The real "Jersey Royal Potato " Production system?

When I was a kid back in the 50’s we used to have Jersey Mids, very early probably as a treat for Easter perhaps? I think that they must have stopped harvesting them at such a low yield because of competition from Cyprus, Egypt, Spain etc does anyone know?


So the Mids and the Royals are definitely different then?

We had a conversation here last week on that very subject. I was sure that Mids were different but was voted wrong.

I thought Mids were tiny things, some not much bigger than grapes.
 

Driller

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Down south
Some say that the growers are not allowed to gather raw seaweed & spread it on the fields anymore. I don't know if that is true, but it would explain the flavour.

Most greengrocers would agree with you. Cornish product much better, don't know their secret farmyard manure??????
Possibly the variety,we grow arrow as a very first earlier, greater taste than anything else we’ve grown, and far far superior then the royal. Even supermarket buyers admit it, we just aren’t big enough to supply them so send to wholesale markets instead
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
Cannot be doing with Jerseys, they are not proper new potatoes.
My opinion is that Pentland Javelin are the best new potato to eat, although Rocket are a decent substitute.
Mids were just riddlings as far as I know, we sold some one year but they were hard work and took 3 times as long to sort as normal sized ware. I think they have probably been killed off by the universal availability of ready to cook shrink wrapped veg, and the move away from prepping veg in commercial kitchens due to minimum wage and dirty water disposal. Though they do eat well boiled, skins on and swimming in butter.
 

Henery

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South shropshire
A friend who does a lot of spud agronomy was invited, with few others to Jersey by the JR coop a few years ago to talk about what they are doing there. He was horrified by what they doto keep growing on the same land. Huge rates of fungicide applied to bare ground. The soil had nothing living in it he said, sterile. Hence JR taste of very little now.
Had some Pembrokeshire last week in stDavids, ....superb !
 
I used to go to Jersey regularly in the 80's and 90's buying cattle. The farmers there put us to shame with the way that every croppable inch is utilised. I remember being told that there is no new seed for the Jersey Royals, they just save some or swap around! I brought a few back and planted them in my garden, they emerged , but withered and died almost straight away!
 

crazy_bull

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Huntingdon
earliest comes out of ex tomato green houses, then the early cotte' (sp) south facing slopes followed by the flat land later, to value decreases through the year due to more flat land area increasing production, but cost also decreases.

Crazy how steep some of those slopes are especially the world famous ones in all the touristy photos round Gory bay.

I thought (perhaps wrongly) the jersey mids were just the small potatoes riddled out, they are very particular about the size criteria to be sold as 'Royals'.


C B
 

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
A friend I played rugby with used to take the photos of the steep potato fields that were used in the adverts. He readily admitted (to me) that there was some jiggery-pokery used (in the days before Photoshop) to make the fields appear much steeper than they really were :rolleyes:
 

Still Farming

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Wales UK
Odd how Egypt produces so many potatoes, grown in the sewerage from Cairo I was told.....
Varst areas in South from Safaga across no where near Cairo ,very fertile and grows any crop any time of the year such the climate.
If you had a 1970 combine or Potatoe harvester there ,you be like the top person?
All like medieval and feudal systems with women,kids, horses,and cows working lands.
Real eye opener?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top