Oatmeal is one of those foods you find in most American kitchens. Oats have been around for thousands of years traceable to Egypt’s 12th dynasty, around 2,000 B.C. It’s possible the Chinese may have been familiar with them even earlier than the Egyptians. Oats apparently originated as weeds growing within cultivated fields of other crops. They were the last of the major cereal grains to be domesticated.
It has been a long journey for oats to reach a respectful place in the human culinary world, yet they are still primarily used for livestock. Only about 5% of the world’s crop is being consumed by humans.
The Romans’ oat cultivation found its way to Britain especially in Scotland where the climate is well suited to growing the grain. Our settlers brought oats with them; they were planted and then used for animal feed, bedding for horses, forage for animals and oatmeal for people.
Americans didn’t start growing oats in quantity until the 19th century. In the meantime, Scottish settlers h...