100Acre
Samsquinch the Terrible Magic Bean Manipulator
Lifetime Member
Club Contributor
God will sometimes close one chapter in our lives in order to open a new one. I am proud to share with all of you my new home in North Idaho. It’s a little over 10 acres. I plan on setting up my two 100’ greenhouses for growing medicinal herbals and vegetables. Besides that, I plan on growing organic wild rice in my flooded wetland fields that the creek passes through. “ The first wild rice in Idaho was introduced by duck hunters in the mid 1940s, to enhance waterfowl habitat in Benewah Lake, surrounding rivers and marshes. The project was so successful that the plant choked boat channels and dock areas. The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation was afraid it would overrun its lakes and sought bidders to harvest it. In 1982, St. Maries Wild Rice Co. was formed to harvest and process the Idaho wild rice. Each year, the Idaho Parks Dept. receives income from the harvest at Benewah Lake. That income is used to continue to restore and enhance the waterfowl habitat in Heyburn State Park where the lake is located. Dry land crops don’t do well in St. Maries because the land is so wet. There is little that farmers can grow besides hay. Wild rice offers a cash crop for local landowners, and a haven for the geese, ducks, herons and swans. Wild rice is valuable for shore birds and waterfowl as well as fur bearing animals, even deer, elk and moose. The plants are used as a brooding place for young birds. Everyone wins when wild rice is harvested in Idaho. Fishermen are benefiting by improved water access and there has been an increase in waterfowl using the areas where wild rice is grown and harvested.” I will of course do some improvements to the area prior to planting.
