Tuffelrud

Research card canon

Kerr's Pink

Also Kerrs Pink, Henry's Seedling

From
Cornhill, Banffshire, Scotland
When
Trialled from 1906, released 1917
Bred or kept by
James Henry of The Brae, Cornhill (breeder); James Kerr, seedsman in Banff (introduced and named it)
Parents
Fortyfold × Smith's Early
How sure
origin verified
Shape
round to short-oval, large, cross-oval and irregularly flattened
Proportion
1.15 times as long as wide, measured from photos
Size
unknown
Bend
none
Knobs
slight
Skin
light pink over a buff ground, uneven, browner where soil-stained, smooth
Flesh
white to cream
Eyes
deep, red
Dormancy
medium
Flesh type
floury
Health
Heavily attacked by late blight on foliage and tubers, but immune to wart (NIBIO; ECPD: field immune to wart races 1 and 2). Low resistance to common scab and potato virus Y. Susceptible to skin spot and both potato cyst nematodes (AHDB). High secondary growth.
The name
Named after James Kerr, the Banff seedsman who introduced it in 1917, and its pink skin. The breeder, James Henry, called it Henry's Seedling and chose it because 'its shape pleased me, a pinkish round'.

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 big, round to short-oval tuber, a little flattened and lumpy, with deepish red eyes, light pink skin and white to cream flesh. Sprouts are red-violet. The plant is very tall with thick, strongly coloured stems and white flowers, and it hardly ever sets berries.

History. James Henry of The Brae, Cornhill, Banffshire, trialled it from 1906 as Henry's Seedling and kept it because "its shape pleased me, a pinkish round". He gave some to James Kerr, a seedsman in Banff, who released it in 1917 under his own name. Henry later emigrated to Canada. The potato went on to dominate Irish growing for much of the 20th century and became one of Norway's main table varieties for decades (NIBIO). Henry and Kerr are historical people, both long dead; they may be told as facts, not drawn or voiced.

A blue twin. Blue-skinned mutants of Kerr's Pink have arisen many times. One clone, found by Erling Olsen in a Norwegian field in 1970, is so blue that peeled, boiled potatoes are faintly blue (NIBIO). It is kept in the Norwegian gene bank as "Kerrs Pink med blått skall".

Body facts that carry story. Blight takes it badly, wart never does. Its deep eyes make it wasteful to peel, yet it was used for chips anyway. Named after the man who sold it, not the man who bred it.

In the cellar

Where sources disagree

skin colour

NIBIO: lyserød (light pink/light red); AHDB and ECPD: skin class red; Specialty Produce 11083: light pink

Specialty Produce 18393 (used by docs/research/art-direction.md): light brown with patches of pink blush

How we settled it: Light pink, unevenly laid over a buff ground. The breeder descriptions agree on a pink-red pigmented skin; 'light brown with pink patches' describes how unwashed or older tubers look in a shop, and the only licensed photo (unwashed tubers at a Scottish potato day) shows exactly that dusky pink-brown (sampled #663730 and #541C15 in dull light). Card uses a washed light pink #D39A8C; a signature blush or soil tone can be the character's third colour if wanted.

flesh colour

NIBIO: white

AHDB: cream; ECPD: white to light yellow; Specialty Produce: pale yellow to ivory or cream-white

How we settled it: White to cream. Card uses a warm off-white #F1E8D0, not yellow.

shape

NIBIO: cross-oval, irregularly flattened; ECPD: round

AHDB: short oval

How we settled it: Round to short-oval, irregular. Photo tubers read about 1.1 to 1.25 longest over widest; card 1.15.

Still unknown

  • No clean, washed, licensed photo found; no CC0 or public domain photo for outline. Needs our own photo of real tubers.
  • Typical size in cm.
  • Why NIBIO calls the eyes medium-deep to deep while AHDB says medium (likely clone or growing differences).

Sources

  • kvann.no: NIBIO: from Scotland, on the market 1917, a main Norwegian variety for decades; large, cross-oval, irregularly flattened tubers; light red (lyserød) skin, white flesh; eyes medium deep to deep; red-violet sprouts; late; chips despite peeling losses; heavily attacked by blight, immune to wart; very tall plant, strongly pigmented internodes, white flowers, rarely berries; Fortyfold x Smiths Early, James Henry, Banffshire; blue-skinned mutant found by Erling Olsen in 1970
  • potatoes.agricrops.org: AHDB/SASA British variety database: short oval pink tubers with cream flesh; skin class red; eyes medium; smooth skin; very tall plants; white flowers; no berries; skin spot and PCN susceptibility
  • europotato.org: ECPD: skin red, eye colour red, flesh white to light yellow, shape round, eyes deep to medium, skin smooth to intermediate, medium to large tubers, dormancy medium, mealy to multi-purpose, high dry matter, blight and scab ratings
  • banffmacduffheritagetrail.co.uk: James Henry of The Brae, Cornhill; Henry's Seedling; trials from 1906; 'a pinkish round'; James Kerr, seedsman, launched it 1917; spread through Scotland, England and especially Ireland; Henry emigrated to Canada
  • specialtyproduce.com: US produce site: 'light brown, covered in patches of pink blush', flesh 'pale yellow to ivory' (the source of the art file's description)
  • specialtyproduce.com: same site, second page: 'light pink skin', 'small delicate deep red eyes', 'cream-white' flesh

Reference photos

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