Rice seed sources and wild rice? questions for Ben

Hi There, I am very curious about where you get rice seed from? I live in humid and wet (but not the summer) Olympia, WA and have considered growing brown rice or wild rice. Have you looked at growing wild rice/perennial rice? Where did you get short season cold hardy rice seed from? Are there other sources for that dehuller that you found in a barn, i.e. have you found since modern sources for hulling rice on a small scale in Japan or elsewhere?

I am looking at all non-gluten grains in general and rice is definitely at the top of my list. I'm trying quinoa, millet, amaranth, and corn (which is very hard to do at my location) this year. With it being so wet I think rice would work the best.

Thanks, Dennis

Dennis Lanigan wrote:Hi There, I am very curious about where you get rice seed from? I live in humid and wet (but not the summer) Olympia, WA and have considered growing brown rice or wild rice. Have you looked at growing wild rice/perennial rice? Where did you get short season cold hardy rice seed from? Are there other sources for that dehuller that you found in a barn, i.e. have you found since modern sources for hulling rice on a small scale in Japan or elsewhere?

I am looking at all non-gluten grains in general and rice is definitely at the top of my list. I'm trying quinoa, millet, amaranth, and corn (which is very hard to do at my location) this year. With it being so wet I think rice would work the best.

Thanks, Dennis

We grow our own brown rice seed from a small quantity we obtained from the USDA and the Akaogi farm 4 years ago. The first year we grew in buckets to simply have enough seeds for paddies in the following year. We tried wild rice in our ponds via mud seed balls but they didn't emerge - we haven't spent any more time trying wild rice, but might someday.
We have not found other good rice dehulling methods aside from the kind of human powered dehuller we have here. One can make them however as they operate simply. They fling rice at high speed to crack the hull but not the grain - they don't force the rice through rollers as I had originally thought. A bike powered rice dehuller would not be too hard to make if you saw how one of these worked. These could work with other grains I think.

Did you get the name of the variety you grew?
I doubt it would grow as well here being such a different climate as it is but it'd be nice to look it up anyway.

Devon Olsen wrote:Did you get the name of the variety you grew?
I doubt it would grow as well here being such a different climate as it is but it'd be nice to look it up anyway.

Hayayuki... but we;'ve tried others - that's been the most reliable - shortest season, however.

I got my seed from the US grain database as well. I was surprised how hard rice seed is to find before I went there. I did not want poor serd but quality seed not the modern crap. Doing the seed run for a few years was worth it.

Can you tell us more about this dehuller? I have been looking for a cheap dehuller for rice, barley, and oats but have struck out so far.

We're working on an ultra low volume rice husker designs. Our hand powered table top version has been tested and it looks promising. It is designed with pinch rollers. Our bicycle powered design has been tested but needs a bit more refinement. We'll be putting the designs and building instructions on the web hopefully by the end of March. This project is associated with Breezy Meadows and Orchards in Vermont.
Don