We are so inured to shop-bought factory-farmed foods that we forget that all our foodstuffs originated in the wild. Indeed, everything we eat today started out life as a wild plant. Due to selective breeding cabbages and kale may not look much like their wild ancestors any more. Which is not to say that those wild ancestors don’t exist and remain perfectly edible.
If you know what to look for and how to recognize the plants then the wild harvest can provide many completely free delights for your table. What’s more wild foods are truly and completely seasonal and provide a sense of what our ancestors used to eat.
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Often those who advocate wild foods and wild ingredients are seen as either slightly worthy or slightly weird. It can frequently be perceived that such proponents of wild foods want you to whole-heartedly and completely change your lifestyle to eating nothing but wild foods.
You are welcome to do this, if you so desire, but that’s definitely not the point of the wild food movement at all. It’s partly about increasing people’s views of nature and the natural world. After all, if you naturally add wild ingredients to your overall larder then you will appreciate nature and what it can do for your. Nature no longer becomes an enemy or something you have to fight with. Rather the wild world becomes an extension of your environment. Something useful that you can dip into to extend the types of food available to you.
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Wild rice is the state grain of Minnesota. For hundreds of years wild rice was a staple food for the Chippewa and the Sioux. They harvested rice from canoes and used long sticks to shake the grain into boats. Some Native Americans still raise and harvest rice this way. However, most wild rice is raised by farmers and harvested with giant combines.
Wild rice is high in protein and low in fat. A little goes a long way. One cup of uncooked rice makes about three cups of cooked rice. You can add flavor by cooking the rice in beef, chicken, or vegetable stock. The rice tastes best when slightly crunchy, so keep track of the time. Overcooked rice is mushy and looks like popcorn.
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