PREPARATION FOR FOOD. 19 



harvesting- of wild rice is not regarded by the Indians as a particularly 

 arduous task, though attempts by white men to do the same work have 

 not proved very successful. 



PREPARATION OF THE SEED FOR FOOD PURPOSES. 



After the wild-rice seed is harvested into the canoe, it is taken 

 ashore and put in piles or spread out for a preliminaiy drying. (PI. 

 VI, rig-. 2.) If allowed to remain piled up for more than a few hours 

 when fresh, fermentation sets in, as the seed is very damp and soft 

 when gathered, so that almost immediately after it is harvested it is 

 either spread out thinly to dry, or is parched ready for hulling. The 

 parching is at present done by the Indians in a very primitive way, as 

 is shown in Plate VI, tig. 1. The seed is put into a kettle over a slow 

 tire and stirred with a stick until it is roasted so that the hull is brittle 

 enough to be easily broken. Not much more than a half bushel can 

 be parched at a time, and it requires from half an hour to an hour to 

 parch a single lot, and the seed demands constant attention throughout 

 the parching process to keep it from burning. Unless stirred evenly 

 the kernels pop open or become so brittle as to break up badly in the 

 subsequent hulling process. There is a most excellent opportunity 

 for the development of some simple device for the uniform parching 

 of wild-rice seed. The parching is what gives the seed its hig-hly 

 esteemed flavor as a food, and if this operation and the subsequent 

 hulling can be done uniformly the percentage of burned and broken 

 seed will be much less than at present, and, furthermore, the cost of 

 production of the food will be very greatl} r reduced. 



After the seed has been parched it is spread out to cool, and soon 

 after it is hulled. The hulling is at present the most tedious operation 

 in the whole process of preparation. The Indians ordinarily accom- 

 plish it by putting about a bushel of the seed into a hole in the 

 ground, lined with cedar staves or burnt cla} T , and then beating or 

 punching it with heavy sticks. Often three or four men work 

 together on one lot. After the seed has been beaten until the hulls 

 have all been cracked or broken, the grains and hulls are separated by 

 tossing the mixture up into the wind from light birch-bark baskets. 

 After the parching and hulling are finished the grain is sufficiently 

 dry to keep indefinitely. Plate VII shows some wild-rice seed with the 

 hull on, some with the hull removed, and some parched . seed, also 

 with the hull removed. 



As a food material this parched wild rice is highly esteemed by 

 those who like the "gamy" flavor which it acquires b} T parching. It 

 is cooked with wild fowl and also used as a breakfast food. For 

 either purpose it should have several preliminary washings in cold 

 water to remove any disagreeable smoky taste. It is also used to a 

 limited extent for making rice cakes. For this purpose it is milled 



