Jersey Royal new potatoes account for the vast majority of the Island's fresh produce exports.
Depending on the climate during the growing season (January to March), the total Jersey Royal crop usually ranges from 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes per year. At the peak of production in May, up to 1,500 tonnes are exported daily, with pickers working twelve hour shifts in order to get the Jersey Royals on the supermarket shelves for the following afternoon.
Before the season starts in March, a great deal of preparation goes into making sure the season’s crop is of the best quality. Approximately 90 farmers across the island are planting during January and most still use natural, seaweed fertiliser known as Vraic. The main crop is then harvested in March and carries on through the season until June. Those potatoes planted on the early slopes are hand lifted, as the slopes are too steep for machinery. Once the potatoes are harvested they are immediately graded, packed and transported to ensure they arrive in shops and supermarkets across Britain the very next day. This is all part of ensuring the quality of the Jersey Royals; the producers of Britain’s favourite potatoes are committed to getting them into shops in the UK less than 24 hours after they are harvested.
Mainland Britain is the only place outside Jersey where these potatoes are available to buy. They are at their most plentiful and flavoursome from April to June. You can purchase Jersey Royals from most supermarkets and many independent grocery retailers.
At every step of the Jersey Royal new potato’s short life, it is cosseted and caressed, from the planting, to the picking, to the packing.
The protection extends beyond the physical. We tolerate no Royal dopplegangers. These unique, creamy, kidney shaped potatoes - worth an estimated £28 million a year to Island growers - are protected by an EU ruling. The 'Appellation Contrôlée ' gives the name the same status as Champagne. Many countries have tried to grow the Jersey Royal, but only those potatoes grown in the Channel Island of Jersey can call themselves Jersey Royal new potatoes.
Today’s Royals are the result of combining the best of the old with the innovation of the new. The tradition of covering the fields in a winter blanket of seaweed, or ‘vraic’ begins in November. This provides the soil with nutrients and helps stop pest infestation.
Two months later farmers start the perilous task of planting. The vertiginously steep fields, or ‘côtils’ as they are known in Jerriais, are hard to plough, so the farmer winches down a plough and remains, with his tractor, at the top of the incline to pull the plough along.
Modern methods of cultivation take precedence at the next stage when the côtil is covered with a thin polythene sheet to keep the ground warm and to protect the emerging shoots from frost. On the best south facing slopes, the resulting crop will be picked in late March to catch the highest prices on the UK market.
During the peak of the season in May, when up to 1,500 tonnes of Royals are exported daily, the grower is working a 12-hour day, assisting Polish and Portuguese farm workers in the delicate harvesting. Some lifting is done by hand, some by machine. To minimise the harm done to the easily bruised young potato, the harvester digs under the crop and lifts the potatoes up so they are cushioned by a layer of soil.
This level of care continues at each stage. In the noisy, intense and frenetic packing sheds, workers are concentrated and focused. The Royals are checked for obvious blemishes, divided into three sizes; ware, small ware and the smallest - mids - and then checked again by a quality controller, before being packed and loaded into refrigerated vans for export.
In order to ensure the taste and condition of the Royal potato justifies its reputation, the growers go to great lengths to ensure its quality. Each sack of potatoes can be traced back to the Jersey field it was grown in by an identifying code.
Sink your teeth into a fresh Royal and you should get a firm, waxy texture with a slight give. It will taste slightly nutty, possibly earthy, and certainly sweet. The flavour is more intense at either of the ‘rose’ end (the narrowest part) or the ‘heel’ end of the potato. There is something else that makes the potato special though; in a world of pre-peeled, pre-packed, pre-seasoned vegetables, the soil-covered Royal, bought loose from a green grocer, still has a faint whiff and feel of the sea, the sun and the sand which nurtured it - a rare connection to land it is grown on.