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 ‘eyes’ (from which new plants sprout).
The friends cut this particular potato into sixteen pieces which they took and planted on a ‘côtil’ 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 Jersey’s 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.
The History of Jersey Royal New Potatoes
Potatoes have been grown in Jersey since the mid-eighteenth century with potatoes at this time competing successfully with parsnips as a field crop
By 1810 the once famous cider orchards had vanished from Jersey and growers were experimenting with exporting New Potatoes to England for the early summer trade due to their popularity
The Jersey Royal was first known as the Jersey Royal Fluke due to the circumstances by which it originated
A farmer called Hugh de la Haye hosted a dinner party at which he showed his friends two potatoes that he had been given. One had 15 eyes (from which new plants sprout) so he decided to plant them to see what happened
The following spring a crop appeared and whilst most were round, one crop produced kidney shape potatoes, soon to be known as the Jersey Royal
First arrivals of this new breed of potato arrived on the London markets in the 1880s
Tonnage grew and by the late 1890s, a usual crop export of Jersey Royals would be in the region of 60,000 tonnes!
Eventually the Jersey States Department of Agriculture ordered that no other variety could be exported for New Potato consumption other than the Jersey Royal
Today, the Jersey Royal is still the very first New Potato of the season and remains unique in taste and quality
In 1878 the market price for a tonne of Jersey Royal Potatoes was 140 shillings