Today, October 10th, 2017, is World Porridge Day. The Scottish village of Carrbridge – home of the annual World Porridge Making Championship – teamed up with the Scottish-based charity Mary’s Meals to establish World Porridge Day. Mary’s Meals entices children in impoverished regions to stay in school by providing them with a daily meal, mostly in the form of the local version of porridge. By staying in school, the children are able to gain a basic education that can help them escape poverty. Donations are accepted from around the world.

Today is also the last day to book your place for the upcoming Oat Rust Forum at Cornell University in November!

The World Porridge Making Championship took place this past Saturday. The Golden Spurtle was won by Ellinor Persson of Sweden, and the winner of the Speciality competition was Per Carlsson, also of Sweden! More on that story, along with other community news, will be posted soon.

Continuing with the science now, we have four new articles in the Research Reports section: a summary of the last USDA/ARS Cereal Rust Bulletin for this year, a report concerning oat breeding in Europe, and two articles from Louisa Winkler, et al., from Washington State University.

Speaking of Washington, the next American Oat Workers Conference will be held in Seattle, Washington, in June, 2018 – registration is open, so make your plans to attend now!