Jersey potatoes - a waste of money?

A._Badger

chesky369 wrote: »

Perhaps it's because they're pre-cleaned nowadays; when I was a girl, it always seemed to be my job to scrape the new pots - nobody left the skins on back then. It was a real pain in the neck. But perhaps whatever they're cleaned in now takes some of the flavour out at the same time.

Not that, I'm afraid. I buy mine with skins on from a proper greengrocer and they're just as tasteless.

Funnily, having started this thread last night, today I was in a nearby town which has an excellent greengrocer. They were selling Cornish and Jersey new potatoes and I bought the former, saying to the owner more or less what I'd posted. She completely agreed, so it seems to be a common view.

As a keen gardener, I've tried growing them myself. The actual variety is said to be 'International Kidney' but I found they didn't taste much better than ones from the shop, so my guess is either the seaweed theory could be on the right lines, or the variety has changed down the years. More likely it will be something about the way they are being grown today, I'd have thought.