Minnesota’s green rice law makes it illegal to harvest unripe rice. Even within harvest season, someone caught harvesting rice that isn’t ready may get 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Ryan White, front, and Darold Madigan harvest wild rice on Leech Lake in Minnesota, Sept. 11, 2022. "Cleaning the boat real good," White explained later as he swiped the rice into a sack.

While Aug. 15 is the earliest possible date to harvest wild rice in the state, state law also demands that the rice be fully ripe, not green, before it can be harvested. So far that hasn't ...

ON LEECH LAKE, Minnesota (AP) - Seated low in her canoe sliding through a rice bed on this vast lake, Kendra Haugen used one wooden stick to bend the stalks and another to knock the rice off, so ...

Ryan White, front, and Darold Madigan harvest wild rice on Leech Lake in Minnesota, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. White, who has been ricing for three decades, says the beds are "continually shrinking ...

Ryan White, front, and Darold Madigan harvest wild rice on Leech Lake in Minnesota, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. White, who has been ricing for three decades, says the beds are "continually shrinking ...

ON LEECH LAKE, Minnesota (AP) — Seated low in her canoe sliding through a rice bed on this vast lake, Kendra Haugen used one wooden stick to bend the stalks and another to knock the rice off, so ...

ON LEECH LAKE, Minn. — Seated low in her canoe sliding through a rice bed on this vast lake, Kendra Haugen used one wooden stick to bend the stalks and another to knock the rice off, so gently ...

Leech Lake Tribal College students harvest wild rice in Steamboat Bay on Leech Lake in Minnesota, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Wild rice, or manoomin (good seed) in Ojibwe, is sacred to Indigenous ...

ON LEECH LAKE, Minnesota (AP) — Seated low in her canoe sliding through a rice bed on this vast lake, Kendra Haugen used one wooden stick to bend the stalks and another to knock the rice off, so ...

Wild rice, or manoomin in Ojibwe, is sacred to Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region because it’s part of their creation story and because for centuries, even a handful made a difference ...