Can't seem to sprout Oat Groats

[MrGreenJeans]

Hi gang!
I've tried two different brands of organic oat groats and neither of them sprout. Do you think all oat groats are sterile?

Tony

[Lady Green Jeans]

Mr. Green Jeans,

I've heard most are steamed to maintain shelf life, but there are some brands still available raw. Don't think they ever get a tail when sprouting, but soften and can be eaten warmed for a great morning cereal. I had a friend who had a vegan/raw vegan rest. for years in Escondido, CA and she offered them for breakfast. She also had a breakfast for a king which was a bowl of ripe papaya chunks, ripe banana with lecithin and sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Great stuff.

Sun Organic Farms is where I get my oats. If you can't find them local, they ship.

Kathy

[MrGreenJeans]

Hi Kathy,
I went to the web site you suggested and they have:

OATS - SPROUTING 3 Lbs
Hulless for soaking & sprouting

Since they are hulless, I would imagine they are pretty much impossible to eat after being sprouted with the hulls still attached?

[Lady Green Jeans]

Tony,

It gets confusing sometimes with hulled and unhulled. Looks like their "hulless" is an attempt to simplify things but maybe adds to the confusion--they are hulless (without the hull).

So as not to have steered you wrong, I looked up oats in Ann Wigmore's The Sprouting Book. She states, "Find the whole sprouting type." Soak time 12 hours, dry measure 1 cup, length at harvest 1/4"-1/2", ready in 2-3 days.

This is different from what I most often see--recipes usually call for them to be soaked overnight and rinsed well. Then Juliano's book has recipes that he simply grinds them unsoaked.

"I used some of mine (after soaking) for the raw chili recipe that was posted quite awhile back (I added/subtracted stuff to suit my taste). Recommend that you refrigerate in an airtight container--I made a recipe which came out tasting bitter (my room temp groats were no longer any good). Painful lesson.

Hope you have fun with your recipe.

Kathy

[MrGreenJeans]

Thanks LadyGreenJeans for the info. Very appreciated!

[Lady Green Jeans]

Mr. Green Jeans,

Hope the recipe works well for you. I need to try another batch of chili or the cookes to see if they come out any better than my last failed attempt. It's kind of fun experimenting sometimes. I'm going to try making my dad some raw dishes when I go back to Ohio for Christmas. He just may like some of them and eat an even more healthy diet.

Keep us posted how your recipe turns out.

[donna.miller]

I just read a really good article about this very issues here: Are the oats you are buying raw? (http://prettysmartrawfoodideas.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/are-the-oats-you-are-buying-raw/). It looks like most forms of oats, including oat groats and steel cut oats are not raw. They apparently have a lot of oils/fats in them and go rancid quickly once they have been hulled if they are not heat treated.

There are 2 types of oats, one is hulless and doesn't have the problem of going rancid so quickly. So that's why some can be hulless but not hulled. They are the ones that have the greatest chance of being raw. But if your oat groats won't sprout, it's because they have been heat treated.

The author of that article has done a lot of research to find this out and has published in all in this post, a highly recommended read, I learnt a lot.

[barbarads]

this is an old post, but i'll just add, hulless oats are grown without a hull...so they don't have to be processed to remove the hull and are most likely sproutable. I love them!!! I soak them for 3 hours, rinse and sprout for only 24 hours, just until the nub starts to form, then I dehydrate them, freeze them, and grind into oat flour. Works great! As for oatmeail..just soak for about 6 - 8 hours and grind in food processor, add raisins, nuts, apples, cinnamon and your favorite sweetener. Warm in dehydrator.