Hulling Oats on a small scale

Does anyone here have any experience in hulling oats by hand? I have a small crop and I hear that hulling them usually requires equipment. Does anyone know a manual method? Thank you.

In the past I planted what was called cereal oats, or naked oats, that are hulless,
it was the easiest way I could find to "hull" them.

I saw one time an attachment, that would fit in a hand grinder,  and they were a thick rubber washer instead of burr plates and the rotation was said to dehull them, this was back in 99 when I saw this. I will do a little looking and see what I can find if I find some thing I will repost, it.

here is a page on making your own attachment for a CORONA GRAIN MILL
http://www.bilagaana.com/dehuller/Sunflower%20Dehuller.html

note: go to the bottom of the page and click on the hand with pointing finger, to advance to the next pages of the web page, listed above.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
lemans has a page on it,

http://www.lehmans.com/store/article/1309?Args=

Thanks for the link, I will def check it out. The crazy thing is I just found that mill from Lehmans yesterday and had a similar idea. I didn’t even see that article, I ended up emailing them the question….I wonder if they just put that up since I asked?

My bit of experience with oats has been that birds love the hulless ones. So I'd rather grow ones with hulls and find a way to remove the hulls.

Preferably a way that doesn't involve rubber (as in the Corona mill solution), since I can't grow/make that.

Does anyone know more about how oats were traditionally processed and eaten?

Andre Wiederkehr wrote:Does anyone know more about how oats were traditionally processed and eaten?

Some reading I've done, suggests that traditionally, oats were grown and fed only to horses and not people.

It may take some deep historical research to figure out when and where that first changed. Certainly it did at some point, as I have read somewhere about porridge, but then, maybe the porridge was alternative grains, and not oats at that time. The trouble with reading historical fiction is that it can be quite difficult to figure out where the author has done rigorous historical research, or simply made assumptions, like, "Modern porridge is oats, so historically, porridge would be oats," except they also had pees porridge.

Interesting question you've posted, Andre!

Jay Angler wrote:Some reading I've done, suggests that traditionally, oats were grown and fed only to horses and not people.

(Ahem, Scotland......)

When Dr Johnson defined oats as “a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people,” his friend James Boswell replied, “that’s why England has such fine horses and Scotland such fine people.”

It seems that the Romans introduced oats here and they grow really well - better than alternative grains like wheat anyhow. They have been grown alongside rye and barley (also preferring the milder climate) for people food since then. Some background reading on the history of oats as food here I'm interested to try making sowan - a sort of yoghurt made from the husks remaining after milling.


Thanks for bumping this thread Andre, as I'm going to need this information myself...
this paper gives some information on the steps of oat processing and why and how it varies from other grains:

In modern mills, the first step of dehulling is a rotating disc that has numerous fins running from the centre of the disc to the exterior( Reference Girardet, Webster, Webster and Wood3 ). The oats fall into the centre of this rotating disc and are thrown into a series of impact rings on the wall of the dehuller, which causes the groat to be separated from the hull

Historically the crofter would have ground the grain themselves on a quern stone, but latterly were usually obliged to use the landlords mill. They would provide peats for dry/toasting the grain and/or give a share of the yield in return. Legin cornmill was a little mill in Ireland, now I believe holiday accomodation. They clearly mention the dehulling stones there, but no idea what the criteria for them is.

One thing that is mentioned often is the need for the grains to be dried (11-13% moisture), or even toasted slightly. Our mill has a small 'kiln' next to it, which I belivee was normal in the UK for oat mills.
this food and drink 'blog gives some simple inestructions which may be worth a try if you have a small amount to process:

Loosen the oat hulls in the oven if you plan to eat the oats. Roast the oats on a cookie sheet in an oven at 180 degrees for 90 minutes. The hull will puff up and begin to break away from the edible oat groat inside.
Use a burr mill or a roller mill to carefully grind the oat hull away from the groat. Collect everything, groat and hulls, into bushel baskets and cover with screening or mesh until you are ready to winnow.
Wait for a dry, breezy day to separate, or winnow, your oats and hulls. Spread out a sheet on a flat, dry ground. Bring out your bushel baskets.
Winnow the oats. Toss your hands full of the oats and chaff into the air. The breeze will carry away the hulls and the heavier grains will fall onto the sheet.

If you are working on a field scale then I did find some references to a build it yourself machine that some growers in Wales (who are reintroducing black oats to the country) called the tiny oat collider they give UK sources for parts, but their costing is a bit high for home use perhaps. On the video they describe the action as accelerating the grains against a hard surface where they shatter, (similar to the first reference above) so there may be other ways you can do that.

I think I will probably try toasting and milling in my coffee mill on a very coarse setting and see how that works. Good luck!

Nancy Reading wrote:  It seems that the Romans introduced oats here and they grow really well - better than alternative grains like wheat anyhow. They have been grown alongside rye and barley (also preferring the milder climate) for people food since then.  

I have not had much luck growing wheat even though it was traditionally grown on this Island, and this makes me think that oats might be the better option to try.

I suspect part of my problem is my specific micro-ecosystem, because I do know someone at a slightly higher elevation and further from the ocean shore, who seems to be able to grow it successfully.

Jay, If your summer is on the wetter side, then short season crops like rye, bere barley and oats are all worth a try. They do better in less fertile (acidic) soils too.

Nancy Reading wrote:Jay, If your summer is on the wetter side, then short season crops like rye, bere barley and oats are all worth a try.

Not wet, but cool, particularly at night. When I plant wheat, it either is done in the fall, to over winter, or very early spring.  It's possible the seeds are being eaten before or just after germination. The ones that survive seem to do well, but living plants to seed is barely 10%.

Remember this thread: https://permies.com/t/248730/safely-sow-barley ? I'm still not getting great germination/survival of my grains.

If you search YouTube there are a few options but most use rubber.

With some grains like sorghum I have had good luck running it through the normal burrs really coarse, basically dehulling and cracking the grain. Then sift or winnow to remove the hulls and grind a second time to get to a fine flour. Oats had marginal success, lots of misses. I gave those to the birds, but it was way too much waste if you need it all for people.