[Food] Cyprus Potatoes

[Cowfold Seagull]

Sell them in our little shop. And love them ourselves for roast or chips. Jersey Royals are just coming in now but very expensive and they sold out in a couple of days.

What about new potatoes from the Scilly Isles? do you sell those after the Jersey's are finished, and before those from the mainland are ready?

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I once worked for the guys that grow Jersey Royals (which is a marketing name, the variety is International Kidney). It's a gang of about 14 rich farmers. They manage to contort the rules about pesticides and fertilizers etc because they grow over such a short period so they can pump them full of crap. Nothing great or healthy about them other than they used to be the first of the season. These days we get new potatoes year round, so I wouldn't bother going for Jerseys. The myth of their great flavour does not hold up in taste tests.

Sorry to be the Grinch.

Cyprus spuds sound interesting though.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I once worked for the guys that grow Jersey Royals (which is a marketing name, the variety is International Kidney). It's a gang of about 14 rich farmers. They manage to contort the rules about pesticides and fertilizers etc because they grow over such a short period so they can pump them full of crap. Nothing great or healthy about them other than they used to be the first of the season. These days we get new potatoes year round, so I wouldn't bother going for Jerseys. The myth of their great flavour does not hold up in taste tests.

Sorry to be the Grinch.

Cyprus spuds sound interesting though.

Well these guys that you used to work for, have most of the country fooled then!

 

[Albion in the north]

What about new potatoes from the Scilly Isles? do you sell those after the Jersey's are finished, and before those from the mainland are ready?

We normally get the Cornish Earlies next but Ill look out for those ones.

 

[clapham_gull]

Cyprus produce always seems to be available in areas such as Tooting, which is where I bought my potatoes.

I actually bought them in a Turkish shop, but could equally always buy them an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi shop / market.

As well as Halloumi.

 

[Rodney Thomas]

20 years ago or so archaeologists working on an area that was to be developed for the tourist industry discovered artefacts that showed the (then) oldest evidence of wine production in the world. CY wine is either toenail or pretty good. Some of the indigenous grape varieties, produced by wineries like Tsiakkas using Vamvakada/Maratheftiko grapes make really good wines, IMO.

I believe I also read somewhere that the majority of wines in the Bordeaux region come from vine stems taken from Cyprus.

As for Cyprus potatoes, there is a reason they used to be sold under the brand "Champions" in the UK

 

[Machiavelli]

Left there years ago, I was there before it was trendy, when it got trendy it never really improved and now parts of the High Street resemble the arse end of Oxford Street.

I liked living there, but never got the trendy posh label ever.

Balham, particularly the area between it and "Clapham Junction" is far posher than Clapham (infinitely so) but we like to keep very quiet about it.

We have a garden centre for instance albeit next to the prison.

​

When did it get trendy?
Only asking because I used to live and work there.

 

[clapham_gull]

Good location. Only a stone's throw from the station.

Bit like The New Den where the locals actually throw stones from the station (before and after the game). which is why they installed that covered walkway.

 

[Machiavelli]

I lived there for 6 years or so in the 1970s, and have visited for holidays dozens of time since. When we lived there, the suggestion was that Cyprus didn't import anything fresh, and that it could produce (grow) anything they needed, they even planted bananas so as to avoid importing. There was always an enormous sense of pride in their own produce, and the potatoes are stunning. When spuds are being harvested you see convoys of trucks taking them for processing, especially in the areas to the east of Larnaca, north of Ayia Napa where the soil is a deep red colour. IIRC they have always exported them.

20 years ago or so archaeologists working on an area that was to be developed for the tourist industry discovered artefacts that showed the (then) oldest evidence of wine production in the world. CY wine is either toenail or pretty good. Some of the indigenous grape varieties, produced by wineries like Tsiakkas using Vamvakada/Maratheftiko grapes make really good wines, IMO.

Greek wines are a best kept secret. There are a few suppliers that have emerged punting them out in the UK. The Wine Society has a cracking range.

 

[Machiavelli]

Does anyone know anywhere in Brighton that sells these delicacies?

 

[clapham_gull]

When did it get trendy?
Only asking because I used to live and work there.

I moved there in the late 90s and don't remember it being particularly desirable.

Progressively over ten years, the useful local shops began to close to replaced by bars with late licences or restaurents who applied for them.

NOT organic baker and coffee shops. Rather than gentrify it became somewhere to get pissed at the weekend if you couldn't be bothered to venture in the West End.

But Clapham has always been bit rough around the edges. It never "gentrified" in the way Balham did. The posh bits were always posh, the rough bits always rough.

In actual fact gun and knife crime got worse.

Clapham High Street is far more tatty now from when I lived there especially The Clapham North end.

 

[clapham_gull]

Does anyone know anywhere in Brighton that sells these delicacies?

I've got a dealer up here mate, depends on what you are willing to pay.

 

[SeagullsoverLondon]

I hear that Battersea has gone so far upmarket now, the locals are renaming it South Chelsea.

Surely Brighton is South Chelsea, at least according to Todd Boehly

 

[Machiavelli]

I moved there in the late 90s and don't remember it being particularly desirable.

Progressively over ten years, the useful local shops began to close to replaced by bars with late licences or restaurents who applied for them.

NOT organic baker and coffee shops. Rather than gentrify it became somewhere to get pissed at the weekend if you couldn't be bothered to venture in the West End.

But Clapham has always been bit rough around the edges. It never "gentrified" in the way Balham did. The posh bits were always posh, the rough bits always rough.

In actual fact gun and knife crime got worse.

Clapham High Street is far more tatty now from when I lived there especially The Clapham North end.

I lived Clapham North 94-97, Landor Road 97-02, and ran the Oddbins on Clapham High St 97-99. It was buzzing then or, another way of putting it was really turning into a place of hedonism around then.
Mind you, Brighton is hedonistic.

 

[pure_white]

Cant beat a Jersey Potato in fact definitely don't beat them or mash them eat them boiled and enjoy the earthy taste.

 

[Albion in the north]

Cyprus produce always seems to be available in areas such as Tooting, which is where I bought my potatoes.

I actually bought them in a Turkish shop, but could equally always buy them an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi shop / market.

As well as Halloumi.

Id be interested to know how much you paid for them. I assume London prices are painful.

 

[jevs]

Jersey Royal potatoes are readily available to grow at home under the variety name of International Kidney, I have 20 seed potatoes to put in this weekend.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Well these guys that you used to work for, have most of the country fooled then!

My business used to do their advertising. And yes, they do have most people fooled! They were very wealthy men who work for a very small part of the year. Clever devils!

 

[vegster]

It's merely a seasonal thing. As Spring and Summer slowly heads North the countries closer to the Equator harvest the first New Potatoes of the season. As I recall the sequence is...Egyptian, Cypriot, Spanish, French, Jersey Royals ( International Kidney )then Scilly/Cornish....had a holiday in Paphos 2 weeks back and had some of the local tatties, very nice.

 

[clapham_gull]

Id be interested to know how much you paid for them. I assume London prices are painful.

Not in independent shops and markets set up by an originally immigrant community.

I pay less for veg locally than I do in the Sussex village I am tonight.

I bought some poppadoms in Tooting last week. Easily twice then price in a supermarket.

That's one of the small benefits of living in an expensive capital city. You can always find cheap produce and whilst the supermarkets run out, amazing tomatoes.