Best New Variety Vegetable/Salad – Winner Inca Bella, Branston

Branston’s potato variety development programme, which produced Inca Bella, began back in 2000 at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (now the James Hutton Institute). Chosen from 1,500 possible new varieties, Inca Bella was created from crossing a variety from the Solanum phureja family – the indigenous potato species of the Andes – with our standard Solanum tuberosum species, which is fully acclimatised to our environment and grows well in the UK. The key attributes the phureja brings are a golden-coloured flesh that has a slightly sweet, nutty flavour and a much quicker cooking time. Traditional roasting varieties have a high level of dry matter, hence the floury texture that makes a lovely crispy roast on the outside that is smooth and fluffy on the inside. More