Bob - When are you going to post some pictures of the ricing days on this site? 

For those who don't know what ricing is I'll try to briefly explain.

Wild rice grows in swampy bog areas mostly in Ontario, Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Years ago, the Indians figured out a way to harvest the wild rice and insure the rice beds got reseeded at the same time.  They used 30 inch sticks (That's the law in Minnesota today) while in a canoe to reach out from side to side, bend the rice stalks over the canoe side with one stick and rub the seeds off the stalk with the other stick.  When doing this most of the seeds went into the canoe but SOME seeds went over the side and into the water thereby reseeding the rice bed for following years.  A rice seed can lay dormant in the bog for 5 years before germanating. 

Of course man has figured out how to cultivate wild rice by using commercial fertilizers to replace the natural swamp type habitat but in my mind, cultivated wild rice does not quite come up to the real thing as far as flavor goes.

Up until 1956, only Indians (Native Americans) in Minesota were allowed to harvest wild rice.  (I think it was 1956).  That's not to say white men didn't poach and harvest the rice, because there was big money involved.  I had my first wild rice license in 1956 and went ricing my first time with Trefarmer's Father........LEON