From Canoes to Continents: Canada's Wild Rice Legacy with Matt Ratuski of Floating Leaf Fine Foods

What do the Canadian Shield, a fourth-generation family business, and a trade show floor in Germany have in common? Wild rice — and one of the most remarkable food origin stories you've never heard.

In this episode of This Commerce Life, Phil Chang and Kenny Vannucci sit down with Matt Ratuski, fourth-generation owner of Floating Leaf Fine Foods, whose family has been harvesting Canadian wild rice since 1935. From his great-grandfather trading fish with First Nations communities in Keewatin, Ontario, to building one of Canada's first wild rice processing facilities, Matt's story is equal parts frontier history and modern food entrepreneurship.

We dig into how Canadian wild rice is still harvested the old-fashioned way — in remote rivers, streams, and bogs across northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario — and why that makes it fundamentally different from the cultivated rice grown in the U.S. We also cover the deep, multi-generational relationships with First Nations harvesters, the wild crop's two-to-three-week harvest window, and why Europe discovered this superfood long before Canadians did.

Plus: why innovation in food always requires education, what it takes to build a Canadian food brand with global reach, and why Phil is about to start cooking wild rice on camera.

check out Floating Leaf here: https://eatwildrice.ca/