Michael Kellymeets Lar Flynn, a fifth-generation potato farmer, who is singing the praises of Rush Queens, those old-fashioned 'balls of flour' that are at their best just now
HERE’S A SHOCKER for you. It seems there is a whole generation of Irish people that doesn’t know much about spuds. Sure, we can tell you whether we like them boiled, baked, mashed or chipped. But beyond that? Ask your mother or father which variety of potato they prefer and they could probably bend your ear all night about the enduring appeal of their favourite spud. They will tell you which of the varieties are best suited to particular types of cooking, and when each variety is in season.
But this new generation of pasta-, rice- and tofu-loving infidels don’t know their waxy from their floury, their Records from their Golden Wonders. How many of us, for example, are aware that we are currently in the middle of the season for one of the great potatoes – the floury marvel that is the British Queen?
Rooster and Kerr’s Pink now account for 60 per cent of potatoes grown in this country. The reason? They are hardy, perfectly uniform, available almost all year round, store well, and can be washed before being packaged, which means supermarket owners and time-pressed consumers love them.
The Queen, on the other hand, is only in season from July to September, and she lacks uniformity in the shape department. Most importantly, because it’s an early variety (more accurately described as a second early) it hasn’t completely formed its skin, which means it can’t be washed before being packaged, and is therefore sold with the dirt on. Basically, the Queen is a little bit more work in the kitchen. But the phrase “ball of flour” was invented for her. Peeled at the table and served with plenty of butter and a dash of salt, it’s a delectable taste of what potatoes used to be.
“The Queen wants to be cooked in its jacket,” says Lar Flynn, a fifth-generation potato producer from Rush. “If you peel a potato, you are peeling all the nutrition and flavour out of it. Queens should be boiled and, just before they are cooked, you pour off the water and let them steam for 10 minutes.”
North Leinster, where the Flynns have their farm, is serious potato territory. In fact, more than half the national production is based in counties Meath, Dublin and Louth. Most of the Queens sold in Ireland come from north Co Dublin, and most of them are subsequently sold outside the Pale.
“The reality is that Dublin people want a potato that’s clean and washed,” says Flynn. “We stay away from the supermarkets, by and large, because they won’t entertain a dirty potato. We deal with greengrocers and corner shops in counties such as Donegal, Galway, Sligo, Meath, Cavan and Kildare, where people are looking for a traditional Irish potato.”
Some Irish people are turned off by the “British” tag, so Lar’s father, Paud, long ago took to calling his potatoes Rush Queens. It was a stroke of marketing genius – sales doubled almost overnight.
Paud’s own grandfather started growing potatoes on a few acres in the 1880s, at a time when they were sown and harvested by hand, with the help of a spade and a pair of horses. The farm now stretches to nearly 1,000 acres, spread across north Co Dublin and Meath. Incredibly, there are now three generations of the family involved in the business. Though Paud retired in 1994, he admits to still being involved from time to time. “I am the gofer,” he says. “They tell me: ‘Go for this, go for that’.” His five sons – Lar, Gerry, Vincent, Paul and Fergal – now run the business. “It took five of them to replace me,” says Paud, with a glint in his eye. Four of his grandchildren now work in the business, too.
Such a large farm is part of a wider trend of consolidation nationally. In 1996 there were more than 1,600 potato growers in Ireland. Ten years later, that number had shrunk to about 600. Demand for potatoes has dropped, but so too have margins, which means growers have to produce more and more spuds just to stand still. Rather than join the race to the bottom, as supermarkets continue to push prices down and take bigger margins, the Flynns have chosen to emphasise the uniqueness of their product. It’s a strategy that is working so far, though he admits that increasing summer rainfall has made life difficult in the past few years. At this time of year – their busiest – an 18-hour working day is not uncommon.
With so many members of the family involved, how do they keep the peace? “We all bring different skill sets to the table. We all know what we have to do, and we get on with it. The alternative would be to split the farm up and go our separate ways, but this way we pool the machinery and labour, which keeps our costs down.”
Before I leave, I have to ask: is pasta ever on the menu in any of the Flynn households? “No,” says Lar. “A dinner is not a dinner without potatoes.”
See www.bestinseason.ie