How Wild Rice is Made
Harvesting & Processing
The wild rice plant is harvested using flat-bottomed air boats. The harvested wild rice is put into sacs and transferred to a different location for processing. The grain is dried and cured in the sun for at least five days. Following that, the grain is transferred to a plant, where it is roasted at 148 °C until the moisture content is reduced to 7 - 8 %.
Packaged and distributed
from our plant in Denmark
The finished Riese - Vertmont wild rice is then packaged and ready to go on the world markets.
Our wild rice comes from the lakes of Western and Northern Canada. The plants grow in shallow water in small lakes, and slow-flowing streams; often, only the flowering head of wild rice rises above the water. Native Americans would harvest wild rice by canoeing into a stand of plants, and bending the ripe grain heads with wooden sticks, called knockers, so as to thresh the seeds into the canoe. Today, it is harvested using flat-bottomed air boats, but the process remains much the same as it has for centuries.
