The naked oats in your farm share box this week can be made into a tasty and hearty oatmeal breakfast.

Also called “naked oats,” the variety of these hulless oats is appropriately called Streaker. When harvested and threshed, the oat kernels are almost free of the tough, inedible hulls of common oats. After winnowing, the grain is ready to cook for oatmeal or grind for oat flour. Remove any lingering hulls by floating them off in water, then check for any tiny pebbles that may have gotten through in the threshing process. Once soaked, hulless oats can be sprouted because they are a healthy living grain, unlike common oats that are de‐hulled by a heat process that actually damages the whole grain. Use oat sprouts in salads or in your leftover turkey sandwiches.

Hulless oats contain lots of dietary fiber, cancer-fighting phytochemicals, protein, vitamin B complex, and minerals like magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, copper and iron. They help lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease, prevent type 2 diabetes, and aid in weight control. Soaking sprouts prior to cooking is recommended, especially if you want to prepare them as a porridge, and they do wonderfully in a crockpot. You can also soak them overnight, put them raw in a blender with juice, milk or yogurt, and the sweetener of your choice, and blend until smooth. Then layer chopped fruit, raisins, nuts, etc. with the blended oats to make a beautiful breakfast parfait!