Whatever happened to "new potatoes"?

[Jenise]

When I was growing up in California, it was a big deal to my grandmother every year when the "new potatoes" came into the markets. Sold in bulk (vs. bagged) they were white rose variety potatoes with paper thin skins that, in several places on each potato, were kind of peeling away like sunburnt skin does on humans. I can't remember what she did with them specifically, probably just boiled with butter, but I know it was a really important event in the produce cycle to her and markets would advertise their arrival.

Somewhere along the way that stopped happening--in California, anyway. Does that still happen anywhere else? Even up here where literally tons of potatoes are grown commercially, the differences between potato varieties and new crops are hardly a thing of celebration.

[Robin Garr]

We get them here in season (midsummer?) at farmers' markets and quality groceries. Both red and white (aka "creamer") potatoes the size of ping-pong balls or smaller, tender and sweet. I love 'em!

Now, Mary calls them "new potatoes," and I remember my mother calling them that. I suppose I can't absolutely testify that they're still sold under that name, although I think they are. They're definitely available, anyway, and the local ones, at least, are seasonal.

Thinking out loud, I'm pretty sure that I can buy the same type of tiny potato year-round at produce markets, but I don't know if they're the same. I kind of doubt that they are still "new."

I'm kind of addicted to the marble-sized potatoes I can find at H-Mart. They come in 3 or 4 colors, there are always some red, blue, and yellow, maybe white as well. But they are expensive, perhaps $5.00 for a shrink wrapped styrofoam tray of 1.5 pounds. What I do is coat them with olive oil and put into a very hot oven with fresh herbs and garlic -- rosemary, thyme, and sage. The texture of the interior is luxurious and smooth while the outside is flavorful and crispy. You can also do that with fingerlings.

But when I remember "new potatoes" I think of red skinned potatoes, not all that small. And I haven't seen that terminology for quite a while. Probably part of the problem is that half of the produce we see these days is from Argentina or Australia or something and they don't want to call attention to the lack of seasonality.

New potatoes are still marketed here, but as the red potatoes that Frank talks about.

In my garden, I usually grow two different potatoes: red and yellow. Each season, around July, there's a crop of small, pick-able potatoes that don't seem to grow any more and that are not green, so they are edible. New potatoes?

Its not prevalent now in UK, with one exception, because new potatoes are sold year round as they are sourced from all over, e.g. Egypt, and because of new varieties that crop at different times.

They were the first early harvest of the new season, and therefore small and perfect for boiling whole/

The one exception are Jersey Royal new potatoes. Small with papery skin that flakes off with a gentle rubbing they are grown on the island of Jersey and come into the shops around May. They have a prized reputation and their own EU appellation - Protected Designation of Origin.

http://www.jerseyroyals.co.uk/about-jersey-royals.aspx

[Jenise]

Thomas, that sounds like a perfectly good new potato to me! But you guys kind of confirm what I was thinking; first, that there were regional differences and secondly that the terminology has pretty much fallen out of use. At least to mean what it once did so far as my grandmother was concerned: super fresh in a way you could see with your naked eye, and straight to market.

Peter, those Jersey potatoes sound wonderful. When I lived in Manchester in the 80's, the array of potatoes available even in that hinterland was truly eye-opening. I was pretty naïve about agriculture and just didn't realize that there were all these amazing varieties. My favorite, and the only one I remember by name, were the little 50p sized King Edwards. I'd never seen tiny potatoes like that, and the skins roasted up beautifully crisp if you dropped a few handfuls around a roasting hunk of beef. OH MY, were those divine.