For new potatoes, Jersey Royals are actually pretty old. They’ve been cultivated on the beautiful island of Jersey for over 130 years and were given PDO status back in 1996 – making them the only potato in the UK deemed special enough to gain EU protection. Along with other seasonal ingredients like asparagus and broad beans, they’re one of the real treasures of spring and early summer, making their way into homes, restaurants and eventually our mouths from late March to July. After that they’re all gone, and we all have to wait another year to taste these creamy, flavourful potatoes again.
It’s easy to forget about the hard work that goes into farming when it’s so easy to buy clean, ready to cook produce in shops. But without Jersey’s potato farmers, who spend the majority of the year tending to this one single crop planted across 7,300 acres of the island, we’d never get to taste Jersey Royals. It’s not just a case of throwing a few sprouted spuds into the ground before reaping the rewards months later, either – there’s a lot of hard work that goes into getting these potatoes to taste so good.
Our photo story of the Jersey Royals harvest is an homage to the farmers who work tirelessly on the island to bring us this very special ingredient each year. Taking photos using a drone and getting up close to the produce on the ground gives you a real sense of the island, its people and its potatoes.
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In pictures: the Jersey Royals potato harvest