Anybody know where I can get decent wild rice on the cheap?

Does anybody know where I can get decent wild rice on the cheap? I bought a bag of mixed wild rice and brown rice for $2.50, and it was delicious. I haven’t enjoyed rice-by-itself since, like, EVER. This actually had FLAVOR. And, butter and salt aside, I suspect it was good for me.

The problem is that there’s only about 8 servings’ worth in that bag. I want a 25lb bag of brown rice, and a 10lb bag of wild rice (I can blend ’em myself, thanks) for food storage and stapling. I can’t afford to be spending 25 cents per bowl of rice these days. I need to get the cost per serving down around, well, a nickel if possible.

I’m thinking about going upstairs and cooking the rest of the bag RIGHT NOW. It was THAT GOOD.

–Howard

27 thoughts on “Anybody know where I can get decent wild rice on the cheap?”

  1. Northern Minnesota is ground zero for wild rice. I don’t eat the stuff myself, but the person I am working with tonight probably will have some good tips. I’ll get back to you if I get good info.

      1. Co-worker forgot. Try again tomorrow. He did give some advice. Make sure the rice isn’t short and stubby. Long and skinnier is sweeter and generally tastier.

        Another co-worker recommended http://www.theblueherontradingcompany.com/ . Looking on the page, I couldn’t find a specific mention of wild rice or if they do mail order. I guess you have to give them a call and start asking questions. 218-722-8799

  2. I lived on DI rice on my mission. It was white rice, but I’m sure they have Wild Rice if you axe nice.

    And, contrary to general (and misguided) belief, DI has really good product.

    1. I’ve found some of DI’s stuff was good, some … less so. All depends on the item.

      You know, as far as general belief goes.

  3. It’s from Google so caveat emptor

    Now you got me started……ummmm wild rice tasty grass seed.

    WILD RICE “MINNESOTA’S STATE GRAIN”
    Time waster. 🙂
    http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wildrice.html

    from C & G Enterprises
    Four pounds 21.00 + S&H larger sizes request quote
    http://www.mnwildrice.com/

    Nature’s Wild Rice Company
    Shipping free over 10lbs
    https://basilisk.safe-order.net/naturesrice/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi
    Better Wild Rice
    BETTER 25 lb. bag $2.99/lb 25.00 $ 74.75
    Our Best Buy! Minnesota Paddy Grown

    74.75 is a good price actually for American grown.

    Candian:
    http://www.mts.net/~bltaylor/WILDRICE.HTM
    Might check with them, they have what appear to be excellent prices but I don’t know S&H and importation laws.
    I don’t know if this is the same as the American variety.
    25 pounds looks to be under 20.00.

  4. I’ve found my local Asian market is the place to go for rice in huge quantities for dirt cheap. You might check around your area for something similar.

    1. Howard, do you know that “Many Lands” store just south of the corner of – Bulldog I think, used to be 1230 N – on 5th West? I’ve only ever bought Kim Pop (roasted, salted seaweed, for Korean dishes) there, but they have a bunch of stuff. Seems like they were a little spendy, compared to what my brother in law was used to in Washington state, but if they have a big bag of rice, that might be your ticket.

      I don’t know of another one in the area, but it would sort of surprise me if there wasn’t one … if there is any place in the world with more RMs per capita (and hence loads of folks who are interested in getting food from other countries), I can’t imagine where it would be.

        1. You know what a missionary is, right? When we Mormon fellows, ages (usually) 19-21 go around in suits trying to get you to come to church with us? We might be sent across town (unlikely, but possible) or across the world. There is a lot of language skills, collectivly, in Salt Lake and Provo. Language skills often go hand in hand with an apprieciation for foreign food.

          RM = Returned Missionary.

  5. Hey Howard,

    What brand wild rice do you have. I bought a 1 lb bag of wild rice at my local organic place and it was almost tasteless. Wild rice, (made with goose drippings and a little soy sauce) is part of my favorite dish (Red Goose w/wild rice). Buying some good tasting wild rice in bulk would be a windfall.

    1. I second this! I like brown rice just fine, and tried some wild rice mixed in, and it was an expensive mistake. I’d love to know of a good-tasting wild rice (at a reasonable price).

      1. The stuff I got was “Lundberg Wild Blend,” and it was $2.69-ish at Albertsons for a 1lb bag. It’s a blend with about 25% brown rice (which I believe is just a hulled-but-not-degerminated long grain rice) and the rest wild rice. The flavor was really good.

  6. When I lived in a town with more than 12000 people, I used to get rice in the bulk foods section at Mayeror Fred Meyer. If there is a Trader Joe’s near by you should be able to find cheap massive bulk rice there. (They have good foods, a lot of imports, and entirely reasonable prices.) Ooh and the Nutty flavor of the brown rice would probably improve the flavor of the wild rice (I’m not a big wild rice fan.) Oops, just checked, no Trader Joe’s in Utah. Yellowpages.com says that there is a Fred Meyer in your town (assuming your profile is still current) but the FM web page says no, the nearest one is in Poccatello, and I think the 320 mile round trip negates any savings over having it shipped from some expensive online place.

    Try Fred Meyer and Good Earth.

    1. I went by our local Trader Joe’s today, largely because of this thread. The only wild rice I found there was one-pound boxes of organic wild rice, for $3.29 a box.

      On the other hand … I didn’t expect to be actually getting much while I was there, so I didn’t pick up a basket when I walked in, and thus ended up carrying a full armload of other goodies up to the registers!

      1. Hum, the one I go to has a whole section of rices. Huge bags of rice stacked on pallets toward the back of the store (On the other side of the unusual fruits and vegetables section)

      2. Oi, now I want to go to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. I wish they were much closer than they are. Cinci is a rather long trip just for groceries.

  7. Maybe you should think of the value you’re getting. $.25 of rice provides you with x number of calories, which power your brain for some amount of time y. With y mental effort, I’m sure you could find a way to make z amount of money, where z > x. Enjoy your food, don’t stress about it.

    1. There are several rice dryers down the road. I could always stop off at the dryer and ask if they sell it ‘wild’.

      Doubt Chalain will be willing to put it in his bag for the trip home, however.

      BW

  8. Howard, seems like some of the “food storage” companies in the area might have some of that kind of stuff.

    There is one particularly that my mother in law used to work for, but I don’t remember what it is called. Just south of American Fork, where that theater is, and the curvy bit of State Street just south of the theater, it is on that curvy bit of State Street … kind of a little commercial area, seems like there is a auto glass place there, and some other stuff. Doubt that is helpful, but if you happen to be driving past, you might look.

  9. Lundberg Wild Blend is fan-bloody tastic. You ought to be able to get it in quantity; it comes in a 25# bag for bulk sections. Call around to any local co-ops, healthfood stores, or anyone who keeps bulk bins, and ask about case/bulk buying.

    You’ll do better to buy it in the big bag than in the small ones, and may even be able to find someone who carries it in a bin; plus most places will offer a case discount of anywhere from 10% off retail to 10% above wholesale. We’ve had a lot of people order cases of bulk at the store I work at. If you’re going to use that much, it really does come out to be a lot less expensive.

    (I’ve been bulk manager of a little local health food store for 6 years. I’d order it for you from my store, but I think the NC to UT shipping might be prohibitive….{grin})

  10. One of my friends, , noted that while white rice will keep for years, brown rice will spoil after a few months. If you eat it fast enough, that won’t be a problem — but I figured I’d warn you before you invested in large quantities thereof.

    1. As long as you keep it someplace relatively cool and dry it shouldn’t be a problem. Just in case, though, you can invest in a food storage bucket (you can generally get a pickle bucket, icing bucket, or the like from fast-food places and bakeries and the like. Also, Half-gallon Mason jars can’t be beat for that sort of thing).

      We have a fair number of customers who get brown rice in quantity, and NC is a LOT more humid and likely to cause a problem than UT.

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