Rush Group Blog

Overview, baby potatoes, Western Europe

2011-11-18T14:44:00.002Z

Demand for baby potatoes this year seems to be slow, despite the perceived reduction in the quantity (and quality) of small potatoes this year. The number of tubers that were initiated during the early stages of crop development was relatively low, in general. This was followed by a period of ideal growing conditions, such that yields were high. The end result was an overproduction of bakers, and a related shortfall in the quantity of small potatoes (babies, grenailles, salads, mids etc) and a possible reduction in the availability of potatoes of pre-pack size (approx 45-65mm).

You'd have thought that this would have caused some excitement in the "baby potato" market. But demand is slow, and prices remain flat. Will this lack of interest continue after Christmas? That is difficult to tell, because demand usually tails off for a few weeks in January. But on the other hand, it really does seem that the supply-side will dwindle even more. Many French maincrop potato farmers, for example, have nearly completed their dispatches of harvest-screened baby potatoes, having graded out approximately half of the quantities of smalls compared to a normal year. We'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, the south east of England is dry as a bone. There's plenty of time to go before the spring, but there's going to have to be a lot of rain at some stage in the next four months to stave off a potential drought next season. The rain is likely, but the risk is there.

The lads get to work

2011-10-28T09:45:00.001+01:00

Marcin Wawrzynczyk and Guy Burgoyne at the coalface in the Rush Poland office. Guy looks after North-Western mainland Europe business for Rush Group Ltd. At present, we are loading German Lady Rosetta and Lady Claire crisping potatoes for our South-East Asian contracts.

New Polish Office

2011-10-27T12:18:00.002+01:00

Justyna Wawrzynczyk cuts the ribbon to open the new Polish office for Rush Group Ltd. While the potato market is quiet after a large domestic crop this year, the team are handling peeled onions, oranges, cauliflower and a number of exotics such as sweet potatoes and butternut squash.

Rush Group has new additions

2011-09-23T12:42:00.003+01:00

We have taken delivery of 2 new tautliners.

Recipe of the week!

2011-06-21T11:50:00.002+01:00

Potatoes Dauphinois
Spruce up the dinner plate with this classic French potato recipe. Ideal served with meats, fish or alongside other green vegetables.

Serves 4 Ingredients
200ml single cream
1 tsp coarse black pepper
500g Amandine potatoes, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried thyme
2 cloves garlic, coarsely crushed

Method
1. Heat the cream in a pan until simmering.
2. Add the salt, pepper, garlic and thyme.
3. Add the potatoes and stir well to coat. Simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Transfer the potatoes into a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7.

Recipe of the week!

2011-06-13T16:55:00.001+01:00

Butternut Squash Muffins
An inspirational version of the classic muffin, lighter in texture and a healthier option; ideal served with afternoon tea.

Serves 4
Ingredients
200g butternut squash
½ tsp grated nutmeg
2 eggs
1tsp baking powder
75ml virgin olive oil
2 tsp poppy seeds
180g soft brown sugar
160g plain flour
100ml milk

Method
1. Cut the squash into 2cm cubes, cut away the skin and wash.
2. Boil the squash for 20 minutes, drain well and allow to cool.
3. Blitz the squash until fine, add the poppy seeds, nutmeg, sugar, and eggs and beat well until light and creamy.
4. Add the flour, baking powder, milk and olive oil and continue to beat until a creamy batter is formed.
5. Fill a muffin tin with paper cases and pour the batter into each case 80% to the brim.
6. Bake in a preheated oven 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for 20 minutes.

For more recipes take a look at http://www.rushgroup.co.uk/recipes/index.html

Recipe of the week!

2011-06-10T09:58:00.003+01:00

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Sweet potato undertones combined with Parmesan creates a different take on this variation of the classic Italian dish.

Serves 4
Ingredients
500g sweet potato
100g fine polenta
1tsp salt
50g Parmesan cheese, grated
100ml 00 or strong flour
1 egg
1tsp coarse black pepper

Method
1. Wrap the sweet potato in foil and bake in a pre-heated oven 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. Peel the skin off the sweet potato and mash it to a fine purée.
3. Add the flour, polenta, egg, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese and knead to form a firm dough.
4. Roll the mixture onto a floured surface 2cm thick.
5. Cut into 1½cm strips and roll each strip into an cylindrical shape.
6. Cut into 1½ cm cubes and press down with the back of a fork to form a compact gnocchi.
7. Allow to rest for 1 hour.
8. Heat a large pot with water and bring to the boil.
9. Drop the gnocchi in and as soon as they rise to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon.
10. Drain and serve hot.

For more recipes take a look at http://www.rushgroup.co.uk/recipes/index.html

Recipe of the week!

2011-05-16T10:37:00.001+01:00

Goan Spicy Potatoes
Ideal served with other side vegetable dishes and an excellent accompaniment to white fish.

Ingredients
40ml groundnut oil
800g par boiled Amandine potatoes cut into wedges
100ml hot water
400ml coconut milk

Spice mixture
2 shallots, chopped
1-2 red chillies
1½ tsp cumin seeds
1 10cm cassia cinnamon stick
1 lemon grass stick
1½ tsp ground nutmeg
10ml groundnut oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsps coriander seeds
1 clove
1½ tsp turmeric
1½ tsp salt
10ml water
1 lime, juiced

Method
1. Combine all the spice mixture ingredients and blend until
very fine.
2. Heat the oil and lightly sauté the spice mix for 1 minute.
3. Add the hot water and potatoes and mix well.
4. Transfer the mixture into an oven baking dish, pour over the coconut milk and bake in a pre-heated oven 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 30 minutes

For more recipes take a look at http://www.rushgroup.co.uk/recipes/index.html

Making 8 knots with full ahead

2011-02-17T10:03:00.000Z

A vessel loaded with Irish potatoes leaves a lonely trail as it ploughs across the Baltic towards Saint Petersburg.

Rush Potatoes being sent to Russia

2011-01-13T16:07:00.000Z

The photo shows the good ship Nordic Chantal being loaded with 2500 tonnes of PCN-free potatoes at the port of Greenore in Ireland, destined for St Petersburg.

The cargo is stacked in the hold up to 5 x 1.25 tonne jumbo bags high, with 8 jumbos at a time being craned onto the vessel. Two weeks later and they are in the markets in Russia, replacing the home-grown crop, which was severely curtailed due to critical drought and farmland-fires during the growing season.

As we speak, we have another vessel approaching the port for loading over the course of the next few days.

Rush Amandine

2010-11-23T16:54:00.009Z

Justyna Wawrzynczyk from the Rush Poland office with a box of the new Rush Amandine baby potatoes.

We have exclusive supply of Rush Amandine in special branded packaging. Washed and packed fresh daily in our packhouse in Boston, Lincolnshire.

This variety cooks wonderfully, with a delicious subtle nutty salad taste. It's very similar to that old classic Charlotte, but it has the added bonus of a very attractive shape and uniformly beautiful skin finish.

Dawn view from the Rush Canary Wharf office

2010-10-26T09:15:00.003+01:00

Up bright and early and in the office for dawn...

Rush is on top of the World!

2010-10-21T12:26:00.005+01:00

Rush Group were delighted (and rather relieved) to welcome back James Bulford from his trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro last week.

The group of 13 set off up the tented Rongai route on a 6 day round trip up to Uhuru Peak situated at 19,341ft, accompanied by a team of 49 porters and 6 extremely experienced guides.

They started up the route walking single file through the Savannah plains, then up through green jungle, passing by blue monkeys, parrots and snakes before hitting the contrasting barrenness of the higher extremes. As they ascended the temperature and oxygen levels rapidly declined meaning walking speeds had to be monitored to try and avoid the onset of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), the most common deterrent for climbers reaching the peak.

After 4 days of walking the team finally approached the final camp at Kibo, situated at 16,000ft. Unfortunately for the smokers in the group, there was no chance of a cigarette as oxygen levels had now reached 50% compared to sea level, making breathing difficult. Along with recorded temperatures of -19c this made for a journey fraught with difficulties and hardship, however, they reached the summit at 8am having climbed the remaining 3,341ft for a solid 8hours. Exhausted but exhilarated, the view was incredible as the photos prove. The only downside was the realisation that they still had the descent back down the mountain to contend with!

The boys have so far managed to raise the impressive sum of £3,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and would be grateful for any further donations. If you would like to make a donation please have a look at James' Just Giving site.

New Accounts Office

2010-10-05T12:41:00.000+01:00

David Ough and Murray Hogge cut the ribbon to open the newly refurbished
Rush Group Ltd. accounts office at Courtvollard Farm, Trematon, Cornwall.

D&B Rating

2010-07-06T08:38:00.000+01:00

Dry weather continues

2010-06-24T14:41:00.001+01:00

A month has gone by and there has been very little rain. It's difficult to say yet whether this will have a material effect on potato yields, but there does seem a hint of worry amongst growers that their yields are going to be much reduced from potential. The price per tonne for English new crop salad potatoes has fallen into the low £300s in the last few days. There is a feeling among a number of growers that, now that the surprise late flush of Jerseys has gone, the price will come back towards £500/tonne within a couple of weeks.

The heat is on

2010-05-24T15:27:00.000+01:00

We're loading Cornish new potatoes today. Yields are around 5 tonnes per acre when we would normally expect 8 tonnes per acre. There's not much else about, so we are getting pressure to crack on with the harvest. The hot dry weather seems to be increasing demand for salad and new potatoes. The great unknown is how much this dry spell will reduce yields through the effects of drought and heat stress.

The flightdeck

2010-05-14T09:29:00.000+01:00

Stock sheet on the left hand screen, potato quality control report on
the right, linked live with the store and pack house in Boston. Is he
selling potatoes or landing a plane?

Baby potatoes

2010-05-12T17:36:00.000+01:00

We're finding that it is quite a struggle at the moment to supply enough baby potatoes. We've got a lot of containers arriving from Israel and quite a few on stock from Egypt and Israel, but gradings of smaller fractions can't keep up with demand. Most of the minis/babies (however you want to describe them) are sold or assigned while they are still on the water.

As an alternative, we have 2009-crop French Amandine which is holding its skin finish well, but the super smalls have long since gone. The difficulty there is that supply depends on sales of the bigger fractions into the French and German markets, and demand for that sort of stuff is slow. Quite a few trucks of 42-53mm have to be graded off before one truck of 35-42mm is generated. So at the moment we're only squeezing out 1 or 2 trucks a week of the size we want for the UK.

If anyone has got any baby potatoes to offer us, we'd be glad to hear from you!

From the desert sands does the harvest come

2010-03-20T11:48:00.002Z

A truck loads beautiful fresh-dug potatoes in the deserts of the Middle East. Within two weeks, the restaurants of north west Europe, will cast aside the sweet old stored-crop and launch into the mouth-watering products of these arid lands.