If you grow your own oats, try Avena nuda. This variety is 95% hulless!

We haven't found a suitable device for dehulling oats on a small scale, but you may be able to find one at an auction or flea market.

In commercial dehullers, the oats are spun in a cylinder, while simultaneously being flailed with pieces of rubber garden hose attached to a central axle. The goal is to knock off the hulls without breaking the kernels.

According to The Encyclopedia of Country Living, you can also dehull oats with a mill. First roast them to loosen their tightly closed hulls by applying just enough heat (and no more) to swell the grain enough to force apart the hulls. Then run them though a flour mill (#525 Diamont Grain Mill) at a coarse setting or a roller mill (#16595 Roller Mill or #33100 German Food Mill). Winnow away the hulls in the wind or in front of a fan.

For more information on growing, harvesting, threshing and winnowing grain, order The Encyclopedia of Country Living.