Only one rice type is truly indigenous to the USA - black wild rice, which is botanically speaking not rice at all, but the seed of a tall, flowering water grass.

This plant flourishes particularly well in the river and lake areas of North America, and especially in California. For some Native American tribes, wild rice was originally their main nutrition source and they named it “Manoomin” – the “precious grain”.

At harvest time in September they would paddle their canoes through the waterways where the rice grew and knock the ripe seeds with their paddles so that the harvest fell into the boat – the grain that accidentally fell into the water became the seed for the next year’s harvest.

BON APPÉTIT!