Wild About Rice

In our 3rd humanities class, Food for Thought we talked all about food and where it comes from, we made personal connections to our food and traced it back. We went on a field experience to Metropolis Coffee, where we learned about the origins of coffee. In class, we made a map and traced back different types of food to different ancient civilizations. For our action project, we were asked to pick an ingredient that correlates to a traditional family dish. I chose wild rice because my family is Canadian and lots of us have grown up in northern Wisconsin, it has been a key part of our family meals for generations. I researched and traced back wild rice, as well as interviewing my grandmother who is a famous family cook, about her fondness and experience with wild rice. In the end, I think it came out really well and I am very proud of my video and research. I think the hardest part  was making the presentation since it was a prezi and I am really bad at them. It was also hard to record as I kept messing up. In the end I am very proud of my project and I am happy I could research something personal.

My Script:

Hello, my name is wild rice I am a delicious grain that has been growing right here in North America for thousands of years. I also have been known to grow in China along with many other rice species, although I am not related to any Asian rice species. I have always been most popular in North America

I appear as a grass and I like to live in and near marshy and inland lake areas. I am most commonly found in the lakes and streams of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. There are actually 3 different species of wild rice grown in North America and 1 in China. The most common type is northern wild rice, which I am.

The others are Wild rice, which is native to around the St. Lawrence river and along the Gulf and Atlantic coast of America. Texas wild rice is native to central Texas. And Manchurian Wild rice which is native to China.

I was first harvested by The Ojibwe, as well as many other tribes when they discovered me while canoeing. I was most commonly eaten by dabbling ducks but when native American discovered me I was harvested, and all of me was put to use. Not only would they eat my grain but they took my stalks and made satchels, bags, and tools out of me. I was used in many traditional Ojibwe and native American dishes. I was traditionally cooked in deer broth or maple syrup. I was also made into sweets like rice cakes and rice puffs.

I was harvested by two people in a canoe one would row while the other would use a “knocker” which is a wooden pole that they would push the flowering bud on top so the rice would fall into the canoe. In many native American cultures, wild rice harvesting is a sacred & cultural event. The Ojibwe people refer to me as manoomin which means “harvesting berry” or “good berry.” I am known to be a sacred food believed to be a gift from the Great Spirit.

I was mostly used by native people but due to my nutritional value and taste. I gained popularity in the mid to late 20th century. Commercial harvesting started in the U.S. and Canada.

In 1950 James & Gerald Godward started the first wild rice paddy near Brainerd, Minnesota. They discovered that I did not need flowing water to grow. They only had a one-acre meadow that they dug dikes and constructed drainage ditches and flooded the tilled soil. They spread my seeds and the crops grew. They were the first to grow me not in the wild.

The U.S. and Canada produce much of the world’s wild rice In the U.S. California and Minnesota are my biggest producers and I am grown in paddies. In Canada, I am usually harvested from natural lakes in Saskatchewan.

In 1974 my cultivation began in Hungary on the rice fields on Szarvas. Hungarian wild rice is cultivated under its own company and ships around the world.

Today, I am used in many dishes in north America, and I am usually associated with Canadian or northern culture. I am still harvested in the traditional native American ways in some places. In the Moody family, I have been an important part of their family culture for generations. The Moody family is originally from Quebec, but many of them grew up in northern Wisconsin. Yvonne Moody grew up in northern Wisconsin and has been a cook her whole life. One of her favorite recipes to make is wild rice pilaf. According to Yvonne, “It is important to the family because it has been served at many dinners. The history goes back to the area where I grew up and enjoyed the wild rice harvested by the Native Americans in our area. The value is extremely high because of our fondness for it. Priceless.”

The Moody family gets their wild rice from North Bay Trading Company, company based out of Canada where they buy me in bulk.

Food for Thought AP1 CM from CM on Vimeo.

Sources:

"About Us." North Bay Trading Co., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017

"History." White Earth Wild Rice. White Earth Nation., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

lucy_sarson, "China Flag", Flickr, Web, 2011, 27 Apr. 2017

Nicholas Raymond, "Hungary Grunge Flag", Flickr, Web, 2012, 27 Apr. 2017

"Louisiana State Flag", Wikimedia  Wikimedia Foundation. n.d, Web, 27 Apr. 2017.

vejoyce, "Texas State Flag", Flickr, Web, 2011, 27 Apr. 2017

"Wild Rice." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Apr. 2017. Web. 27 Apr. 2017

Growing Groceries

For our first unit of our Food class, we were asked to create a garden. In our first unit, we studied plants and how they grow. We also learned about ecosystems and symbiosis and how plants and animals work together. We also learned about systems of equations and graphing inequalities. We took an FE to a restaurant and garden called Big Delicious Planet where we got tips on how to start a garden of our own. We were asked to find containers and a spot to put them in as our garden. We also had to find 10 different companion plants to plant in our garden. We then had to test our soil and calculate how many different nutrients to add. I thought this project was cool and really connected with both the math and the science we studied in our first unit. My favorite part was picking out the plants and the containers for our garden. I am most proud of my design and location of my garden.

CM "Garden Plan" (2017)

When I was first asked to create a garden, my mind jumped to my somewhat successful real garden that does produce a fair amount of crops. I wanted to do something a little different than your traditional raised beds. I wanted to do something compact that still could produce plenty of crops. I chose my front porch. I think it needs a little bit of greenery. I have lots of plants and crops in the garden and in the backyard as well as in the front yard, but not much 0n the porch. My front porch is decently big, but I chose just a small section left of the door. The space is only about 3ft by 6ft but I could still fit a decent amount of pots, besides, all the rest of the porch is taken up by furniture.

I chose to use 5 ceramic pots that I have in my garage that we usually use to plant flowers in. Each pot is 1ft high with a radius of 6in. They each hold about 226 cubic in of soil and all together they hold 1130 cubic in of soil. I know this by taking the formula of volume of a cylinder which is pi x r^2 x h. Then our formula is 3.14 x 6^2 x 12 = 226. If you multiply that by 5 you get 226 x 5 = 1130. For the surface area, I took the area of a circle which is pi x r^2. Our equation is then 3.14 x 6^2 x 5 because we have 5 pots. Our total surface area is 562 sq in.

When I tested my soil I found out that my Nitrogen level was 25, my Phosphorus level was 2, my Potassium level was 272, and my CEC was 0. According to the Peaceful Valley Farm Supply’s guide to soil, my nitrogen levels were at a medium level which means I would have to apply a moderate amount of additives to my soil. I chose blood meal because it was the lightest. The meal is 4lbs per 100 sq ft. I first had to calculate my square footage: .5 x .5 x 3.14 x 5 = 3.925 sq ft. To find out how much to use, I used this calculation: 4 lbs/100 sq ft = x lbs/3.925 sq ft x = .157 lbs. My Phosphorus levels were very, very low so I need 5lbs of soft rock phosphate per 100 sq ft. My calculation is: 5 lbs/100 sq ft = x lbs/3.925 sq ft x = 0.19625 lbs. My Potassium levels were medium and since I have a CEC of under 15, I don’t have to add anything.

The plants I chose were: radishes, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, onions, beets, cabbage, beans, and garlic. I chose these plants because they are all vegetables that are companion plants to each other. In the first pot, I put peas & radishes, in the second pot I put onions & beets, in the third pot I put carrots & lettuce, in the fourth pot I put beans & cucumbers, and in the fifth pot I put cabbage and garlic. All of the plants that are put together are companion plants. Companion plants mean that the plants support each other. This means they also have a mutualistic relationship meaning that they help each other.

Fukuoka’s 4 principles of natural farming are: no pesticides, no herbicides, no cultivation, and no fertilizer. In my garden, I will not use any of these and will go all natural like Fukuoka. I will do this because I don't believe in chemical pesticides and herbicides, and since my garden is so small there is no need for cultivation or fertilizer.

I might actually implement my garden. The pots I used are supposed to be for flowers so I might have to find different containers. I would also need to find a different space because that space is full of pots usually. In the end, this project taught me how complicated it actually is to decide what to plant in a garden. The garden I actually have was decided by my dad a number of years ago. I also thought about how hard it is to find the right containers and space.

Works cited:
"Companion Planting Guide." Growing Tips Article at Burpee.com. Burpee, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.