the idea of working certain areas harder that have more rice falling instead of just going. I did notice that some stretches the rice wasn’t coming off as well, I just figured the little woman wasn’t giving it her all! I do think next year I’d like to find a male partner with a bit more enthusiasm, the wife’s not to thrilled about doing it but she sure likes to eat it!

Is this the same wild rice as we see on the back waters of the Mississippi river? Anyone harvest it here on the river? Is it legal? No idea. Thanks.

riverruns wrote:

Is this the same wild rice as we see on the back waters of the Mississippi river? Anyone harvest it here on the river? Is it legal? No idea. Thanks.

. I’m sure it is . Most of what I’ve got has been on the Mississippi River or a tributary like today.

Nice job Gino and Mrs Gino!!!👍

Thanks Glenn , a few more trips and I can fire up the parcher!

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Gino wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>riverruns wrote:</div>
Is this the same wild rice as we see on the back waters of the Mississippi river? Anyone harvest it here on the river? Is it legal? No idea. Thanks.

. I’m sure it is . Most of what I’ve got has been on the Mississippi River or a tributary like today.

Thanks. Could you explain the process too harvest it and process it? How much does one need for personal use, say 10 meals a year? Thanks.

Well to harvest it you need a license , a canoe, and a partner. The canoe is used backwards the pusher stands in the front of the canoe but is in the back so the knocker sits in the back but is in the front. He or she uses two sticks of 30 inches to pull the rice over the canoe with one stick and whacks it with the other. This is the basic procedure. The rice is then spread out and dried for a few days. Then it gets parched in batches at around three hundred degrees for twenty to forty minutes depending on the amount in the parcher. Once it is parched and cooled it must be thrashed to remove the husks. After that it is cleaned to remove the husk particles, its called winnowing. So three steps to process then ready to package or cook. It’s way better than store bought wild rice. Here’s some processing equipment I made

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For ten family meals a year you would need around twenty to twenty five pounds of fresh harvested rice. The longer the rice drys before parching the darker it turns . Here you can see the difference of rice that was parched the same weekend it was harvested and also rice parched a week later

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Seems to me rice on the edge of the rice feilds drys first. Maybe it gets more wind or sun. We will start there and then move in.

The rice always falls better in the afternoon than the morning. Its still wet from dew in the morning.

Rice doesn’t mature the same on every body of water. Some places are good early season. Others late season.

Rice on large bodies of water seem to be more effected by the wind. This might mean dry faster or blown off the stocks by the wind.

Rice is not the same in all areas. Some areas have shorter grains than others.

Amount of rice worms can very from area to area.

In the 3 years Ive riced we have hit 6 different areas. Im guessing thats just a small amount of the areas our guide has riced.

I agree on it being different location to location , last year we got some on a lake and it seemed like it was much thicker and longer grains than what we get on the river . The river rice was much easier to harvest though so that’s what we’re doing now . The lake was much deeper and made it way harder to push through.

riverruns wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Gino wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>riverruns wrote:<

Thanks. Could you explain the process too harvest it and process it? How much does one need for personal use, say 10 meals a year? Thanks.

. I need to revise the numbers, I was thinking a pound a meal but actually one cup of unprepared rice is enough for a family of four as a side dish. One pound if rice is a little less than four cups. So really you would need around two and a half pounds of processed rice, just call it three pounds. I would figure around seven to eight pounds of fresh harvested rice. You get about a forty percent return on harvested to processed rice.

300 lbs is ok this year . 560 is best that I know of this year . 365 for us . River rice is last to be ripe . There are a lot of good lakes by you and the polling not bad . A lot of lakes are past prime but 200 – 250 is still doable. Storms could do it in . We are all in are 60s and 40+ years of doing it.

That’s incredible, Carl! No doubt that experience will yield more pounds.

My friend and I have been ricing for 5 years now, and we’re getting better each time out but still a long ways from 300+ lb days. We were out the last couple of days in Aitkin County and managed about 300lbs for the two days, with the second day being slightly better than the first. Other people at the landing had similar amounts, some a little more, some less, but those with more were definitely more experienced than us.

The one well known lake in Aitkin area lost half it’s crop last Saturday in storms or you would have done much better .

Wild rice is destroying our end of the lake. Launch at my cabin from the dock and travel 50 yards to the rice motherland. Near Spooner Wi. I’m serious. Pm me if interested. Rarely does anyone rice here because the boat Landing is miles away. Private access only.
I don’t know if it’s ripe but let me know how to test it and I will.

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Carl wrote:

The one well known lake in Aitkin area lost half it’s crop last Saturday in storms or you would have done much better .

I heard the same thing from two different people there. I know I’m pretty new to ricing, but the stand looked great to me and I wouldn’t have ever thought a storm went through it just a few days earlier. None of it was blown over and any grains missing from the heads I had chalked up to simply falling off due to ripeness.

It was torrential rain no wind so rice was ripe last Friday .

You don’t need to beat it hard at all when ripe . Ripe rice will be hanging loose and falling off when polling in it . Picking is a art .

Was out today with my boss. I made a deal he would receive one third of what we got because I do my own processing. We managed to get the canoe half full by eleven just after he decided to fall out the back of the canoe and sending me over the side. The canoe tipped over sideways and rice rushed out and water rushed in. I’m not sure how much we lost but I’m typing on a new phone and he lost an expensive pair of sunglasses. I told him before we started not to tip us over lol. We ended with fifty-six pounds soaking wet in three hours.

Oh no, that really sucks, Gino.