Every year, I look forward to the season. Every year I’m disappointed. They just don’t taste the same as they used to. Anyone know where you can buy some that taste like, err, Jersey Royals?
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[Misc] Jersey Royal potatoes
- Thread starter Goldstone1976
- Start date
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,876
Jersey ?
Razzoo
Well-known member
I agree had some from M and S and they were just like normal potatoes. They looked a bit too clean. They should have a peeling skin I reckon.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
They don’t put seaweed on them for fertiliser like they used to.
- Thread starter
- #6
Now that’s what my mother said. I thought she was having a laugh. Perhaps not.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
Machiavelli
Well-known member
In more important, or contemporaneously relevant, news -- WTF has gone on with the asparagus season this year? It's horrendously late, and I suspect it will be even more horrendously short.
Mackenzie
Old Brightonian
They keep the best ones for themselves.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
My feeble attempt (which I'm happy to be proved wrong on) to explain the original question is:
there are various reason why most food stuffs don't taste like they used to:
-- the seaweed option is one
-- overproduction would be another
-- for me, there's something in the poly-application of fertilisers, etc that diminishes the flavour (but not the durability, yield, reliability. etc) of most/all/certain crops
-- grown on too many sites / need for more rigorous application of denomination rules
Same principle as wine?
there are various reason why most food stuffs don't taste like they used to:
-- the seaweed option is one
-- overproduction would be another
-- for me, there's something in the poly-application of fertilisers, etc that diminishes the flavour (but not the durability, yield, reliability. etc) of most/all/certain crops
-- grown on too many sites / need for more rigorous application of denomination rules
Same principle as wine?
AZ Gull
@SeagullsAcademy @seagullsacademy.bsky.social
Asparagus - the Maty Ryan of the vegetable world?
Machiavelli
Well-known member
vegster
Sanity Clause
- May 5, 2008
- 28,272
Probably a combination of a number of things. Jersey Royals are meant to be a variety of spud called International Kidney. If they are grown on Jersey they are known as Jersey Royals and traditionally they were one of the earliest new potato crops. Spud harvests head northwards as summer progresses, there used to be a sequence of new potato harvests geared up to get maximum profits for whatever area could produce the earliest crop so, roughly the sequence would go Egyptian, Cypriot , Spanish/Baleric then Jersey and then Cornish.
So, spuds planted nearer the Equator were the first to be harvested and this area of maximum opportunity would move northwards as Spring/ Summer progressed. Unfortunately, this has become a bit of a gold mine so spuds are either given extra water or grown in polytunnels or under fleece to produce earlier and bigger crops. If you over water you get more spuds but with less flavour.... spuds are sold by weight rather than by quality ergo if the growers pump them full of water they gain sales at the expense of taste. I have grown International Kidney potatoes and I found them quite boringly crap, I find Rocket or Foremost a better variety but to be Jersey Royals, they have to be International Kidney and then.... overwatered to make the most money they can.
So, spuds planted nearer the Equator were the first to be harvested and this area of maximum opportunity would move northwards as Spring/ Summer progressed. Unfortunately, this has become a bit of a gold mine so spuds are either given extra water or grown in polytunnels or under fleece to produce earlier and bigger crops. If you over water you get more spuds but with less flavour.... spuds are sold by weight rather than by quality ergo if the growers pump them full of water they gain sales at the expense of taste. I have grown International Kidney potatoes and I found them quite boringly crap, I find Rocket or Foremost a better variety but to be Jersey Royals, they have to be International Kidney and then.... overwatered to make the most money they can.
Weststander
Well-known member
It’s already proving to be an anus horribillis for all things royal.
Only the baby Jersey Royals are like this, I came home a couple of years ago and saw them on the pub menu, got all excited, and then mature ones arrived.
- Thread starter
- #17
You’ve gotta love NSC. A dozen posts that encapsulate a lot of what’s best about the site - some mild piss-taking from someone who knows me, quickly followed by an attempt at a serious answer, because the individual is a good egg; some one word/short responses, which nonetheless are a good shout at a possible answer to the question posed; an in-depth response from someone who clearly knows his onions, err, potatoes; posts that link to football/the Albion; and a pun.
It’s not a reflection of the very best thing about the site - that accolade is reserved for threads where someone is clearly in real trouble, at which point everyone rallies round to help in the best way they can - which in some cases proves to be on the basis of either professional knowledge or personal experience. However, this thread does, imo, show a lot of what is good about the site, and I thank you all.
It’s not a reflection of the very best thing about the site - that accolade is reserved for threads where someone is clearly in real trouble, at which point everyone rallies round to help in the best way they can - which in some cases proves to be on the basis of either professional knowledge or personal experience. However, this thread does, imo, show a lot of what is good about the site, and I thank you all.
Have you tried switching them off and back on again?
Robinjakarta
Well-known member
There's a farm shop at Ferring on the right of the A259 after Asda that did some great new potatoes last year from Kent and/or Norfolk I believe. They were far better than locally bought Jersey Royals.
To answer your first post I’m afraid it is due to Brexit and a Tory Government.
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