There are lots of good reasons for living in Cornwall - not least the unique mild maritime climate that makes the county so well suited to growing succulent early fruit and vegetables.

For more than a hundred years the combination of good soil and the benefits of the Gulf Stream have given the county a competitive edge over growers elsewhere, and earlier access to markets for the first potatoes, strawberries and cauliflowers.

Today much of that market advantage has been lost, as cheap aviation fuel has blasted away the climatic advantage and provided consumers with year round access to strawberries, mange tout peas, and the ubiquitous ‘new’ potato that is nothing of the sort.

The history of horticulture in the county goes back a long way. Great strides were made in the 1600s and 1700s, when wealthy Cornish landowners started developing kitchen gardens to provide a year round abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. The horticultural boom that followed was only brought to an end by the First World War.

Even today, however, West Cornwall still benefits from its mild weather conditions, and has become home of what is colloquially known as the Cornish Early. This is not a specific potato variety, but a generic marketing brand recently developed to promote the earliest new potatoes dug and sold in Cornwall. From its development, the early potato rapidly earned a reputation as a seasonal delicacy. In 1808 shipments went to Bristol, London, Portsmouth and Plymouth.

The Cornish Early, like so many other crops in Cornwall, has almost lost its climatic advantage and has to compete with ‘new’ potatoes from Israel, Cyprus and Egypt. These are not new at all, but have cornered the market thanks to cheap transport and the invention of the polytunnel. Most of these so-called ‘new’ potatoes are in fact either small main crop potatoes, or new potatoes grown the previous year or in polytunnels and put into store.

I was once offered ‘new’ potatoes in a West Cornwall restaurant in January. The owner tried to persuade me that not only were they new but they were also Cornish! They were nothing of the sort, but it illustrates the confusion that has been allowed to creep in. If you are offered a new potato between August and the end of March (Cornish or otherwise) reject it, as it will bear no relation to the unique Cornish Early which should be small, almost translucent and soft-skinned, with a distinctive sweet taste.

Genuine Cornish Earlies are only available for the first few weeks of the new potato season, and growers use the latest techniques to retain their market advantage. Planting usually takes place in either December or early January, using protective plastic or horticultural fleece to cover the soil, ensuring that the first potatoes are ready for lifting at the end of April.

One advantage of growing early potatoes is that they can be double-cropped with West Cornwall's other best-known vegetable - broccoli. For almost 200 years it has been as important to this part of Cornwall as potatoes, thanks to an ingenious steward on the Herald, a passenger ship sailing between Hayle and Bristol.
Sharrock Dupen noticed the higher prices cauliflowers sold for in Bristol's markets and in 1837 took the first profitable consignment from Hayle to Bristol, setting off the development of what soon became a vital farming activity in West Cornwall. Strawberries, already commercially cultivated, early potatoes and mackerel were also sent up the Bristol Channel.

It was the completion of Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge over the Tamar in 1859, however, that encouraged a massive expansion of horticulture in West Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and the Tamar Valley.

Today most of the steep fields along the River Tamar have reverted to scrub or woodland, compared with the frenetic activity a hundred years ago when it was, quite literally, Cornwall's market garden.

It was in 1862 that James Lawry visited London and realised that strawberries on sale there were not only more expensive, but also available several weeks later than in the valley. He returned to Cornwall and a year later his first strawberry consignment to Covent Garden sold for five times the price he could expect at home. Although growing was already taking place for local markets, this was the start of the so-called strawberry rush.

Encouraged by Lawry, commercial scale strawberry growing took off, and for almost a century everyone living in the valley had the chance to cash in on the economic bonanza of being the earliest strawberry producers in the country.

The post-war years had a major impact on this lovely landscape. Food production has became more industrialised and the supermarkets more influential, making the scale of operations in areas like the Tamar Valley inefficient and expensive. The combination of the Beeching cuts - which closed a significant tranche of Britain's railways in the mid 1960s - and cheap air freight, rapidly ended the agricultural prosperity of this steep-sided valley.

A small pocket of traditional growing remains, however, mostly in private hands on land that is easier to manage, producing a few cherries, strawberries, raspberries, beans, cabbage, rhubarb, lettuce and tomatoes, mostly for local buyers. That said, a growing number of producers across the county are responding to this new impetus, reviving the market gardening principle to supply local markets. Others sell either in their own farm shops, on roadside stalls or directly to hotels, pubs and restaurants. A handful of nurseries are concentrating on herbs, again to supply specific customers in the catering sector. In the Isles of Scilly a cluster of growers have recognised that they can supply visitors, local hotels, restaurants and pubs with herbs, vegetables and salad crops, partially filling a gap otherwise supplied by imported produce. They simultaneously boost the quality of the eating experience that tourists increasingly expect in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

One vegetable that is successfully grown on a small scale is asparagus. Cornwall has five sites where the wild variety grows, including the eponymous Asparagus Island off Kynance Cove, and a handful of commercial producers. John and Jenny Keeler at St Erme, near Truro, are the largest growers of this highly sought after crop. During the brief season, they sell at farmers' markets and to local restaurants. They also use a local wholesaler to distribute the succulent green spears across the county. At the other end of the scale are the big horticultural operations producing potatoes, cauliflowers, strawberries and spring greens.

Strawberries, of course, are not exclusive to the Tamar Valley and have been grown in other parts of Cornwall for over 200 years. The red berry is still widely cultivated cross the county on a significant scale. One of the most innovative growers is Phil Boddington, who runs Boddington’s Berries, situated on slopes overlooking the sea above Mevagissey. His family have produced strawberries for over 60 years and extended the season from April to November. What started as a mixed horticultural operation became one of Cornwall's biggest growers and the only business concentrating solely on supplying strawberries to supermarkets, wholesalers, local shops, hotels, pubs and restaurants. The company also runs a pick your own option.

Phil believes the maritime growing conditions put Cornish strawberries among the market leaders. "Cornwall has the perfect climate to grow the best strawberries in the world. The fruit ripens more slowly compared with, say, the Vale of Evesham or Kent, increasing the sugar content so we can get a much better and more intense flavour," he says.

He is right - up to a point. Growers who have adapted varieties and techniques to meet market demands for year-round supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables, rather than tasteless, under-ripe produce developed for its long shelf-life, and its ability to travel thousands of food miles, are to be admired. But the best fruit and vegetables are seasonal and special because they are only available at certain times of year. Tamar Valley strawberries, Cornish Earlies and asparagus are the perfect examples.

This extract is taken from Carol Trewin’s new book, Gourmet Cornwall. The paperback celebrates the superb food and drink from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Gourmet Cornwall is published by Alison Hodge and available priced £14.95 from good bookshops and online at: www.alison-hodge.co.uk

This feature was published in Cornwall food magazine in Spring 2005.