This Is Jersey

THE Jersey Royal potato and the once-famous Jersey tomato offer ample proof that the land of this Island is rich and productive.

It should not be forgotten, however, that the sea that surrounds us has also played an important role in enriching our soils, particularly in the sandy fields of the south, east and west.

Without vraic - the generic Jersey name for all manner of seaweeds - it is unlikely that agriculture would have enjoyed the success which made it such an important part of the economy throughout most of the 20th century. As well as feeding in beneficial nitrogen, phosphorous and potash, vraic adds body to light soils and also helps them to retain
moisture.

As Gerald Thomas, who was for many years the States entomologist, once said: ‘During my years at the States Farm, the best advice I ever received was this: “Grease the land with a good lick of vraic and you can’t go wrong”.’

Today, with agriculture in decline and artificial fertilisers in widespread use, vraic is a far less important commodity than was once the case.

Tractors with buck-rakes are still used to scrape it from the beach so that it can be loaded into trailers and carted away, dripping salt-water and smelling powerfully of iodine, for use on the land. This activity is, alas, a far cry from the traditional vraicing activity made famous through picture postcards of temps passe and the richly evocative etchings and paintings of Edmund Blampied.

Collecting seaweed with three-prong forks and a horse-drawn cart - known as a hernais - was without doubt hard work, but it was also a sight which helped to define the nature of rural Jersey. Vraitcheurs - the Jersey name for seaweed collectors - also left other marks on the landscape which are now things of the past.
As recently as the 1970s it was possible to see stacks of vraic drying near the shore at La Pulente and La Rocque in preparation for burning to concentrate nutrients.

Now no one considers it worthwhile to continue this practice and the vraic which does find its way onto the land does so as a soggy mass which is allowed to break down directly into the soil.

On a positive note, the frequent squabbles which used to attend vraic-gathering sessions are also things of the past, though iron vraic markers, once used to signal where and at what state of tide weed might be cut, can still be seen among the rocks near L’Etacq.

Also to be seen at Le Grouet near Corbiere and at L’Etacq are impressive special tracks, or tchetniethes, hacked through solid granite which would once have allowed vraic carts access to particularly rich vraicing grounds.

Nowadays the thick forests of kelp - known here as collet - which extend from the low tide mark to a depth of 40 feet or more are not exploited to any significant degree because modern vraicing concentrates on weed torn up and flung ashore by storms.

However, just across the water in Brittany the commonest form of kelp, Laminaria digitata, is collected on an industrial scale for processing into alginates and other valuable chemicals.Could we perhaps learn something from our Breton cousins?

This article first appeared in the Jersey Evening Post as part of the Pride in Jersey series, marking the Island’s 1204-2004 celebrations.