I chewed  wheat as in the bible story when 5 years old. Many rural kids did it. It becomes gummy, like chewing gum. No
one would use it for food if there is real food available. Don't remember if I swallowed it.

William



08/02/01 3:01:55 AM, Wally Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>snip
>
>I have a friend who was raised in northern Minnesota
>near the headwaters of the (Mississippi? Missouri?)
>river. He and his father would go out regularly in a
>skiff and harvest wild rice growing along banks in the
>marshy areas. He said they often ate the wild rice raw
>by popping a few grains in their mouths and letting
>saliva soften the husks until they could
>"crunch" the seeds with their teeth. I don't think
>they could eat a lot of rice seeds this way, but they
>could be munched on them this way all day long (maybe
>an early form of "chewing gum"?). He did say he
>remembered a kind of nutty flavor that disappeared
>after they were cooked.
>
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