Can You Grow Oats At Home? Yes you can! Here’s how I turned oat seeds to plants. This conversation is sponsored by General Mills
I think we all know how much I love oats. I eat them for breakfast in some way or another everyday – oatmeal, overnight oats, in bread, in smoothies, in oatmeal pancakes, in baked oatmeal, in cereal, in granola, in dough boy smoothies. They’re one of the most versatile foods on earth!
Are oats healthy?
Oats are also one of the worlds healthiest foods! They’re packed with manganese and phosphorus, good-for-you fiber, antioxidants and energy.
Nutrition Benefits of Oats
Here are some of the reasons to love oats (from my own research and interpretation):
Oats provide a great amount of fiber, low levels of fat, and a good amount of protein.
Oats are packed with beta-glucans
These are a type of fiber famous for lowering cholesterol in those with elevated levels. Beta-glucans also help to stabilize blood sugar and can give the immune system a boost in the prescience of bacterial infection.
Oats contain several antioxidants
Including one unique to oats called avenanthramide that helps fight free radicals that damage cholesterol. Research by one of my favorite nutrition scientists, Dr. Liu, who I referenced frequently in my Real Food research, has suggested that the number of antioxidants in whole grains have been vastly underestimated. While the free antioxidants are a bit lower than in fruits and vegetables, the bound antioxidants are very high. (Read more about Dr. Liu’s findings in this 2004 press release.)
Just a half cup of dry oats contain a third of the recommended daily value for magnesium
Magnesium is a co-factor to more than 300 enzymes. That’s a lot of processes to have a hand in!
Oats are linked to a reduced risk of heart disease
Many studies have found that eating whole grains, including oats, is linked to a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer.
I’d probably eat oats even if they didn’t have research to back them up because they are versatile, filling and delicious!
The history of Cheerios + are they real food?
So you’re probably wondering where I’m going with all this oat love. When Cheerios was first introduced in 1942, it was called Cheerioats because it was (and still is) made of oats.
Cheerios also happen to be one of my favorite cereals. Like oatmeal, they are also a blank canvas for toppings and fruit. Although they are processed, I do consider Cheerios to be real food because the ingredient list is simple and made up of ingredients I might have in my kitchen.
When I visited General Mills last year, my big question to them was: Could I make Cheerios in my home kitchen if I had the time and resources? This is always my ‘Is it real food?’ question. The Cheerios team says yes you can.
Can you grow oats at home?
To challenge me to follow through with my question, they sent me a few oat seeds to plant. This oat variety is called Leggett, and it is one of the main oats varieties used to make Cheerios.
I know from being in the bread business that the variety of a plant you use can drastically change the flavors of your finished product, so I’m sure this variety of oat has special characteristics to make Cheerios taste good.
Oats are a sustainable crop that usually require less fertilizer and pesticides than other major crops, and they are hardy and have persevered when other crops (like wheat) have struggled. They typically rely entirely on rainfall – instead of irrigation – for water (good for me because I’m bad at remembering to water plants!)
Here were the growing tips Cheerios team sent me:
Tips To Grow Oats At Home
Sun light is very important!
Plants are solar collectors. Oats need light, and the more the better.
Plant 3 to 5 seeds separately in your 6-inch pot.
Plant the seed to your first knuckle
Or about 1 to 1½ inches below the top of the pot;
Water well
Then wait until soil is dry on top to re-water. This should take about 1 week or so. At first the oat seeds won’t take much water but after a month or so they will start needing water almost every day.
Add a little fertilizer
Adding a little fertilizer at about one month and again when the seeds start to appear will improve their health.
Following their instructions, I planted my oats in a pot that would get a decent amount of sun:
And in a few weeks they went from this:
To this!
Oats coming up and at ‘em
I don’t have any oat seeds to harvest yet (that’s part of the time + resources conditional in the real food question) but I’m sure if I kept loving on these I’d have real oats to harvest and then cook. I’ll keep you posted as time goes on!
As for the question “Can you make Cheerios in your kitchen?”… you can do that too: homemade toasted oat cereal.
This conversation is sponsored by General Mills
Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says
Pretty cool! I’ll be tuning in to see what kind of harvest you get.
Kate says
I read this while eating peanut butter oatmeal.To think, I could grow my own?!
Tonya says
aww that’s a really cool and interesting challenge! I can’t wait to see if you made Cheerios!
Joni says
That sounds cool, looking forward to seeing if you can grow them! What’s your take on the other ingredients in Cheerios? (I’m definitely not bashing them, or saying one shouldn’t eat them, I just don’t personally consider them a ‘real food’ based on some of the other things they add.) http://www.cheerios.com/en/Articles/What-are-the-ingredients-in-Cheerios-cereal.aspx
Kimberly says
I’m really interested to see how your homemade Cheerios turn out! I hope you do make them. I know they have a some ingredients in them that I wouldn’t consider “real food” (I definitely eat them though) so it would be interesting to see how they turned out without things like Tripotassium Phosphate (or with a substitute).
Leslie says
Here is my new favorite breakfast – I put all of this into my Magic Bullet.
Banana Pancakes
1/3 cup oats
1/2 or 1 small banana
1 egg
Blend. Cook.
So easy, so yummy, and they don’t need anything to sweeten them. I bet they would be tasty with some nut butter too, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Bhavya says
I don’t remember when was the last time I invested money in buying cereal box, this big change happened after reading your blog. I have tried overnight oats, pumpkin oatmeal …whipped banana oatmeal & the list continues.:) I totally love to experiment with oatmeal.
Betsy says
Great post! I LOVE learning things like this!
Kaila @healthyhelperblog! says
I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE CHEERIOS!! General Mills has their Cheerios plant here in Buffalo, NY so every morning we are graced with their wonderful smell! But making them at home would be even more awesome!
Pat says
Reading this while eating a bowl of Cheerios with raspberries and blueberries – yum! I never add sugar on my cereal; the fruit adds enough sweetness. Come colder weather, I’ll switch over to hot oatmeal. I eat oats in some form most days. Thanks for the post.
Nancy says
We grew oats on our farm growing up. After you harvest the oats, then you bale the straw that is remaining (where you get bales of straw for bedding for animals).
Dana P says
What a fun post! Looking forward to see if your oats grow. 🙂
lindsey says
My new favorite way to eat oatmeal (and I just discovered this recently) is plain, with a teaspoon drizzle of EVOO and a pinch of salt. I don’t mix the oil in, just let it melt slightly on top while the heat from the oats develops its fruitiness. I can’t claim the idea, I got it from Giada de Laurentiis, but it has quickly become one of my favorite foods of all time due to it’s simplicity and richness. It sounds weird, but definitely worth a try (especially if your an olive oil fan like me)!
KathEats says
Interesting!
Lisa @bitesforbabies says
Wow, never would have thought of growing my own oats! I love them too…so do the kids (especially overnight oats!)
Amanda says
Thanks for highlighting the nutrition of oats. I’m always looking up the nutrition of food or looking up what foods are good for hair, nails etc. More posts about specific foods and their nutrition would be great!
Michele says
Interesting post! I know this may sound odd but I have made an Oatmeal Mushroom “Risotto” dish and it is really good.
Ashley @ Saving Money in your Twenties says
Hah this is so cool- I never contemplated where oats actually CAME from! I can’t wait to see how many oats you end up getting!
Kori says
Awesome post!!
Leatitia says
So cool! We’re (I’m ?) so disconnected with the agriculture side of things that I had no idea we could grow oats! I mean, I guess it had to grow somewhere. It’s amazing to me, how you can grow a plant and then have OATS. Magic!. 🙂
Jeri says
1) I LOVE CHEERIOS!!!
2) I didn’t know they were made from oats.
3) Never thought of adding fruit to them. I always only add sugar to the plain variety.
What would I do without you in my life?
Ryan says
Any update on this please?!?
KathEats says
They oats grew! I didn’t do any harvesting because I wouldn’t have gotten much, but yes, it’s possible!