Blake Hawbaker
Wild Rice House Lead Processor
Blake Hawbaker is the Wild Rice House’s Lead Processor. He grew up in the East Suburbs of the Twin Cities before he moved to the North Shore of Lake Superior. Blake spent a lot of time harvesting and hand-processing wild rice with friends and through those experiences, began shadowing large-scale processors in the Arrowhead Region. He enjoys all aspects of foraging, farming and gathering, and sees his processing role as a way to teach others how Minnesota staple foods like Wild Rice are brought from Lake to Table. In the off-season, Blake builds Ice Castles professionally around North America.
Meghan Mitchell
Project Coordinator
Meghan Mitchell is the Project Coordinator for the Wild Rice Project. This position called her to come live and work in Finland in 2021. Since then, she has been working within this project to create connections and facilitate the passing on of knowledge and skills around the responsible, sustainable, and respectful harvest of manoomin/psin/wild rice. She has also been trained in by Blake and processes rice at the shop. For the 15 years before this work, she traveled, sailed, studied plants and played music. Meghan was mostly raised in southeastern MN and Florida.
Kaare Melby
Team Member/ Ricer
Kaare Melby (Finnskogen Farm), co-lead on small grain processing with wild rice equipment is a 2nd generation wild rice harvester and farmer. He lives near Finland, MN, where he has been working to expand access to local foods. He helped organize the Finland Farmers Market, access to local sources of livestock feed through the Finland Cooperative and coordinated consumers and local producers to facilitate increased direct sales.
“Stickboy” Slim
Program Support/Instructor
Slim has been helping with the Wild Rice Project since 2021 in a variety of ways. He has learned from multiple mentors about all things Manoomin and he enjoys the many activities around wild rice. From the respectful harvesting of rice with his partner, to learning how to parch and process rice with Blake, to making the tools needed for ricing, he enjoys it all. As a woodworker, Slim has taught mentees of the Wild Rice Project how to harvest, process, and shape wood into the poles and knockers used for wild ricing. He has a love for making music, making things out of sticks, and learning about native plant communities.
Dan Cahill-Mathews
Finland Food Chain Lead Facilitating Coordinator
Dan and his wife moved to the Finland area drawn by the natural beauty of the forests and rivers, abundance of outdoor recreations, and a required change of pace from their work schedules. They stay busy working careers in the mental health field, selling chips and salsas at the Finland Farmers’ Market, and learning new skills to grow and harvest food, thanks to resources from the Finland Food Chain. They also run Baptism River Barbecue Co, a summer seasonal food truck located along Highway 61, serving true Northwoods BBQ featuring locally sourced products including Wild Rice from the Finland Wild Rice house. As a relatively new transplant to the Finland community, Dan is excited to immerse himself deeper into the vibrant, resilient and welcoming community.
Sherry Rovig
Team Member/ Ricing Mentor
Sherry Rovig has been an avid ricer for over 25 years. She lives on a homestead in Clover Valley where she focuses on environmental stewardship and community involvement. She is a volunteer firefighter and medical responder, volunteer master naturalist, and has been mentoring new ricers for many seasons. She is happy to share her passion for organically-grown and wild foods with the growers and gatherers in the Arrowhead Region.