Episode 26 – Only Oats Goes Organic

Let’s start the blog with the Show Notes for this episode:
On this Episode of the podcast, I spoke with Manny Sabares of Only Oats, a Canadian company that produces gluten free oats safe for celiacs. They use a strict purity protocol that tracks the farmers, the fields, the seeds, the truck transport and only lets the oat grains into the mill once they have been tested to less than 5ppm of gluten (20 ppm is the gluten free standard).

Only Oats is “rolling” out a new line of Organic Gluten Free Oats. Rolled Oats, Quick Oat Flakes and Steel Cut Oats that are both certified Gluten Free and Organic.

I’m a big fan of the brand, and asked them to donate oat product for an episode of my baking show about gluten free oats. I have had a great relationship with the company every since. I have worked with them on their customer experience, and will be creating recipes for their new website later this year. In the meantime, you can find the recipes from my oats show at https://www.suesglutenfreebaking.com/oatmeal.

You can access the website for Only Oats (it is set to be updated to include recipes later this summer) at www.myonlyoats.com. As well, you can find Only Oats on Facebook.

Sue’s Websites and Social Media –
Podcast – acanadianceliacpodcast.libsyn.com
Podcast Blog – acanadianceliacblog.com
Facebook – @acanadianceliacpodcast
Twitter – CeliacPodcastCA
Email – acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com
Baking Website – suesglutenfreebaking.com
Instagram – @suesgfbaking
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUVGfpD4eJwwSc_YjkGagza06yYe3ApzL
(search Sues Gluten Free Baking)
Email – sue@suesglutenfreebaking.com

My Thoughts –
I operated a gluten free bakery for more than ten years and was at loose ends when it closed. I had the idea to approach my local cable television station about doing a gluten free baking program. I went on to work YourTV, the community channel of Cogeco Cable in Ontario. If you live in Ontario, and subscribe to Cogeco, you will periodically find the shows in your Cogeco OnDemand feature. For everyone else, the station has been good to post some of the segments on YouTube, and those can be accessed by searching YouTube for Sue’s Gluten Free Baking (or using the link above).
In Canada, and in my case, in Ontario, television cable companies have a mandate to re-invest a portion of their billings into community television. Community television can mean any programming that would be of interest to the local community. My program fell into that definition, so YourTV resources were used to produce my show. I was assigned a professional producer, and I was the community producer and host. In my initial production meeting to set the tone and schedule for filming, my producer asked if I had any community connections that I could involve in the production. I did have connections and they were happy to be involved. I had my local butcher work with us if we needed meat products (for our Christmas show), my hairdresser was prepared to do my hair for filming, a local makeup artist offered to make me look presentable, and my connections with a national grocery chain allowed us to film a segment in the store. Involving community is a driving force behind this volunteer-based television programming.
When it came to putting together a show around gluten free oats, I wasn’t sure if a large company from Saskatchewan would be interested in partnering with me on my small baking show. I reached out and Only Oats reached back. The company was started by farmers with an interest in producing our special oats, so my program was a great way for them to give back, and to show off their products. As time went on, I reached out again if I had a question about oats,
and they contacted me with questions about baking and recipe creation. We worked together on a couple of occasions, and I’d like to think it was a natural progression for Only Oats to invite me to create recipes for their new website. Recipe creation is my thing, it was when I operated the bakery, and it still is. I’ll keep you posted as the recipes go online, and hopefully you’ll enjoy gluten free oats, in all their forms, as much as I do.