Oats

The origins of oats (Avena sativa) are obscure. They were cultivated in Switzerland and northern Europe by 2500 BCE, and two millennia later they were widely cultivated in Europe by the ancient Romans, Germans, and Celts. The advantage of oats was that they could be grown in higher altitudes and in colder climates than could wheat or other common grains. Oats were mainly used to feed horses, cattle, and other animals, but hulled oats were used in broths, porridges, and gruels. They were particularly important in the Scottish kitchen, which led Samuel Johnson to define oats as “a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people” in his Dictionary of the English Language (1755).