The Montna Farms short grain rice is a blend of two extremely famous Japanese short grain rice varieties: KOSHIHIKARI and YUMEGOKOCHI. They are both grown just north of Sacramento by the Montna family who have been farming in California since the middle of the 19th century. The great grandfather of the current owners, Pierre Montané, was once a worker for his fellow Frenchman Paul Masson, the early California viticulturalist, who created what was to become one of the first famous sparkling wines of California in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Montané changed his name to a more americanized Peri Montna. The following generation, then started to plant rice.

JAPONICA is the family of the short and medium grain rice grown in Japan. Most of California’s rice is of this type, but the Montna Farm varieties, are the most famous in Japan: KOSHIKIKARI and YUMEGOKOCHI. They are blended together to provide a slightly different and more scented flavor experience when cooked. The Montna rice should be cooked to be eaten in the Japanese way, by itself. It should be washed well, soaked for a few minutes, then cooked with just a bit more water than rice. A CAUTION: It is very difficult to cook a small amount of rice. It can be done, but it takes some care. Better would be to cook, say, two cups of rice than one, and use the leftover rice–if there is any--the next day. So for this, you would use two cups of rice and a bit more than two cups of water to cook the rice in. (If you have a rice cooker, follow the instructions.)

Corti Brothers has repacked the Montna rice for you. I find that the “normal” selling quantity of Asian rice to be a bit too much for westerners, thus we have packed bags of 24 ounces since it would be used up in a shorter time.