Dr David Nelson (just David to us) is a world-renowned potato guru, and we’re chuffed to bits to have him with us.
Five interesting facts about Dr Nelson:
1 His doctoral thesis was entitled, ’Agronomic effects on the processing quality of early harvested potatoes’. Memorise that and impress your friends at dinner parties.
2 His favourite way to eat potatoes is baked, with chilli - nice and spicy.
3 As well as bringing back an MSc from his studies in Peru, he also found his lovely wife, Rosa.
4 Even after a long hard day working with spuds he goes home to his potato allotment.
5 David says he loves spuds because they're not easy. He also loves the way you can manipulate how they grow by the way you grow them.
These days, Dr Nelson is a really big cheese in the potato world. But he first got into potatoes in a small way on the family smallholding in Norfolk. That was the start of a lifelong fascination that’s earned him international recognition as a potato expert. And he’s a thoroughly nice chap too.
David studied Agriculture at Aberystwyth University, and then headed for the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru. You know how Elvis fans head for Graceland? Well, top potato boffins head for Lima. Peru is the home of the potato so there was nowhere else he wanted to be.
Just to show you how David has dedicated his life to potatoes - here’s a very old picture of our potato guru in a potato field in Lima working as a research assistant while he studied for his MSc.
As if this wasn’t enough spud specialisation, he came all the way back to Aberystwyth and did his PhD. And David has been working in the potato industry ever since. He’s written six research publications on the subject and umpteen other articles for the agricultural press that are way too clever for us mere mortals to understand. He sits on lots of professional panels and committees too, and shares his humungous store of potato knowledge with the rest of the potato industry.
Back home at The Real Potato Co, David helps our growers develop their skills so they can grow top notch crops in the most cost effective way.
And when he’s not doing that, he’s travelling all over the world, searching for new ideas and varieties for The Real Potato Co. He’s a very busy man.
We'll keep you posted about David's travels. Oh, and if you have techno-tattie-troubles, drop him a line. What David doesn't know about spuds just isn’t worth knowing.