Grow your own jersey Royal potatoes

Willow21

Found in the pound shop, kidney international tubers which are the same as jersey royals for £1 for 5 potatoes. Bargain if they grow well.

A._Badger

Willow21 wrote: »

Found in the pound shop, kidney international tubers which are the same as jersey royals for £1 for 5 potatoes. Bargain if they grow well.

Good luck but I predict the results will be disappointing.

The seed potatoes you have bought are called International Kidney and are said to be the same stock as those used for Jersey Royals. However, there is more to flavour than the variety alone.

Jersey Royals taste (or tasted - it's past tense since the intensive farming now used on the island robbed them of their traditional flavour) as they do thanks to the use of seaweed fertilisers, growing methods, the actual soil on the island and the climate.

I have tried several times to replicate the original taste of a Jersey Royal, using all sorts of cultural methods, including the use of seaweed supplements, but without success.

If you manage it (and I mean you get that buttery flavour which even the commercially produced ones seem to have lost), please let us know how.

Farway

Badger has it spot on as usual

The use of seaweed is not just a spray, it is real seaweed, off the beach stuff, spread on the land

Plus climate & soil, what the French call terroir

Best of luck

safestored4

I cannot agree with what seems to be the assertion that to capture the traditional flavour of International Kidney potatoes they can only be satisfactorily grown on seaweed in the Chanel Islands.

Yes, soil and climate make a difference, but just because one person has been disappointed with the results of their efforts it doesn't mean that you will be on your soil Willow21. We have no idea about your growing conditions which, for all we know, may be ideal for the variety. Give it a go, for a pound what have you to lose?

A._Badger

safestored4 wrote: »

I cannot agree with what seems to be the assertion that to capture the traditional flavour of International Kidney potatoes they can only be satisfactorily grown on seaweed in the Chanel Islands.

Yes, soil and climate make a difference, but just because one person has been disappointed with the results of their efforts it doesn't mean that you will be on your soil Willow21. We have no idea about your growing conditions which, for all we know, may be ideal for the variety. Give it a go, for a pound what have you to lose?

You are entitled to an opinion, of course.

It would be more valuable, though, if you were able to tell us that you had done it - and how.

madjackslam

in the Chanel Islands

Maybe that's what gives them their distinctive aroma

blootoon

there is a train of thought that a lot of the old well known of variates of fruit and veg that we all know and have loved in the past have lost their edge having been inbred for so long, and some of the new breeds of plants seem a lot better for flavour

LessImpecunious

A._Badger wrote: »

However, there is more to flavour than the variety alone.

Agree with this - particularly re. the influence of growing conditions - I grew Winston potatoes hopefully one year on the basis of several recommendations of excellent flavour, but they were tasteless and almost impossible to cook properly; similarly "good-flavoured" varieties have been unexceptionally flavoured - while others taste good (of course, seed companies are unlikely to sell a "poor-flavoured" variety...). And in 2006 - the last hot dry summer we had here - I noted that the flavour of none of the varieties I tried was good. Best to experiment with until you find ones that do well in your conditions.

Fruittea

I've grown them and I agree that they don't have quite the true Jersey taste but all the same they were pretty tasty. I tried some as small potatoes and also let them grow on as a main crop and they grew in to huge tubers. So I'd say go for it.