Tuffelrud

Research card draft

Gullauge

Also Gulløye, Gul Gullauge, Guldöje, Gullauga

From
Northern Norway, north of the Arctic Circle; first noted in Kvæfjord, Troms, Norway (arrived from Sweden)
When
Landrace; came to Northern Norway early in the 1900s (about 1905); on the Norwegian variety list since 1953
Bred or kept by
No breeder. Carried by rallare (railway navvies) walking over the mountains from Sweden
Parents
none recorded
How sure
origin partly
Shape
round to round-oval, slightly flattened
Proportion
1.2 times as long as wide, measured from photos
Size
unknown
Bend
none
Knobs
none
Skin
light yellow, red in and around the eyes, smooth
Flesh
yellow
Eyes
medium, red (signature #B5525A)
Dormancy
unknown
Flesh type
floury
Health
Not resistant to wart and very poorly resistant to late blight on foliage and tubers, so it is grown where blight does not occur (the north and southern mountain valleys). Easily infected by viruses, especially potato virus Y. Fragile skin cracks during lifting and storage (NIBIO).
The name
Gull-auge (Nynorsk) or gull-øye: 'gold eye'. NIBIO says the small red eyes are what the name refers to; why red eyes earned the word 'gold' is not explained in any source found.
Protected names
Gulløye fra Nord-Norge. Told here as facts; never used as a character's name.

The colour swatches are the flat colours the drawings use, read from photos and lifted to even daylight; the card says how.

What it looks like. A round to round-oval, slightly flattened tuber, about 1.2 times as long as wide in the photos, with smooth light yellow skin and small red patches in and around each eye. Yellow flesh. The red eyes are the mark everyone knows it by.

Fragile. Gulløye has a thin skin that cracks easily during lifting and in storage. In the old days the sound of a gulløye cracking at harvest was heard as a sign of a good year (NIBIO).

Where and why. It has no resistance to blight to speak of and catches potato virus Y easily, so it lives where blight does not: north of the Arctic Circle and in mountain valleys in the south. In the south it yields little; in Troms and Finnmark it does well, growing under the midnight sun.

History. No breeder. It came to Northern Norway early in the 1900s with rallare, the itinerant railway builders, who walked over the mountains from Sweden. A red mutant, Rød Gullauge, also exists.

Names. Gullauge (or Gulløye) is the cultivar and may be used. "Gulløye fra Nord-Norge" is a protected designation of origin held for Produsentorganisasjonen Ottar: tell it as a fact, never use it as a character name, product name or on anything sold.

Where sources disagree

flesh colour

NIBIO and PDO: yellow ('delikat, gult kjøtt'); a search summary of other pages says strong yellow

ECPD: light yellow

How we settled it: Yellow. The photo's cut flesh samples #E2D174 to #E8D584 in fair light; card #ECD770, paler and greener than Pimpernel's deep yellow.

skin colour

PDO and NIBIO: light yellow skin with red in and around the eyes

ECPD: 'part red'

How we settled it: Same thing in two vocabularies. Card: light yellow with red eyes. Skin sampled #D7BD7B and #D2B680 under warm indoor light, lifted slightly to #DCC27E; red at the eyes sampled #B36960, deepened to #B5525A for the signature.

Still unknown

  • Dormancy.
  • Size in cm: no scale object in the photos.
  • Why red eyes are called gold.
  • Exact year of arrival: 'early 1900s' (NIBIO) and 'about 1905' (nn.wikipedia via search summary).

Sources

  • kvann.no: NIBIO: half-early to half-late; grown north of the Arctic Circle; PDO Gulløye fra Nord-Norge; came with rallare over the mountains from Sweden early 1900s; red eyes give the name; fragile, cracks during lifting, and the sound of a cracking gulløye at harvest was taken as a sign of a good crop; strong flavour, floury, delicate yellow flesh; round-oval, slightly flattened, medium-deep eyes; midnight sun; blight, wart and PVY susceptibility; high dry matter, low sugar; low yield in the south, good in Troms and Finnmark; rarely flowers, faint red-violet petals; red mutant Rød Gullauge
  • lovdata.no: PDO regulation 14 Sept 2007 no. 1094: 'lys gul skallfarge med rødfarge i og rundt grohull og gul kjøttfarge', round or round-oval, slightly flattened, dry matter over 22 percent; north of the Arctic Circle bounded by Saltdal, Beiarn and Meløy; user Produsentorganisasjonen Ottar
  • nn.wikipedia.org: arrival in Kvæfjord with Swedish railway workers around 1905; landrace of unknown origin
  • europotato.org: ECPD: Norway; skin part red; flesh light yellow; oval to round; eyes medium; smooth; very mealy to mealy

Reference photos

Used to read proportion and colour, credited here, and never traced or copied into the drawings.