• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Published Articles
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

Travel and food: Jersey Royals

March 29, 2012 9 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

Jersey Royal potatoes, lightly boiled, paper-thin skins on, then sautéd in butter.
Jersey Royals for sale at the roadside

Potatoes and vegetables are often sold via ‘Honesty Box’; 
Farmer Didier holding the first Jersey Royal potatoes in his hands

Jersey, is an island perpetually marooned in the English channel, lassoed to France one way and the UK on the other side. To the delight of its inhabitants, it’s always a couple of degrees hotter than the UK. My arrival during a stunning UK March meant that I was faced with what Jess Cartner-Morley, the Guardian fashion editor, calls ‘the tights crisis’.
I was invited to find out about the champagne of the potato world, Jersey royals, grown by around 20 farmers on Jersey nowadays, down from several hundred farmers a few years ago.

Cabbage loaves, a traditional Jersey bread, baked with a cabbage leaf on top and underneath to prevent burning.

I spent a memorable morning on Christina and Didier’s farm on the raised North side of Jersey; the entire island tilts downwards towards the south, from craggy tall cliffs to wide white sandy bays. For lunch Christina gave us ‘cabbage’ loaves; refreshing sweet French cider, lightly petillante; Jersey cherry tomatoes; Jersey seafood including lobster and Jersey Royals cooked three different ways. Christina is adamant about “not crushing”; her preferred method of cooking is simple, boiled al dente, leaving on the thin skins, with a large knob of butter and a scattering of chives or fresh mint. The very tiny ones she sautés “Kids love them, I could never make enough of them. They ate them like sweets.” Didier sends packs of the new season Jersey Royals to his kids, at university in the UK.  Didier’s parents came over from Brittany after the second world war; the next wave of immigrants were from another island, Madeira and today the labour intensive work is done by Eastern Europeans. Jersey Royals are chitted, sorted, graded, planted, ploughed, each and every one, by hand on steep slopes or ‘cotils’, where it is impossible to use machinery. Jersey ‘beans’ (the name for the inhabitants, also ‘qualies’ and ‘crappos’, toads) are resourceful, every inch of land is cultivated. Each cotil is intimately known by the farmers; which ones suffer from frost, which earth is dry or wet, how sandy or loamy the soil is. The yield is often very low.

Didier looks up towards the sky. The weather is never perfect for the farmer; right now the sun is fantastic, but they are worrying about the dryness. Each ‘cotil’ has to be watered via pipes where the rainwater reservoir pond at the bottom is pumped. This however is expensive in terms of manpower. “There’s nothing like rain”, says Didier.

The farmer worries constantly about the weather. Didier even gets up in the night, if there is a chill, to wrap his Jersey Royals in fleece. Christina, despite receiving a tractor for her 25th wedding anniversary as a present, often feels neglected in the marital bed. She didn’t want to marry a farmer, but having met Didier on a night out, it was clear he was the one. But her children, she hopes, will do a better paid job, in the ‘professions’, with shorter hours. Out of the 98,000 population, only half of that is Jersey born and bred. The younger Jersey ‘beans’ prefer to go to university in the UK, study law and finance amongst other subjects, only returning in their 30s when they decide to have families and settle down. Farming work is done by immigrants. In Jersey they control immigration by granting ‘qualifications’ giving the right to buy or rent housing, after a certain period of living there. (Hence the nickname ‘qualies’ for those who possess qualifications to buy a house on the island).
Jersey Royals, in ideal conditions, start at the end of March and last till the end of June. We are now moving from the indoor season to the short outdoor season. It’s an important crop for Jersey: fifty percent of Jersey’s export market is comprised of the royals. They command a premium price, but the UK is pretty much the only market, although the French market is being worked upon. (I remarked that the skins might be a stumbling block to gaining popularity in France; I once cooked new potatoes, leaving on the skins, for Parisian friends who were horrified by this practice).

Simply cooked à la vapeur, skins removed this time.
A ‘seed’ potato for Jersey Royals, with the dark shoot (not white as is usual with chits, because these potato seeds are warmed up, not kept in the cool as is the case with normal potatoes, in order that they grow quickly once planted).

If you were to draw a cow for a children’s book, it would look like the doe-eyed Jersey cow, world famous for the creaminess of the milk. The first Jersey bull was sold to America for 60k, the equivalent of several million today. Jersey bull sperm is another export for the island.
I love the retro seaside colours on these Jersey cream fudge boxes.
The Jersey pottery makes bowls adorned with their famous spuds.
Jersey uses the British pound, and still has pound notes. You can see the French influence in the words ‘Une livre’ (a pound), however.
En route to the Jersey Royal cotils, we saw a dolmen where some shrines had been placed. Jersey has a strong Pagan influence.

But, as Michelin star chef Richard Allen remarks, who gave me a virtuoso demonstration of different ways to use the potatoes, the flavour is in the skins. Jersey royals can have a slight coppery flavour just under the skins, which recalls ‘newness’, freshness and Spring (rather in the way that vinho verde wine does). Their distinctive taste comes from the fact that they are mulched with seaweed or ‘vraic’. I was struck by the amount of work that goes into growing Jersey Royals. People don’t want to spend much on food, perhaps they regard it as a right, like water or air, but all good food requires many man hours, from growing to picking to storing and then again, in the preparation and cooking. Good food doesn’t come cheap.
I will be doing a supper club on the 12th of May in which I’ll cook Jersey Royals and explore other delicacies of this island; the seafood, the dairy, the black butter with notes of liquorice and apple and other goodies. Book here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/157480

Clean beaches, white sand.

Recent posts

Competition to win a Master series Microplane gift set

September 29, 2023

Dutch Baby apple and cheese pancake

September 17, 2023

La bomba paella rice

August 25, 2023

Previous Post: « Events coming up at The Underground Restaurant
Next Post: Midnight plane to Georgia: Part One »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mark Willis

    March 29, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Great place (I've been there for holidays); great spuds!
    With som any of the Jersay potatoes grown in sites open to the sea spray, perhaps they come up "Ready Salted"? 🙂

    Reply
  2. campbell.

    March 29, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    I live and work with Royals and cant wait until we get some. Often cook too many and fry up the remainder the next day!

    Reply
  3. Kate

    March 29, 2012 at 3:16 pm

    Love the post – I'm a food blogger originally from Jersey. Cabbage loaf doorstop sandwiches are AMAZING – the loaves are baked in traditional brick wood-fired ovens and the cabbage leaves seal in the steam to make a really chewy crust and fairly dense crumb. YUM. (And they don't taste of cabbage at all, I promise).

    I posted recently about Jersey Black Butter, another local delicacy that tastes far better than it sounds!
    http://wp.me/p1vuQA-fJ

    Can't make it to your supperclub unfortunately which is a bummer – would have loved to come along!

    Reply
  4. Katy Salter @ Pinch of Salt

    March 29, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    Such beautiful pictures. I did a story on Jersey Royals a few years ago and couldn't believe how steep those hills are!

    Reply
  5. Katy Salter @ Pinch of Salt

    March 29, 2012 at 3:40 pm

    Such beautiful pictures. I did a story on Jersey Royals a few years ago and couldn't believe how steep those hills were.

    Reply
  6. MsMarmitelover

    March 30, 2012 at 5:56 am

    Thanks for your comments everyone.
    Kate: like the sound of cabbage loaf doorstop sandwiches! I may have a go at making my own cabbage loaves for the meal.
    Thanks Katy….incredibly steep, like farming on a cliff face!

    Reply
  7. Robert Klein

    January 2, 2013 at 11:44 am

    Wow, fantastic post! The jersey would be my choice during my visit, seems to be best seafood place, I wonder how a variety of food is cooked here by potatoes, my friends have gone many time, this time I am thinking to make a quick trip over there, may be soon, do u have any suggestion for best jersey restaurants.

    Reply
  8. Holiday to Jersey

    September 3, 2013 at 7:00 am

    Hey! wonderful pictures and amazing Jersey Royal potatoes, i'm a big foodie and I would just love to taste those cabbage loaves. They surely sound delicious….Definitely going to try them this time I visit Jersey.

    Reply
  9. Jersey Girl

    November 11, 2014 at 5:17 pm

    Glad you enjoyed your visit to the Grand Jersey and to see Richie, he's still going strong in Tassili, my favourite restaurant! Such a great post highlighting the great produce available on our lovely little island x

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
A lovely vegetarian recipe from @lulugargari - a g A lovely vegetarian recipe from @lulugargari - a green bean and basil pesto with Italian lemon 🍋 pasta. Fresh, light. This was at an Italian cooking class/demo @eatalylondon hosted by @ilovefruitandvegfromeuropecouk @flickflock #london#italy🇮🇹
Digital chefs came from Italy yesterday to teach h Digital chefs came from Italy yesterday to teach how to make pumpkin, chilli, taleggio fondue Paccheri pasta- warming and filling for autumn days. Thanks to @ilovefruitandvegfromeuropecouk @flickflock @eatalylondon @danielerossichef @lulugargari for the event. We then got to go shopping in Italy with a £50 voucher. I spent it on mostardi di frutta, burratta, carciofi, cheeses,. My sis in law @bro0907 spent it on two bottles of wine. 😂 #italianfood #italianingredients #cookingclass #campaniafood
Inspired by @kathybrownstev’s book on edible flo Inspired by @kathybrownstev’s book on edible flowers I did an edible flower supper club featured in my first book ‘supper club’ This weekend I briefly visited her garden. Decades of work and creativity went into creating this English oasis. It’s an hour and a half out of london near Bedford. It closes at the end of September: open Tuesdays and this coming weekend. It was odd to go on holiday so near to where I live! We had a beautiful Airbnb in Pavenham. The countryside starts nearer to home than I thought. #uk #england #gardens
Visited The speciality fine food fair today for th Visited The speciality fine food fair today for the first time. So many tastings! Great to see new products. Particularly impressed by @lamiriharissa which is smoked and delicious run by Jo Lamiri’s children and @quirkymonkeycoffee which is mushroom infused coffee and hot chocolate run by an autistic guy Darwin setting up his own business. Good for him. #foodexplorer
Bones and all. Just made tomato sauce pasta from m Bones and all. Just made tomato sauce pasta from my home made sun dried tomato concentrate made @tenutacammarana in Sicily last summer. It’s the taste of sunshine. Plus my English home-grown tomatoes. #Tomatoes 🍅 🍅 🍅 #dinner #babyledweaning
I’ve made a South African/ Botswana dish that is I’ve made a South African/ Botswana dish that is creamy samp with chakalaka. Samp is corn like hominy or pozole a native Indian or Mexican food. It’s strange that it’s a staple food in Africa. Corn is a new world food I think. Samp itself is quite bland, often eaten with beans. Chakalaka is delicious with peppers, Piri piri seasoning, ginger garlic onions tomatoes and carrots and baked beans.
Samp from Botswana. It’s husked corn and makes a Samp from Botswana. It’s husked corn and makes a porridge like carb- creamy samp. I’m rinsing, soaking and cooking today and will combine it with chakalaka tomorrow. #southafrica #botswana #samp #newworldoldworld
Did my living room floor with @woca_denmark_uk_ire Did my living room floor with @woca_denmark_uk_ireland natural floor soap yesterday which smells lovely. But high traffic areas need rewarding. This is a Scandinavian technique- regularly waxing pale wood floors. I did this floor during the first year of lockdown. I prefer waxed floors to varnished. #interiors #woodfloors
Alliums in a purple pot. Note to self: plant more Alliums in a purple pot. Note to self: plant more bobble headed alliums. Love the colour and shape. This is in a neighbours garden who I met on Saturday while working in the front garden. Traditionally the British have front gardens but now they are turned into driveways and building are developed into flats. Only very rich people in london can afford houses. But the front is very important for the community- it’s how you meet your neighbours. On Saturday I visited 2 different sets of neighbours gardens- the first time since I moved to this street 23 years ago. Our front garden is communal and has been an unloved space- I’m trying to change that. Tonight I cleaned all the wheely bins. A yucky job but otherwise they smell so bad in summer. I was thinking about all the terrible dirty jobs that someone has to do- clearing up after a road accident, or sorting out sewers, or unblocking toilets. The stuff that nobody likes to think about. #frontgardens #neighbours #londoners
What I’ve been up to: awning from @victorianawni What I’ve been up to: awning from @victorianawnings which has transformed our al fresco eating possibilities. Also been working on the front garden of our building using talented work men I found on fb marketplace: railings by @lincsecproducts ( the gates were bought by me some years ago and I’ve scraped off the rust and repainted), the arch, which took me 3 years to find on fb marketplace for the right price and size. The wisteria which will grow over the arch planted by @christina_erskine ( I’ve always wanted a wisteria and they apparently add to the value of your house), the Swiss style bike/buggy shed. Needs to be painted dark green to match the walls. My friend Jim repaired the walls, the coping, and laid the  concrete plinth. Now need to find coping for the pillars or perhaps urns for more plants. 47cm2. #interiors #exteriordesign #gates #railings #bikeshed #awning #design
Made a vegetarian paella with La bomba rice from @ Made a vegetarian paella with La bomba rice from @brindisaspanishfoods I used red and green peppers, saffron, sherry, Nyora peppers, smoked almonds and green olives #vegetarian #vegetariansummer #paella
Quick snap of my bedroom chimney wall with the @sa Quick snap of my bedroom chimney wall with the @sanderson1860 wallpaper - finally done. Never wallpapered before. By the way I’m totally open to interiors collaborations email me: marmitelover@mac.com #interiordesign #wallpaper #london
Cooking powders or flavour bombs: two of my favour Cooking powders or flavour bombs: two of my favourite are ‘chaat’ which you can buy in Indian shops- here I’ve sprinkled yoghurt with lime/achaar chaat and decorated with day lily petals. My other favourite culinary powder is @tajinuk which gives instant mexicanness to any dish. #tajin #chaat
Me and my beautiful granddaughter Ophelia. I look Me and my beautiful granddaughter Ophelia. I look a mess ( really need to dye hair but it’s sooo expensive) but I don’t care because my heart just bursts when I cuddle this little being who has been in my life for 8 months. Babies are a blessing. #granfluencer pic: @clairebelljar
Made arepas last week with masarepa, a precooked m Made arepas last week with masarepa, a precooked maize meal, topped with Wensleydale cheese which isn’t too dissimilar to a fresh Latin American cheese. I also added fresh corn kernels for texture. #colombia #venezuela #arepas #vegetarian
Quinoa salad cooked in a mushroom stock cube solut Quinoa salad cooked in a mushroom stock cube solution with hazelnuts & preserved lemons, home grown curly parsley. I’m not cooking most of my grains in a rice steamer. Turn out fluffy & perfect every time. #quinoa #grainbowl #summerfood
I took this photo of Jane Birkin when she performe I took this photo of Jane Birkin when she performed at @theroundhouse in 2008. Shabby chic with a sweet voice. #RIP #janebirkin #concert #london #rockphotographer
Oxford food symposium 2023 lots of talks, meals an Oxford food symposium 2023 lots of talks, meals and drinks
‘Soft serve’ ice cream. Easy! Add condensed mi ‘Soft serve’ ice cream. Easy! Add condensed milk & vanilla to whipped cream and freeze! Pipe out. Buy a flake if you want a 99. #nochurnicecream #99 #icecream #summer23
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2023 msmarmitelover