"martin" wrote in message
...


The sea temperature was 11 DegC for C.I. and 17 DegC at Naxos today.

Oh, sea potatoes!, yes i guess they would come on a bit quicker in the Med
:-)

Sam

Sam29/4/04 9:25


The Mediterranean sea around Naxos is warmer all the year around than
the gulf stream's maximum temp around the C.I.s

Interestingly they seem not too disimilar for mean temps particularly in May
according to these sites

http://www.koufonisi.com/en/weather.shtml

and

http://www.jerseymet.gov.je/

Rainfall is noteably higher in Jersey during April/May which would be a
distinct advantage when growing spuds.

Sam

From the official website:
"ersey Royals have been grown on Jersey for over one hundred years. Today
there are approximately 90 island farmers who grow Jersey Royals, many of
whom grow potatoes and no other crops. The potatoes are grown on
approximately 19,000 vergees (there are 2.2 vergees to one acre, so this
equates to 8,636 acres).

The Jersey soil is light and well drained and many farmers still use seaweed
harvested from Jersey beaches as a natural fertilizer (it is known locally
as Vraic). Jersey has some of the most formidable tidal flows in the world,
and the strong movement of the sea deposits large quantities of vraic on the
shore. The practice of using vraic on the land dates back to the 12th
century.

The Jersey Royal season begins in November with planting under glass. The
main crop is planted outdoors in January and harvesting begins in April
through to the end of June. The peak of the season is May, when up to 1,500
tonnes of Royals are exported daily, and the grower can be working up to a
twelve-hour day.

Potatoes planted on the early slopes are hand lifted, with mechanical
lifters used only for the later, flatter fields. The fields on slopes near
the coast * known as côtils * are so steep that almost all the work is done
by hand.

Once harvested, the level of care continues at each stage. In the packing
sheds Jersey Royals are checked twice by workers and quality controllers
before being packed and loaded into refrigerated vans for export. The
potatoes are packed in the evening, shipped overnight and are in the
supermarkets and shops the very next day to ensure that consumers are buying
them when they are at their freshest and finest.

Besides being unique to Jersey, the Jersey Royal is the only British fresh
produce which enjoys EU protection of designation of origin in much the same
way that France was granted sole use of the word Œchampagne¹. The Place of
Destination Origin (PDO) is an official recognition granted by the EU to
protect the product as it is produced in its country of origin. In other
words, if a batch of potatoes doesn¹t have the PDO it isn¹t the genuine
article. "
http://www.jerseyroyals.co.uk/
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:02:17 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


The Jersey Royal season begins in November with planting under glass.

That's what they DONT do in Naxos :-)

martin29/4/04 10:09

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:02:17 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


The Jersey Royal season begins in November with planting under glass.

That's what they DONT do in Naxos :-)

They won't plant Jersey Royals there anyway because they wouldn't be
acknowledged as Jersey Royals.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:09:12 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

martin29/4/04 10:09


On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:02:17 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


The Jersey Royal season begins in November with planting under glass.

That's what they DONT do in Naxos :-)

They won't plant Jersey Royals there anyway because they wouldn't be
acknowledged as Jersey Royals.

No of course not, I just wondered why Naxos potatoes weren't ready for
lifting until the beginning of June. When do Maltese potatoes appear
in the supermarkets?

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:19:13 +0200, martin wrote:

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:09:12 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

martin29/4/04 10:09


On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:02:17 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


The Jersey Royal season begins in November with planting under glass.

That's what they DONT do in Naxos :-)

They won't plant Jersey Royals there anyway because they wouldn't be
acknowledged as Jersey Royals.

No of course not, I just wondered why Naxos potatoes weren't ready for
lifting until the beginning of June. When do Maltese potatoes appear
in the supermarkets?

Whoops! I just googled and found that the complete Maltese crop of
6000 tons is exported to the Netherlands around now.

"George Bray" wrote in message
I want to retain some Jersey Royal potatoes to grow at home for a DIY
crop of new potatoes around this time next year. The Jersey Royals
were bought today from a shop in the UK.

Should I aim to store them in the dark for 10 months before planting
them c. Feb 05? I fear they won't keep well for that long.

Or should I plant them around July time and use the next crop
(autumn/winter 04?) as my seeds potatoes for a further crop in
April/May 05?

Does anyone know the Jersey farmers' source of seed potatoes for the
new Jersey Royals which are in the shops now? Are they stored for
almost a year?


The correct name of "Jersey Royals" is "International Kidney", they only
become "Jersey Royals" when grown on Jersey.
You will find "International Kidney" seed potatoes easy to come by so why
bother to try to save bought ones for a year?
What you need to get them to taste right is lots of compost made with
seaweed, without it they will just taste like any other new potato.

--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars

Sacha wrote in message .uk...
To the best of my knowledge (I'm a Jersey woman now living in UK) when they
lift the potatoes for export which is now, some are kept back, stored and
chitted, then planted next January or February, depending on weather. The
ones we're eating now will have been grown under polythene, is my guess.
I don't know the technical details so I've forwarded your query to a Jersey
farmer friend of mine and will see what he comes up with. He was mostly
dairy but grew a few spuds, too.
Of course, the Jersey people will tell you that you can't grow a true Jersey
Royal anywhere outside Jersey. ;-)

Thank you very much for passing on my query to your farmer friend. I
look forward to hearing any suggestions.

I've heard it said that Jersey Royals don't grow as well outside
Jersey but I'm prepared to try. Firstly, with so-called global
warming, perhaps London is almost as warm now, as Jersey was in the
70s when I remember new potatoes tasting much better than in recent
years. Secondly, I'm going to add seaweed compost to my soil, which
could go one better than Jersey if they don't do that any more!
Thirdly, I can cover the ground with polythene to further warm the
soil.

Nothing is simple, though. I assumed seaweed is seaweed until I went
to a beach to pick some up. I now read that Bladderwrack is the type
to use but it's probably not found on beaches in many parts of the UK.

Regards
George

"Barry & Iris McCanna" wrote in message ...
...I've ordered some on-line direct from the
growers. We've been longing to taste them again after living for nearly
seven years in France. Let's hope it isn't a big let-down. We've paid over
£6.00 for two kilos which includes the postage.

That's certainly not cheap but, on the other hand, neither were the
Jersey Royals I bought from Waitrose recently. They were £2.39 for
750g, so 2Kg would be £6.37, i.e. more than you are paying! That's a
lot of profit going straight to Waitrose for doing very little,
whereas I bet the Jersey farmers are hard done by, nothwithstanding
all their hard work to actually produce the potatoes.

Waitrose is an expensive place to shop, unless you have money to burn.

Regards
George

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message ...
The correct name of "Jersey Royals" is "International Kidney", they only
become "Jersey Royals" when grown on Jersey.
You will find "International Kidney" seed potatoes easy to come by so why
bother to try to save bought ones for a year?
What you need to get them to taste right is lots of compost made with
seaweed, without it they will just taste like any other new potato.

Thank you for this info, which I was aware of, but hadn't found
anywhere that sold International Kidney seed potatoes, hence my
decision to buy ordinary spuds from shops. Following your comment,
I'll have another look.

Regards
George

On 30 Apr 2004 02:55:59 -0700, (George
Bray) wrote:

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message ...
The correct name of "Jersey Royals" is "International Kidney", they only
become "Jersey Royals" when grown on Jersey.
You will find "International Kidney" seed potatoes easy to come by so why
bother to try to save bought ones for a year?
What you need to get them to taste right is lots of compost made with
seaweed, without it they will just taste like any other new potato.

Thank you for this info, which I was aware of, but hadn't found
anywhere that sold International Kidney seed potatoes, hence my
decision to buy ordinary spuds from shops. Following your comment,
I'll have another look.

We can't find anybody selling Idaho/russet potatoes either. We bought
a couple of Idaho supermarket spuds to see if they would grow.

On 30 Apr 2004 02:51:17 -0700, (George
Bray) wrote:

"Barry & Iris McCanna" wrote in message ...
...I've ordered some on-line direct from the
growers. We've been longing to taste them again after living for nearly
seven years in France. Let's hope it isn't a big let-down. We've paid over
£6.00 for two kilos which includes the postage.

We paid UKP3 a kilo in a UK garden centre AFAIR.

George Bray30/4/04 10:55

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
The correct name of "Jersey Royals" is "International Kidney", they only
become "Jersey Royals" when grown on Jersey.
You will find "International Kidney" seed potatoes easy to come by so why
bother to try to save bought ones for a year?
What you need to get them to taste right is lots of compost made with
seaweed, without it they will just taste like any other new potato.

Thank you for this info, which I was aware of, but hadn't found
anywhere that sold International Kidney seed potatoes, hence my
decision to buy ordinary spuds from shops. Following your comment,
I'll have another look.

Still waiting to hear for my farmer friend, I found this on the official
Jersey Royal site:
"In 1878, a major development in the Jersey potato industry took place, the
discovery of a new variety of potato, later christened the Jersey Royal
Fluke.

Until the discovery of the Royal, a variety of potatoes had been grown on
the island. Then one day a Jersey farmer, Hugh de la Haye, spotted two
enormous potatoes displayed on the counter in a local store. Hugh de la Haye
purchased them and took them home. That evening he invited some friends over
for dinner. After the meal he showed them the two huge potatoes, one of
which had 15 Œeyes¹ (from which new plants sprout).

The friends cut this particular potato into sixteen pieces which they took
and planted on a Œcôtil¹ above Bellozanne valley (a côtil in Jersey is a
steeply sloping field, often overlooking the sea.).

The following spring, they produced a large and early crop. Strangely,
though the parent potatoes and most of the new crop were round one plant
produced nothing but uniquely kidney-shaped potatoes. The Jersey Royal was
born! It was carefully nurtured and developed to produce the later varieties
of Jersey Royals which now account for almost half of Jersey¹s income from
all agricultural products.

So what became of Hugh de La Haye? He was later honoured by islanders at a
formal gathering with a testimonial and a purse of gold sovereigns. "

And depending on climate during the growing season, which is January to
March, the crop can be from 36,000 to 50,000 tonnes per year.

http://www.jerseyroyals.co.uk/


--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

Barry & Iris McCanna29/4/04 7:18


"Sue da Nimm" . wrote in message
...

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
snip
Of course, the Jersey people will tell you that you can't grow a true
Jersey
Royal anywhere outside Jersey. ;-)

In fact they don't seem to be able to grow a true Jersey Royal anywhere
inside Jersey since they stopped carting seaweed to the fields and started
using commercial fertilizers....
Sorry, but in recent years I've been bitterly disappointed in the fall-off
in taste.


Oh! Please don't say that! I've ordered some on-line direct from the
growers. We've been longing to taste them again after living for nearly
seven years in France. Let's hope it isn't a big let-down. We've paid over
£6.00 for two kilos which includes the postage.

Regards
Iris McCanna


Iris, do you know which grower you ordered from, or was it the co-operative?
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

Following up to George Bray

Thank you for this info, which I was aware of, but hadn't found
anywhere that sold International Kidney seed potatoes, hence my
decision to buy ordinary spuds from shops. Following your comment,
I'll have another look.

I got them from one the two better nurseries in my area, listed
just as "kidney" Coolings or possibly Ruxley Manor (NW Kent)
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap