On Thursday evening, the Castle Valley Archaeological Society hosted its monthly meeting and had the pleasure of Range Creek Field Station Site Manager Corinne Springer attending to speak. She spoke about rice grass and how it has been grown through prehistoric history to today. Springer also spoke about how they harvest rice grass and how it has somewhat improved recently. There are volunteers from schools to help with the harvest and processing through the summer months.
Springer has been collecting rice grass for five years now and she mentioned that it was difficult at the beginning, but now they have a fairly good process. She also said that one has to be “very watchful and good on timing or you’ll miss the harvest.” Springer lives at the ranch in Range Creek from April through December to monitor the weather and to oversee the process of the growing plants in the area. She is devoted to her work and has had an interest in archaeology since she was in elementary school. Her love grew for that, along with anthropology, and she followed the path to her current employment at the Natural History Museum of Utah.
Springer gave the statistics of growth in some of the volunteers who assisted over the summer. One group that came to the ranch to help had a very special treat: rice grass pancakes and elderberry syrup. They helped harvest and process both rice grass and elderberries throughout the day they were at the ranch. Springer noted that is was a delight and offered the recipe to those present at the meeting. She also had samples of rice grass and elderberries for them to try.
The Castle Valley Archaeological Society has monthly meetings every third week of the month through the year, with the exception of June through August. Members expressed their gratitude to Springer for the words and stories she shared during the meeting.
