 The wild rice crop throughout the state are expected to be great again this season. Sarah Winkleman went outside to Mallard Lake in Aiken County to hear about the unique plant. The mild weather in the region this year has helped wild rice flourish this growing season. According to a DNR survey, the most harvested lake in the state is Mallard Lake, covering 354 acres with wild rice. Minnesota leads the nation in terms of natural wild rice waters, in terms of water acres, as well as acres of wild rice. In order to harvest wild rice, you must purchase a license from the Minnesota DNR, who is noticing even non-resident licensing is increasing. You can only harvest wild rice when it is ripe. It is illegal and unlawful to harvest it when it is green. Not all lakes ripen at the same time and when it ripens can vary from year to year. The season technically opens on August 15th, but those ricing still need to check the crop before harvesting. But you want to pick a couple grains and see if they snap between your fingers. If it's crispy and kind of hard in the middle, if it's soft and milky, the grain isn't quite ripe yet. On this typical rice plant, the top part are the female flowers that produce the seeds and the bottom part are the male flowers that produce the pollen. Native Americans did it for centuries before and then with European settlement, it's still really common. There's still a lot of people here that rice. Over the past 10 years, the DNR generally sells between 1,000 and 1,500 licenses each year. This year folks are excited about it. We had, I wouldn't say a total failure last year in the area, but it was close. Many of the lakes didn't produce any rice or very small amounts of rice. The plants do not need much maintenance, but the licensed money goes into an account spent only on wild rice management. So cool and so unique. It's got a unique growing cycle that it starts out to merge and then goes emergent. Not all aquatic plants do that. Wild rice is starting to decrease in places like Michigan and Wisconsin. So the Minnesota crop this year is important to keep wild rice thriving. Reporting in Aiken, Sarah Winkelman, Lakeland News. Harvesting times during the season are from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. each day. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.