It was just a meat and two veg dinner round at farmer Hugh's
house, and it made history.
The story of the Jersey Royal potato began in 1880 when Hugh de la Haye invited some
friends for supper. After the meal he showed them a curiosity: a huge potatoes with 15
'eyes' in it, just waiting for new plants to sprout.
The farmers cut this potato into pieces and decided to plant the bits on a steeply sloping
field above Bellozanne Valley. And they waited.
The following spring the chunks of broken-up potato produced a large and early crop. For
the most part it was unremarkable, but among the traditional round potatoes was one
peculiar plant.
Although the parent potatoes and most of the new crop were round, this plant had produced
nothing but kidney-shaped potatoes.
They may have been small and peculiar in size but they had a fantastic flavour and
paper-thin skin, and Hugh and his friends christened them the Jersey Royal Fluke.
Since then, more than 120 years have past and the Jersey Royal has been a huge success,
grown solely on Jersey soil. It has been nurtured and developed and now accounts for
almost half of the
Island's agricultural income, being grown on about 8,636 acres of land.
The potato's unique and traditional method of production has meant that it has been given
protection by the same EU 'product designation of origin' that has protected champagne.
The delicate thin skin of the Jersey Royal is what makes it so tasty, because not
peeling a Jersey Royal adds to its distinctive flavour. And with this natural flavour,
unique skin and excellent nutritional value, the Jersey Royal is not only good to munch
on, it is the potato to be seen to be eating.
And top chefs such as Delia Smith and Gordon Ramsay know that seasonal produce is
unbeatable for flavour and freshness. They recommend the Jersey Royal because it is grown
in natural conditions and can be bought fresh within hours, rather than days, of being
picked. As Delia says in her book, The Complete Cookery Course: 'No foreign imports can
usurp the native delights of British runner beans or potatoes like Jersey Royals.'
