Oats

The Oat (Avena sativa) is a species of cereal grain, and the seeds of this plant. They are used as food for people, and also as fodder for animals, especially poultry and horses. Oat straw is used as animal bedding and also sometimes used as animal feed.

Oats are often served as a porridge made from crushed oats or oatmeal, and are also baked into cookies. As oat flour or oatmeal, they are also used in a variety of other baked goods and cold cereals, and as an ingredient in muesli and granola. Oats may also be consumed raw, and cookies with raw oats are quickly becoming popular.

Oat straw is also used in corn dolly making, and it is the favourite filling for home made lace pillows. Oat extract can be used to soothe skin conditions, e.g. in baths, skin products, etc.

A now obsolete Middle English name for the plant was haver, surviving in the name of the livestock feeding bag haversack.