New wild rice product great for snacking

Wild rice from Northern Saskatchewan marshes has long been a source of food in Saskatchewan but one family’s wild rice operation has developed a snack using wild rice. Wild rice popcorn was one of the new products at Canadian Western Agribition this year. Cameron Dawson of Rusty’s Wild Rice and his family gave samples of the product at their booth in the Agribition Food Centre. They started doing the rice popcorn about three years ago. “We experimented with it, seeing what people thought about it. It’s been really catching on,” he said. The family has made wild rice popcorn for its own enjoyment since he was a kid. “I wanted to do it (commercially). I never had the ambition. My girlfriend kinda kicked me in the butt and said: ‘Get going’!” They make popcorn from wild rice by dropping the rice into hot cooking oil. The wild rice has a moisture content between “When the rice hits the oil, the water reacts and pops it right up.” He cautions against trying this at home: the oil gets hot and splatters. The Hudson Bay, Sask. business also dis- The pancake mix has sea salt and some or- mill twice to eliminate any coarse pieces. They use a stone mill because metal grind- Proudly saying he was born and raised in - ence with wild rice was at age 18 months “when my grandpa took me out in the air boat” over the rice marshes. They sell their products mostly online at rusty’swildrice.ca with recipes on site. Order sizes range from two pounds to 2,000 pounds. Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@ sasktel.net