Question about oats

[Martin Mikulcik]

I've been reading a medieval cookbook 1390s and it includes some interesting ingredients, borage, skirret, comfrey

And I've been researching medieval small grain production and they say that oats were really only considered people food in Ireland, Scotland and Scandinavia because something about the cool wet weather they do best in

They would also grow barley but wheat and rye were specialty grains because they did poorly.

It seems oats, despite renewed interest for health reasons, have fallen out of favor even in these traditional regions

I have tried growing oats but i vastly prefer winter grains because by spring they're so far ahead they're no maintenance, oats don't compete as well around here and the season gets hot and dry fast, i think isn't conducive for them.

So if you're in an oat growing region, like the Scottish Highlands @Sheal or Ireland, were oats just supplanted because long distance trade is easy now, or is there still an oat eating culture from way back. Like the germans still eat rye bread as a specialty thing now and spelt. Is oat bread popular somewhere

It's kind of like how beans became a British thing from WWII even though to my understanding beans don't do so well growing over there.

Like rice in America, idk how that got started, it only grows in a few small regions and somehow it's a common food for millions of people whose ancestors would never have seen it

And you guys know i like growing staple crops, so if you know of some other interesting staple that's micropopular I'd love to hear about that too

 

[Peaches]

We eat rolled oats for breakfast most days in winter altho our parents and us are Australian born / raised ,we hubs and I have GG grandparents in the local cemetery
who came from Cornwall UK on ships and bought items like grains with them

I believe the Cornish ate what we call porridge regularly ( rolled oats )

We live in a rural area where cereal crops are grown ( we are not farmers ) crops are wheat barley oats lintels and peas I can Identify the difference between wheat / barley
and even Rye , but I’ve never seen it growing where I live ,and I believe most crops of oats is cut for hay , it grows well in the area that can be very dry and extremely hot
in summer .
we've had really good rainfall in Autumn and winter so the farmers crops are looking good at this stage ( harvest time is usually November )

I just recently bought a raised garden bed and I filled it with 2 bales of oaten hay , and soil

 

[DiggersJo]

Grains and pulses keep well when dried or canned and are nutritious, hence encouraged in the UK here during the II world war. Certainly beans can be grown here, but it's home garden stuff and I don't think much in the way of storage i.e. most of us eat them as green veg. Grain is still produced here in the UK, but a lot is for animal feed, although still quite a bit for our food. Not too sure if it is widespread, but I do believe there has been a greater interest in whole grain types as food. We were introduced by accident to Farro/spelt many years back over in Italy and use it regularly now here in the UK, although it's not readily available in the supermarket as it was in Italy. Yes, and of course porridge is still eating here, perhaps not quite the same as it was, but many are going back to the original none instant gloop you can get!

 

[Sheal]

If you try any of those recipes Martin I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Many moons ago I went to a medieval banquet, the food said to be genuine, but I couldn't stomach it, it was awful!

Oats are still eaten here - very much so as breakfast (porridge) and the tradition is to eat it with salt. Oatcakes are also still very popular too. Although the Highlands are still pretty much grazing for rearing sheep with some cattle too, the land that is on level ground (not much of it) is used for growing wheat and some oats. I see quite a few fields growing potatoes as well.

 

[Peaches]

Sorry to change the subject on a gardening forum ……But not eating enough “ propper” food including whole fibre foods like porridge whole wheat products like vita brits / weet bix whole grain foods in general , is being blamed for the alarming spike of young people with bowel and other serious gut related cancers in Australia

Even tho we mainly eat a low carb diet we still have our whole grain foods

 

[Peaches]

Grains and pulses keep well when dried or canned and are nutritious, hence encouraged in the UK here during the II world war. Certainly beans can be grown here, but it's home garden stuff and I don't think much in the way of storage i.e. most of us eat them as green veg. Grain is still produced here in the UK, but a lot is for animal feed, although still quite a bit for our food. Not too sure if it is widespread, but I do believe there has been a greater interest in whole grain types as food. We were introduced by accident to Farro/spelt many years back over in Italy and use it regularly now here in the UK, although it's not readily available in the supermarket as it was in Italy. Yes, and of course porridge is still eating here, perhaps not quite the same as it was, but many are going back to the original none instant gloop you can get!

I love a 4 bean salad ( I buy a can of 4 bean mix ) I add chopped red capsicum/ red onion and celery with a tiny bit of olive oil / vinegar/ garlic …salt and pepper its delicious alone or with a lamb chop . @DiggersJo

I have trouble growing beans in my little garden patches so gave up and buy fresh beans
in Aldi ( in season )

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

If you try any of those recipes Martin I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Many moons ago I went to a medieval banquet, the food said to be genuine, but I couldn't stomach it, it was awful!

I can believe that, especially if the modern chefs didn't know how to cook with their own intuition, the recipes don't have measurements

Here's an example from the forme of cury
MACROWS [1]. XX.IIII. XII.

Take and make a thin foil of dough and carve it on pieces, and cast
Them on boiling water & boil it well. take cheese and grate it and
butter cast beneath and above as losyns (lasagna). and serve forth.

Basically macaroni and cheese, a fairly normal recipe, but the book was primarily the fancy smancy recipes for the king, so they use all sorts of spices in weird ways

Black sauce FOR MALARD. XX.VII. I.

Take bread and boiled blood. and grind it and draw it through a
cloth with Vinegar, do thereto powder of ginger and of pepper. & The
grease of the Mallard. salt it. boil it well and serve it forth.

It's an exotic condiment for the king using spices that came over a land route from India. Most of them are just supposed to be something "different" and the normal day to day recipes weren't written down.

Day to day it would be salted oatmeal in the north. Wheat bread for the wealthy and dairy and meat and cabbages and parsnips.

I've never seen an oatcake in my life. Oatmeal is only eaten with brown sugar and cinnamon unless you're hard core

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

I love a 4 bean salad ( I buy a can of 4 bean mix ) I add chopped red capsicum/ red onion and celery with a tiny bit of olive oil / vinegar/ garlic …salt and pepper its delicious alone or with a lamb chop . @DiggersJo

I have trouble growing beans in my little garden patches so gave up and buy fresh beans
in Aldi ( in season )

Are you too dry for beans?
That would be a fun recipe to try a 100% garden grown copy except i can't grow celery and I'd substitute olive oil for sunflower.

I've been getting into making kombucha which is basically like making vinegar, i sometimes make malt vinegar, its the best.

I definitely think refined white flour is not near as good for you, they have to add the vitamins back in so you don't die. My go to bread is made by taking whatever the flavor of the day of grain is: be it wheat or rye or triticale or barley or spelt , grinding it through a roller mill meant for beer, which is really fast, and then mixing that coarse graham flour back into white flour for an approximate whole grain flour without all the work of properly grinding and sifting the bran.

Whole wheat flour still has most of the bran removed and what we call white flour is so impressively refined it, it's only suitable for dessert

 

[Peaches]

Are you too dry for beans?
That would be a fun recipe to try a 100% garden grown copy except i can't grow celery and I'd substitute olive oil for sunflower.

I've been getting into making kombucha which is basically like making vinegar, i sometimes make malt vinegar, its the best.

I definitely think refined white flour is not near as good for you, they have to add the vitamins back in so you don't die. My go to bread is made by taking whatever the flavor of the day of grain is: be it wheat or rye or triticale or barley or spelt , grinding it through a roller mill meant for beer, which is really fast, and then mixing that coarse graham flour back into white flour for an approximate whole grain flour without all the work of properly grinding and sifting the bran.

Whole wheat flour still has most of the bran removed and what we call white flour is so impressively refined it, it's only suitable for dessert

Yep The sun is to hot ,and we get a-lot of northerly winds in summer , I’ve asked the local
council for trees on the foot path but I’ve never got them and we’ve been there 20 years
if we ever get them I’m sure it would help shelter that street side garden (where I put the new raised garden bed )

In describe our local council as desert dwellers ..as they send of workers ( contractors) who chop trees down or prune …with no idea how to shape a tree …but never plant any trees …..
all that reserve near me was planted by the developer of the estate …

I made Kombucha , I got pretty good at it making flavoured ones using hibiscus tea bags
It was nice a fizzy ( Ive got some good books on the subject )

I still make milk kefir ,when I feel.ike it ….

My books are from this site ….Its very good https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/

Don't drown bean salad in oil / vinegar …just enough to coat the beans ….oh and fresh chopped parsley if you like it ….out of the garden of course

@Martin Mikulcik

 

[Sheal]

I've never seen an oatcake in my life. Oatmeal is only eaten with brown sugar and cinnamon unless you're hard core

Here's a recipe for you @Martin Mikulcik. You can eat them with anything. I can't tell you what they're like as my diet is gluten free.

traditional scottish oatcakes recipe - Search Videos

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Edit: Sorry, for some reason this recipe starts part of the way through so will have to be taken back to the beginning.