Concern over dumped Royals

From Hazel Gee.

WE have just returned from one of many visits to your beautiful Island. However, I would like to make known something we saw while on Jersey that has compelled me to contact you.

I learned some time ago that during the occupation you were near starvation and how eagerly the Red Cross parcels that eventually were able to get through to you were received.

I am still moved by hearing this, particularly as we now in the western world, decades on, have so much.

The reason for this letter is the vast amount of potatoes that we saw dumped on open ground by the slipway at L’Etacq. My husband guessed it was because they were too large to be considered Jersey Royals. I asked a local the following day and he confirmed this.

How can a society that in relatively recent times has known such deprivation throw away food? Giving these potatoes away to perhaps schools or those living on a budget would make more sense than dumping them.

Surely it would be possible to market these clearly unloved, discarded potatoes? A little bit of ingenuity and rebranding as Jersey Old Boys, Jersey Big Boys or Jersey Giants would mean they could take their rightful place in stews, soups and as wedges.

The name is unimportant, but the principle is very important as the sight of what to you may be commonplace, the dumping of perfectly sound crops, gave a glimpse of a rather selfish, wasteful side of Island life.