Our Northern Minnesota wild rice is Native American hand harvested the old way, in a canoe. This traditional gathering rite has been used by our ancestors for generations. Please don't confuse this with paddy grown "wild rice"! They look and taste completely different! The much darker (often black) paddy rice is machine planted and machine harvested, resulting in a bland tasting rice that may take up to 3 times longer to cook and yields a lot less per pound. Many rice paddys are sprayed with herbicides. Our hand harvested wild rice grows naturally in the lakes and river beds on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. This mouth watering nutty taste cannot be compared to the mass produced paddy rice. This wild rice was wood parched. By using this method versus propane (which drys the rice) our wild rice is left more moist, resulting in a fluffier, more flavorful, faster cooking rice. We do not mix are batches of wild rice! All the rice you recieve will come from the same lake or river bed. This insures even cooking and quality taste. The lighter color of wild rice indicates the best quality rice. Wild rice will keep forever if stored in a dry place. We will include recipes.