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About Jersey
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| Jersey Produce |
Jersey has a real abundance of fresh food. The Island is known world-wide for its top quality, creamy Jersey milk and its delicious Jersey Royal new potato. There are other, lesser-known stars of the Island’s land and sea too though, like its bass and sumptuous scallops, its juicy Royale tomatoes and earthy mushrooms. The Island, having had to fend for itself for so many centuries, can feast on what it catches and grows.
You should not leave Jersey without trying its seafood. A long fruit de mer lunch, picking out the soft and sweet flesh of a Jersey spider crab, accompanied by a glass of bone dry, but fruity local white is one of life’s must dos.
The facts are that Jersey grows food primarily for export as a cash crop to the UK. The main crop grown today is the Jersey Royal new potato. Its stable mate (or possibly mistress) is the Jersey Royale, a new, classic tomato variety, which is exclusive to Island growers and no summer salad will be well-dressed without it.
Other crops grown in Jersey include cauliflowers, lettuce, courgettes, calabrese, leeks, onions, sprouts, spring greens, beans, main crop potatoes, carrots, soft fruit, strawberries and herbs. Peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers are grown mainly for the local market.
Fewer flowers are now grown in Jersey, nevertheless, the Island still sports spring-time spreads of bright yellow narcissus. The other main flower crops are pinks, anemones, iris and spray carnations.
Our herds of Jersey cows are another prominent feature of the landscape. No country lane is without its own complement of gentle Jerseys delicately chewing the cud. They produce the Island’s world famous Jersey milk, renowned for its nutritional content, its rich taste and its creamy colour.
THE ROYAL POTATO
So delicate is the skin of the Jersey Royal new potato that harvesting equipment is tested with a chicken’s egg. The theory goes if the egg survives intact, so will the precious Royal.
There are few food stuffs which command such care and attention. At every step of the Jersey Royal new potato’s short life, it is cosseted and caressed, from the planting, to the picking, to the packing.
The protection extends beyond the physical. We tolerate no Royal dopplegangers. These unique, creamy, kidney shaped potatoes - worth an estimated £23 million a year to Island growers - are protected by an EU ruling. The 'Appellation Contrôlée ' gives the name the same status as Champagne. Many countries have tried to grow the Jersey Royal, but only those potatoes grown in the Channel Island of Jersey can call themselves Jersey Royal new potatoes. For more information log on www.jerseyroyals.co.uk
JERSEY MILK
The Jersey cow in its current pure-bred form has been a feature of the Island’s landscape for more than 200 years, following a ban on the importation of live animals or semen which has ensured the purity of a breed in its Island home.
Although a small breed, the Jersey is one of the most productive dairy cows and has an amazing ability to adapt to wide-ranging conditions – a characteristic which has led to exports of live animals to countries around the world. Jersey cows can trace their ancestry to the original Jersey Herd Book founded in 1863 by the Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society. There are currently circa 34 herds in the Island producing 14 millions litre of milk.
LOCAL SEAFOOD
Jersey is the border post in marine terms. It is the dividing point between northern species found in British waters and the more southerly species found in the Mediterranean regions. As a consequence, the Island’s waters host a great variety of marine life. This is good news for the angler, the botanist and the gastronome; Bass, turbot and bream are abundant, as are lobsters, crabs and oysters.
Visitors with their wits about them may like to try to catch a razor fish – tip a pinch of salt into a key-shaped hole and it’ll pop up like a jack in the box – the rest is up to you and your reflexes. But, like digging for bait, hanging a rod over the pier, raking for cockles, or maneuvering a crab pick over a chancre, razor fishing is best done when the sun’s out, the sea is cobalt and you have all the time in the world to appreciate Jersey’s abundance of marine life.
Charter a boat for the day and tangle with a turbot, or follow a local down on the low tide to Seymour Tower and pick your own fruit de mer from the clams, whelks, mussels, and winkles around – throw in a crab and a lobster from the Island’s Fish Market and life’s a beach.
JERSEY FLOWERS
Wordsworth’s much-loved school syllabus staple described "a host, of golden daffodils… fluttering and dancing in the breeze". Stroll along any country lane in Jersey between late January and early March and his words ring true. The jaunty yellow narcissus pokes through hedgerows, carpets fields, sways in hillside banks and brightens private gardens.
However, daffodils are but a small part of the floral Island that is Jersey. The combination of the Island’s mild climate and Britain’s best sunshine levels provide the perfect growing conditions for many types of flowers - evident in the many floral events that take place in Jersey each year. These range from the vibrant two week long Battle of Flowers, to the July Floral festival during which thousands of Island homes and businesses vie for the winning entry in the floral competition.
PTGH wish to thank Jersey Tourism for their help in providing the above information.
19/01/2006
© 2006 Preston Travel Group Holdings Limited. All rights reserved.
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