The History and Story of Wild Rice
(Page 2 of 4)
January/February 2002
By Janet Cass
In another bowl mix egg white, syrup, milk, and lemon peel. Add these wet ingredients to dry without overmixing. Fold in rice and berries. Divide among muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes, until tops are brown.
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THREE SISTERS SOUP
Serves 1 as an entrée or 2 as an appetizer Some Native Americans have traditionally called corn, beans, and squash “the three sisters.”
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons jalapeno pepper jelly
1/2 cup vanilla soy drink
1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup frozen cooked wild rice
1/4 cup cannellini beans
Mix the pumpkin, pepper jelly, and soy drink in a small saucepan. Add the corn, rice, and beans and heat over medium heat 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Break up the jelly; the heat will liquefy it.
WILD RICE-APRICOT DESSERT TOPPING
1/2 cup cooked wild rice
1/2 cup apricot jam
Puree together rice and jam. Use as frosting on chocolate cake and brownies, and as topping for frozen vanilla yogurt. Or mix an equal volume of this topping with plain, non-fat yogurt for a sweet, creamy dessert. Yields enough to frost a 71/4 inch square pan of brownies.
The Wild Rice Moon
Winona LaDuke
As the Anishinaabeg Ojibwe tell the story, Nanaboozhoo, the cultural hero of the Anishinaabeg, was introduced to wild rice by fortune, and by a duck.
One evening Nanaboozhoo returned from hunting, but he had no game...As he came toward his fire, there was a duck sitting on the edge of his kettle of boiling water. After the duck flew away, Nanaboozhoo looked into the kettle and found wild rice floating upon the water, but he did not know what it was. He ate his supper from the kettle, and it was the best soup he had ever tasted. Later, he followed in the direction the duck had taken, and came to a lake full of manoomin: wild rice. He saw all kinds of ducks and geese and mud hens, and all the other water birds eating the grain. After that, when Nanaboozhoo did not kill a deer, he knew where to find food to eat....
Manoomin is a centerpiece of the nutrition and sustenance for our community, a gift given to the Anishinaabeg from the Creator. The word manoomin itself contains a reference to the Creator, who is referred to as Gitchi Manidoo. In the earliest of historic teachings of Anishinaabeg, there is a reference to wild rice as the food that grows upon the water, the food the ancestors were told to find so they would know when to end their migration to the West. This profound and historic relationship is remembered in the wild rice harvest on White Earth and other reservations. It is a food uniquely ours, a food used in our daily lives, our ceremonies, and in our thanksgiving feasts.