Roll your own?

Oats, grass, cats . . . to roll or not to roll. What is she talking about this week? I picked up a packet of seeds called cat grass. I thought I’d sow some in small pots for the kitties to munch on. After sowing the seeds, I wondered what is this stuff? The botanical name was listed as Avena sativa. Why did that sound familiar? Well, because I’ve been eating it my entire life. Hmmm. So, I’m feeding my cats oats?

This is one of those weird situations where you’ve been doing something your whole life and never really thought about it. I pulled out one of the seeds and took a look at it. Looks like a seed. How is it an oat? I knew oats were grains but never really thought about grains being seeds. Something started to click. Were steel cut oats these exact seeds I’m holding in my hand chopped up? If so, what were rolled oats?

My naturally nerdy side came forth and with the help of my equally nerdy husband, we conducted a little experiment. We took one of those seeds, boiled it and then smashed it. Lo and behold, it was an oat! For a picture of a store bought rolled oat alongside our homemade smashed oat, check out our Facebook page. Not being certain if it was labeled for human consumption, we tossed it out.

Common oats are a healthy food option, a cover crop for farmers, food for livestock, and a natural skin treatment. Most health professionals recommend 25-30 grams of fiber daily. One cup of oatmeal provides about 4 grams. High fiber diets may play a role in the treatment of conditions like gastrointestinal disease, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some forms of cancer according to the University of Maryland Medical Center website. Oats are easy to incorporate into breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. If you opt for instant oatmeal, be sure to read the ingredients list. Some manufacturers add a lot of extra sugar and other unnatural ingredients. If you cannot pronounce it, you might think twice about eating it, right?

Gardeners can plant oats as a cover crop in September. Till the plants into the garden the following spring before planting. Oats grown for grains are seeded in early spring.

Do you have itchy skin? Colloidal oatmeal baths can be beneficial for dermatitis, hives, dry skin, poison ivy and more.

To roll or not to roll? On Dr. Andrew Weil’s website, he recommends steel cut over rolled oats because they digest more slowly. They rank lower on the glycemic index because it takes longer for “digestive enzymes to reach the starch inside”. The answer appears to be no, do not roll.

However, I do have one unanswered question. Since a lot of cats really dig cat grass, do oat farmers have hundreds of cats descending on their farms?

Kelley Rawlsky has an M.S. in horticulture and is the director of Bringing People and Plants Together, an organization dedicated to bringing horticulture education and therapy to the community. For more information: PeopleAndPlantsTogether@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook.

Article originally published in Broomfield Enterprise - June 11, 2017