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Wild rice, or manoomin, was a major food source for Native Americans. It was once abundant throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and most of Canada.
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Grosse Ile and the surrounding wetlands are popular stopovers for migrating waterfowl. And like all other long- distance travelers, the birds need a good restaurant along the way.
Two weekends back, members of the Grosse Ile Nature and Land Conservancy got into the waterfowl restaurant business.
The conservancy built a 25- by-50-foot enclosure at the Grosse Ile Nature Area and seeded it and another open area with 10 pounds of wild rice.
"It's a universal food," conservancy President Bruce Jones said. "Ducks, geese, swans -- they go nuts for it."
Wild rice was once so abundant throughout northern fresh water lakes it was the staple of the Native Americans' diet.
By the early 1900s, industrialization and environmental manipulation reduced its range to clear lakes and rivers of the most northern regions of Minnesota and across Canada. Native Americans continued to grow the "sacred grass" on reservations in Wisconsin and Michigan, but in smaller numbers.
The conservancy decided to reintroduce it not for human consumption, but to increase diversity of species.
The rice is a food sources for a variety of waterfowl, muskrats and deer and serves as cover and a nursery for other species.
Wild rice helps maintain water quality by binding loose soil, tying up nutrients and slowing winds across shallow wetlands. These factors increase water clarity and reduce algae blooms.
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Grosse Ile Nature and Land Conservancy members Ingo Hasserodt (left) and Pete Rock eye their workmanship at the Nature Area. The 25-by-50 foot enclosure was seeded with wild rice in hopes that the native plant will attract more wildlife.
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Wild rice grows best in shallow water, ideally one to two feet deep. The best location is in a lake or sheltered bay with a slow current.
In bumper years, one acre of rice can produce 500 pounds of seed.
Seeds can remain dormant for five years or more. This allows the rice to survive an occasional crop failure.
Conservancy member Pete Rock helped build the rice garden. Swinging the sledgehammer was not the hardest part of the job.
"They stink," he said about the seeds. "I was surprised it doesn't smell like rice at all. It smells like manure."
But they taste great, according to Kay McGowan. The seeds have a consistency like rice but with a nuttier taste, she said.
Wild rice was misclassified by early Europeans. It's not actually rice. It's a grain.
McGowan, who is part Cherokee and Choctaw, has edited Native American cookbooks with recipes that use wild rice, called manoomin by the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Ottawa.
The legend goes that the three Algonquin tribes were told by the creator to head west and make their home where the food grows on the water.
When they came to Bautaig, which is today Sault Ste Marie, they saw the manoomin and knew this was the place where they were meant to live.
"It's probably the only place in the entire country where the wild rice was a more important food source than corn," McGowan said.
The native people ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also developed rituals based around the manoomin.
"When they collect the wild rice to this day, it's a man and a woman in their own canoe and they don't take anyone else with them, and they harvest it right into the bottom of the canoe until it's filled up," McGowan said.
"Spiritually (having a man and a woman) would guarantee a good harvest and would guarantee nothing bad would happen when they were out collecting the wild rice."
The grain is high in protein and carbohydrates but very low in fat. In its natural state the rice contains higher levels of vitamins and minerals than most other cereal grains.
Jones said the conservancy plans to seed the areas for three years to increase the likelihood that it will take to the soil.
Jones added other groups interested in starting their own rice beds have contacted him. With Wisconsin and Minnesota reintroducing rice beds too, waterfowl restaurants are becoming booming businesses.
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