SUSTAINABILITY
90,” says Sales and Distribution Manager for Cahokia Rice Jason Homan. In addition, the rice is heavy metal and arsenic free. While growing and harvesting Frontière has been a more recent addition to Cahokia farm, the farm’s sustainability efforts have been happening for decades. Gerard employs several different sustainable practices at Cahokia including cover crops, no till methods and more. One of biggest ways Gerard is able to go green is through the help of local wildlife. The rice fields at Cahokia are teeming with different animals such as birds, snakes and frogs which constantly churn the soil with their movement to keep it healthy while preventing erosion. Gerard is hoping to pass the farm down to his children so implementing these green practices is essential to keeping the land healthy for the generations to come. “Everyone is going to have to learn how to do more with less,” says Gerard. “And if we have less farmable land, that’s going to be a problem.” Today, Cahokia rice is used at both NIU’s residential dining locations and at a Qdoba on campus. Its residential eateries use
about 300 pounds of the rice weekly, while the Qdoba goes through about 600 pounds. At residential dining, the menu item is incorporated into many different types of dishes, including chicken and rice and rice pudding. One of the most popular dishes that uses the rice, however, Koenen says, is a broccoli rice casserole (in case you had any doubt that NIU was located in the Midwest). The dish starts by sauteing onions on the stove until they’re soft. Then, flour, garlic and pepper and milk are added. The mixture is taken off the heat and mustard, paprika, salt, cream cheese and cheddar cheese are incorporated and stirred until melted. Meanwhile, broccoli and rice are boiled on the stove and are then added to a casserole pan along with the cheese mixture. The whole thing is topped with more cheese and then baked for 35 minutes. It’s only been a year since the rice has graced the menus at NIU and Koenen is interested to see what new ways the rice will be used on menus in the future. “Each semester, we sit our chefs sit down and propose new recipes. So [the rice will] be part of that process,” he adds.
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QUARTERLY | Q1
PHOTO COURTESY OF CAHOKIA RICE FARM
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