ALL HAIL THE ARRIVAL OF THE JERSEY ROYAL

Back in the ‘good old days’ day – when you could rely on summer being hot and winter being cold – Jersey Royals signalled the arrival of spring.  This year however, March and April brought gale force winds, never ending rainfall and inch-upon-inch of snow. The weather really has been relentless and we’ve been having a good ‘weather moan’ on a daily basis, but the impact it’s had on fresh produce has been devastating. Jersey Royal farmers and producers have worked around the clock covering and warming up their crop to try and ensure the spuds make it onto menus this spring. Until the warmer weather came it was a waiting game for dozens of farmers and their families who faced the possibility of having some, or even all, of their crop wiped out this year.

Earlier this week I visited the tiny 9x5 mile Island, where farmers were breathing a huge sigh of relief. The wait was finally over. The sun was shining down and workers were tirelessly harvesting the côtils (steeping slopes) and fields by hand to start shipping potatoes to the mainland. The potatoes looked full and healthy – and tasted absolutely wonderful with a bit of salt and butter!

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll begin seeing more and more potatoes in the supermarkets, which go from field to fork in around 24 hours for the freshest taste. Plus they’ll even still be available into July, which is quite unusual, as a late start means a late finish to the season.

Demand for the potatoes is great this year and supermarkets are likely to sell out fast in the first few days as the public snap them up, but over the next couple of weeks harvesting will hit full flow and there’ll be Jersey Royals around every supermarket aisle!

Posted by Caroline Addy 

Supermarket price wars and the big picture

We Brits have always had a schizophrenic relationship with food and today is a prime example of that dichotomy. On the same day the FT, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent and the Daily Mail report on the UK’s frankly shameful £12bn food waste, the BBC (video) reports on the ‘austerity sandwich’ - two slices of bread with another slice of bread in-between. Surely £12bn could buy a slightly more exciting filling. Meanwhile the supermarket price war is being cited as a reason for falling inflation figures, which in this economic climate must be a good thing.

What the headlines don’t tell you is that neither the food waste nor the retailers’ discounting is sustainable. Food has been (too) cheap and plentiful for many of us for a long time. We need to remember that the global population is growing at such a rate that traditional farming can’t quite keep up. International grain prices have gone through the roof and combined with droughts, floods and now global warming we’re seeing falling agricultural yields just when they need to rise. It can’t be a coincidence that there have been food riots in more than 30 countries. Food security is becoming a concern for everyone. All of a sudden throwing out perfectly okay food is not just a problem for individual households in the UK. 

Posted by Toby Schuster

Pens At The Ready...Food Writers Discuss Supermarkets

We were under no illusions…putting together a panel of distinguished food writers with food retailers, and asking them to debate the power of the supermarkets was always going to be an evening of conflicting views. And sure enough the event, hosted by the Guild of Food Writers delivered. Kicking off by highlighting a trend we discussed a few weeks ago Alex Renton claimed that food has become “too cheap” while Guardian writer Zoe Williams cited feminism as an influence on the way we eat, using “supermarket meal solutions” as an example of how the modern working woman doesn’t have time to shop around. Meanwhile, former ad-man turned food writer Tim Hayward argued that advertising has created perceived problems for which, in return, brands and supermarkets provide profitable solutions (a tactic he claimed perfectioned by the beauty industry). In defence of the retail sector Andrew Opie was calling for more fact checking in the media, and used BOGOFs as an example of skewing public perception, insisting the deals are not always funded by suppliers. Thankfully, Sophie of fresh produce supplier Barfoots bridged the gap between the two sides saying that whilst supermarkets have undeniable power it is up to suppliers to be smarter in the way they run their businesses. Not surprisingly for a group of foodies, the general consensus was that it was important for the people in the room to encourage their readers to shop at places other than supermarkets and show how that can be made easy. Then again, we couldn't help but think that this is really a middle classes debate, with the majority of the general public not having the time, money or interest to look beyond the supermarkets when it comes to shopping for food. Discuss. 

Posted by Becky Erwood