Jersey Royals
The Jersey Royal is a cultivar of potato grown primarily as a new potato. Only those grown on the island of Jersey can be referred to as Jersey Royals because the term produced designation of origin (PDO) under the EU's food name protection scheme .[1][2]
Potatoes of the same variety, grown elsewhere are known as international kidney potatoes.
History
In around 1880 a Jersey farmer, Hugh de la Haye, showed friends a large potato that he had bought. It had 15 'eyes': points from which new plants sprout. They cut this potato into pieces, which they planted in a côtil (a steeply sloping field) above the Bellozanne valley. One plant produced kidney-shaped potatoes, with a paper-thin skin, which they called the Jersey Royal Fluke. This was later shortened to Jersey Royal.[3]
Present day
In modern times, the Jersey Royal is Jersey's biggest crop export, accounting for around 70% of agricultural turnover.[4] 99% of production is exported to the United Kingdom.
In 2012, 28,600 tonnes of the potato, worth £28.6m, were exported from the island. This figure was down from 30,890 tonnes in 2011.[5]
Under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union Jersey Royals are covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Jersey Royal
- ↑ "Jersey Royal", This is Jersey, accessed 18 January 2009.
- ↑ "No 'small potatoes' for marketing", BBC News, 1 April 2008.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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