International Kidney is a cultivar of potato grown primarily as a new potato. In the United Kingdom, they are best known as Jersey Royal potatoes which are grown only in Jersey.[1] Jersey Royal is a Trade mark [2]
[edit] History
In around 1880 a Jersey farmer, Hugh de la Haye, showed friends a large potato that he had bought. It had 15 'eyes': points from which new plants sprout. They cut this potato into pieces, which they planted in a côtil (a steeply sloping field) above the Bellozanne valley. One plant produced kidney-shaped potatoes, with a paper-thin skin, which they called the Jersey Royal Fluke. This was later shortened to Jersey Royal.[3]
[edit] Present day
Under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union Jersey Royals are covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).[4]
Annually the Jersey Royal market has a value of £35m. It is Jersey's biggest crop export, accounting for 70% of agricultural turnover.[5] 99% of production is exported to the United Kingdom.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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