Quick Cooking Naked Oats

For thousands of years, hulled oats were grown primarily to feed to horses, but naked oats were the grain of choice across Asia and Europe for human consumption. But sadly, naked oats fell out of vogue in the 1800s, and factors like higher yields and durability in transit became more important, and industrial processing because easier. Over 95% of oats grown in North America were fed to livestock, so it was easier to grow just one type of oat and scalp off a few to mill for human consumption. Naked oats were abandoned.

A resurgence of interest in reducing our carbon footprint (hulled oats need to be steam treated, which is an energy-intensive process!), their higher protein levels, antioxidants, and a good ol’fashioned preference for taste over a long shelf-life, has led to a few farms and mills still using naked oats. We’re proud to be one of them!

Our Quick Cooking Oats are first cleaned in our facility to remove weeds, chaff, hulls, and off-grade oats. Then they are milled simply by steel-cutting them into a few smaller pieces, and then flattening the pieces between two large rollers, which exposes the inside of the oat groat and allows them to cook and soften quickly. This makes them great for baking (muffins, cookies, breads, etc.), or for an extra quick pot of porridge when you’re on the run.  Because quick oats are milled more finely than our rolled or steel cut oats, they do have a more precarious shelf life.  Please use within a few months of opening your package, or transfer to an airtight container away from high humidity.

Our oats are grown and processed according to gluten free protocols.  More information about our gluten free production standards can be found here: https://adagioacres.com/oats-and-gluten/

One oddity – our oats do not play nicely with coconut oil. For some unknown reason, there is a strange reaction that often occurs when naked oats and coconut oil are combined. This doesn’t seem to happen with regular oats, so perhaps is because of the lack of heat processing, or perhaps because of the higher protein content of naked oats. We haven’t entirely figured out who is bullying who, and whether we can help them sort out their differences and live happily together. But in the meantime, give them some space…