Jim Rickert, right, with his wife Mary, first grew wild rice more than 40 years ago when it was still a relatively new crop for California farmers.
has been mechanically scratched so water can be absorbed faster. The process retains the nutritional value of the grain but reduces the cooking time to 20 to 25 minutes, or 12 minutes in a pressure cooker, Christie says. Rice blends that combine wild rice with white rice use scarified wild rice so they have the same cooking time. Unwelcome fans Humans are not the only creatures that have discovered the tastiness of wild rice. Jim Rickert says blackbirds “love this stuff, and they can decimate a field.” Damage can be so severe in some years that he’s left small fields behind rather than harvest what’s left of the crop. Most deterrents he’s tried don’t work once the birds get used to them, he says. Noise guns, for example, “annoy my neighbors” more than they protect his crop. Other times he would blast loud music at the birds from his old pickup. “Blackbirds don’t seem to like classical music,” Rickert says. “You could give them a little William Tell Overture or something, and they seem to fly off pretty good with that.”
Saving Farms Saving Profits Saving Futures
CHAPTER 12
Imagine a Better Future | Restore Your Farming Legacy Eliminate debt. Stop foreclosure. Stop repossessions. Cancel bad vendor and packing house contracts. Sell farmland with little to no capital gains tax.
Ching Lee clee@californiabountiful.com
Free Consultation | 760.884.4444 | www.JDL.law
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