It’s time for Jersey royals (just add butter)

Welcome to Jersey, land of the hot potato

A few weeks Ago, I visited Jersey for the first time and spent a few blustery days driving from bay to bay, scrambling down to isolated beaches and watching as the sea turned from delphinium blue to a brooding grey as the clouds bowled over in the wake of storm Doris. Around every corner (and there are many along the small island’s 500 miles of roads) there appeared field after field covered in lines of white plastic sheeting. Their bounty? Jersey Royals, planted in Jan aury and protected from frost and wind for six to eight weeks before being unveiled to harden up in the sunshine. They benefit from the island’s gritty soil and salty air, and the occasional coating of vraic (seaweed) that lends its own nutrients.

Round about now, they’ll be dug up, Christine H eliot el ls me, and she ‘couldn’t be more excited’. Helio and her husband grow across 400 vergées (using the Jersey unit of land equivalent to just under half an acre) including‘ extremely steep south-facing slopes that need winches to be ploughed’. After farming together for 31 years, they still get‘ a buzz from planting a potato and seeing it grow’.

Helio’s coat pockets are often brimful of Jersey Royals, plucked from the ground on her weekly crop walks. The couple supply the island’ s Co-operative, along with the english market, but insist‘ no one eats our potatoes until we do’. That means a 20-minute boil then a little salt and butter, for spuds so sweet and nutty they need little else.

Potato pop-up On 22-23 April look out for the Just Jersey kiosk at Covent Garden in London, where hot, minted potatoes will be sold by farmer and TV presenter Jimmy Doherty.