"Sacha" wrote in message ...((snip))

Well of course, the old way of growing them in Jersey was to use vraic to
fertilise the ground (bladder wrack) and it's piled up in huge mounds in
autumn and winter storms - free to the farmer who cares to collect it.

Did they used to wash it before use or leave it in the rain to wash the salt
out or was it used salt and all straight from the beach?

I think it was piled up so that the rain could wash the salt out and then it
was used but when I next talk to my farming friends there, I'll check. It
just doesn't seem likely that much salt would be a good idea!


Not
many do, preferring to use inorganic fertilisers and I am absolutely
certain
that those are the reason Jerseys don't taste the way they once did.

Quite, it's why nothing has much taste these days and also why cut flowers,
especially spray carnations, often have no smell. Grown too quick and soft.

I can become almost apoplectic on the subject of supermarket 'tomatoes',
with very few exceptions.

Some
friends of mine do grow them using seaweed and the difference in taste is
worlds apart. snip

Well that's not wrong so it seems, but even some of those we have bought in
the last few years haven't tasted any different from the ones we have grown
ourselves. That seaweed has to be responsible for a significant part of the
taste.

I'm sure of it, myself. As I say, at the time the Jersey Royal was
discovered, vraic was the normal fertiliser of the time. Of course, the
other thing is that the islands are granite - would that, perhaps, affect
the soil and therefore the taste? Connoisseurs swear that 'time past' they
could tell the difference between potatoes grown in different parts of the
island, too, according to how much sand in the soil, salt in the wind etc.

--

Sacha
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