On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 16:28:32 -0000, "Ted Richardson"
wrote:

~
~"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
~:
~: "Ted wrote in message ...
~: Usually sold as
~:
~: International Kidney
~: by
~: Mr Fothergill, T&M, et al.
~:
~: Its the soil & seaweed in Jersey that give them the taste,
~: rather bland from my garden
~:
~:
~: We have grown them in the past for a few years but as you say other First
~: Earlies have a better taste (Concorde.....) but I wonder if you gave the
~: International Kidneys some good doses of Seaweed Extract whilst growing if
~: that would bring out that wonderful "Jersey Royal" flavour. Perhaps I'll
~try
~: next season (if I remember) :-)
~:
~: --
~: Regards
~: Bob
~:
~: Use a useful Screen Saver...
~: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
~: and find intelligent life amongst the stars, there's bugger all down here.
~:
~:
~I too had thought of using Seaweed Extract this year to give it a try.
~Can't use Calcifide Seaweed as it is basically lime.

Funny this should arise... this is exactly what I did this year. I've
not grown spuds (deliberately!) before and since my Dad loves Jerseys,
I hatched a plan to fool him. Largely successfully, he liked the taste
and it wasn't until after the test meal was over that I told him what
they were.
The only thing against them I found was that they fell terribly, so
resorted to steaming them in the end. The worst scrapers were those
I'd picked over 3-4 days before, so cooked them whole and peeled the
skins off when hot.

I also did a blind taste test of some bought Jerseys and my Int
kidneys and my tester said he preferred mine (and as other halves go,
he'd tell me if he didn't!). Interestingly, the bought ones fell too.

I used Maxicrop every couple of weeks together with watering the rows
quite a lot as they suffered from the early drought conditions. Not
quite the same as adding vraic but the nearest I could get easily. And
in Chiltern chalk I have enough problems with scab without using
calcified seaweed as well!!!

I'm buying double quantities of seed spuds for next time (as I think I
said in the what are you growing next year thread :-) and keeping them
better watered as well - think this may have contributed to them
falling as they were a bit more floury than I expected.

Diary says they were set to chit 6th February, planted 21st March, and
first dug 20th June.

I must stress I don't have any other homegrown first earlies to
compare the taste with - just shop-boughts!




--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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