What memories do you have of wild rice harvesting?
Bruce: I started off, I was a young boy, seeing my father harvesting wild rice. I do believe it was in the late 70s when I have seen my dad bring some wild rice. It was introduced up in our area. My Dad started seeding on a few little lakes, and the following year it started growing. Everything was done by hand in those days, harvesting with two paddles. It’s changed quite a bit, now we have fiberglass and aluminum flat-bottomed boats, I’m not sure who designed them.
Judy: When Bruce and I met, we helped out the old man, and we fell in love with the wild rice and the idea of doing our own harvesting work. We’ve continued wild ricing together for almost twenty-five years, and we still love it today.
How do you feel about being part of an Indigenous-owned and operated business?
Bruce: For me, working with NWC Wild Rice is working with my own people. Finally, we have something we can call our own, and it makes us so proud of being part of this team. It’s been a long time coming, for us to be full partners in the wild rice business.
What would you like to say to the people eating your wild rice?
Judy: It’s the best rice ever because it’s 100% organic, and it’s well handled and well taken care of into the market. We work hard to keep it as clean as possible because we know it will end up on your dinner table.
I started off, I was a young boy, seeing my father harvesting wild rice. I do believe it was in the late 70s when I saw my dad bring home some wild rice. Some stripe of government introduced it up in this area.
I don’t know where they got it from, La Ronge, through metis society, or what stripe of government, I don’t know. Introduced it up in this area. I try to think hard here. Anyways, to me, that’s how my dad started on a few little lakes and seeded it, and then the following year, it started growing, and everything was done by hand, harvesting with two paddles. Then motors and flatbottomed boats were introduced, and I don’t know who built those boats, they were aluminum and fiberglass, they have changed quite a bit.
From there on, when Bruce and I met, we helped out the old man, and then we fell in love with the idea of doing our own stuff, and that’s how we continued to do harvesting all these years, about 25 years together doing wild ricing. We still love it today!
