You never know what you’ll see on the road.
We had just been visiting California’s Gold Country, so you might expect a few shiny nuggets scattered about. Instead, I was staring down at something I thought must be spilled gravel. It was rice! Grains and grains of it spread in a gritty line atop the black asphalt.
Around here—that’s Richvale, California, a few miles outside of Chico, in the northeastern end of the Sacramento Valley—that’s agricultural gold, and we were standing next to the mother lode of this particular grain, Lundberg Family Farms.
Why would you care about something so mundane as rice when there’s so much spectacular scenery and history in this part of the world? Actually it was the scenery—much of it created in service to growing this humble grain—that made the excursion to this organic rice Mecca so memorable.
When was the last time you watched a sunset over a flooded field of rice?
But you might wonder how did we happen to come here in the first place. Blame it on our inexplicable love of rice cakes.
We’ve been fans for years, but not just any rice cakes— those made by Lundberg, which we began eating when the variety we’d been buying regularly from our local Trader Joe’s suddenly vanished and Lundberg’s lightly salted organic brown rice cakes started appearing on shelves. At first they seemed a bit dense and tasteless compared to those we’d been eating for years. Then we became addicts.
They are, says my husband Jeff, the perfect healthy snack—crunchy, satisfying and a blank canvas for whatever topping strikes your fancy—Laughing Cow soft cheese or mozzarella string cheese for Jeff, and cottage cheese, hummus, melted cheddar, or peanut butter with or without jelly for me. They’re also very useful straight out of the bag while trying to stay awake as you tool along at 80 mph-plus on a boring stretch of Interstate 5 en route from L.A. to San Francisco. Just the crunch will wake you up!
So when the chatty owner of Chico’s popular (and excellent!) Bidwell Perk, where we stopped for a morning coffee and bagel, suggested we check out Lundberg Family Farms just a few miles down the road, we obviously couldn’t pass it up. (Chico itself is worth a visit—but that’s fodder for another post.)
And what a pretty road it was, especially with the sun setting over the flooded rice paddies, recently emptied of their crops but filled with water that the company releases each winter to create a resting and nesting place for the migrating water fowl.
We watched the sky fill with flocks of birds in “V” formations too high in the clouds to identify (or photograph with my iPhone). The Lundberg website says its fields “provide habitat for ducks, geese, swans, sandhill cranes, shorebirds, and other waterfowl.” The company partners with an organization that helps rescue the duck eggs that get laid among the winter cover crops. Here’s a video from the Lundberg website explaining the process.
If you’re like us and only know Lundberg for a single product, you’re in for a surprise once you enter the headquarters. The farm grows some 20-plus varieties of rice and quinoa, including black and red rice, basmati, jasmine, wild rice, rice mixes, and more. Some 70 percent of their products are organic, with an increasing number carrying regenerative organic certification, an even more exacting standard than organic. Most are also gluten free.
An ‘obsession’ that began 87 years ago
“Rice-obsessed since 1937,” is printed on Lundberg’s giant trucks.
After the experiencing the devastating effects of the Dust Bowl on their Nebraska farm, Albert and Frances Lundberg moved to California in search of new opportunities and a better way to grow things without destroying the land. According to the story printed on their website, they brought their four sons, Eldon, Wendell, Harlan, and Homer, along with a flatbed Chevy truck, a Farmall tractor and a philosophy that the next three generations have continued to repeat and live by to this day: “Leave the land better than you found it.”
In pursuit of that ideal, the brothers ultimately turned to organic practices in the late ‘60s, around the time when it was becoming a movement in California. More recently the third and fourth generations have built on that heritage to engage in what’s known as regenerative organic farming, which pays attention to caring for the land, the animals that inhabit it (birds in particular), the water, the air and the welfare of their workers. Much of the packaging on their products now states “regenerative organic certified.” You can read more about what that is here.
As for rice cakes, the plain ones we like are only a start; I found some 44 varieties when I did a search, including thick ones, thin ones, round ones, square ones, minis and chips, sweet flavors (dark chocolate, lemon poppy seed, coconut chocolate, salted caramel, cinnamon toast, kettle corn), and savory (black pepper, fiery hot, tamari seaweed, white cheddar, basil & thyme).
Once you enter the modern looking wood and glass headquarters, you’re suddenly looking at shelves full of products and merchandise. We arrived about a half hour before closing, so I grabbed what I could and thought I would probably order more off the website (especially those delicious little lemon poppy seed squares—delightful with a cup of green tea!).
For now, every time we bite into a rice cake, we’ll be remembering that sunset over the rice fields and the sight and sounds of birds winging their way across the sky.
Thanks for reading! Your likes, comments, shares, subscriptions and recommendations help others find me—which makes me ever so grateful.🥰
Ruth
PS: Looking for a holiday recipe or two? Here you go…
Most likely four of us will be having Thanksgiving at a restaurant this year. To some of you, that may sound like a sacrilege, but I don’t mind, and I’ll still be making a pie or two and maybe stuffing, rolls or other side dishes to serve on another day. Who says Thanksgiving may only be observed on the fourth Thursday in November? I vote for an extended celebration. We definitely need it!
As I’m now awash in various types of rice, I went in quest of recipes on the Lundberg website and came across a collection of holiday dishes including everything from appetizers to dessert that might fill the bill. Here’s a link. One recipe that struck my fancy was Rice, Apple & Sausage Stuffing. It sounds like a meal in itself—my kind of dish! Bon appétit!
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