Wild Rice (Manoomin)

Great Lakes region, North America — Anishinaabe (Ojibwe, Chippewa) tradition; manoomin harvest has been practised for thousands of years; the grain is protected by tribal sovereignty and treaty rights in Minnesota and Wisconsin

Manoomin (the good berry) — wild rice (Zizania palustris) — is a water grass grain sacred to the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes region, harvested by canoe (knocking the ripe grain into the hull with cedar or wooden sticks called 'knockers') from lakes and rivers of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario. True wild rice is different from commercially paddy-grown wild rice in flavour, texture, and cultural significance — the lakes where it grows are considered sacred, and the harvest is governed by tribal protocols and seasonal law. The grain has a distinctly nutty, smoky flavour and a firm, chewy texture that paddy-grown wild rice cannot replicate. Manoomin is cooked simply — simmered in water or stock — and served as a side dish, in soups, or mixed with dried berries and venison.

Served as a side dish at ceremonial feasts (jiimaanike — ricing feast); in soups with venison; mixed with cranberries and served at Thanksgiving; the connection to the land and waterways of the Great Lakes is inseparable from the flavour — manoomin tastes like the lake it came from