A golden beetroot variety is to launch exclusively at Waitrose on October 4. The new heritage variety was once popular in the 19th century with the Victorians but was gradually superseded by deep red varieties.

It is grown and hand-harvested on the Cambridgeshire Fens in the Isle of Ely area by Greens of Soham. G's Marketing, which has been a supplier of salads and vegetables to Waitrose for 37 years, sell the beetroot as a prepared product by first cooking and infusing it with white wine vinegar and orange blossom honey, and then packing it at their specialist beetroot factory in March, Cambridgeshire.

Tim Stephens, account executive for G's Marketing, said: "We've tried growing this variety in the past but this is the first time we've done it on a commercial basis. To our knowledge, prepared Golden Beetroot is not being grown or sold commercially anywhere else in Europe. We've been trialling it for two years to get ready but resurrecting this old variety has been a real challenge - it takes longer to grow than the more modern red types. Having said that, it is one of the most eco-friendly crops, rarely needing treatment with pesticides."

Because of the very nature of an old variety that hasn't been bred, golden beetroot is less uniform in size with an entirely natural colour of a sweet potato. Unlike its red cousins, this particular variety doesn't stain and has a more subtle, less earthy flavour.

The limited volumes of the ready-to-eat product will be sold in 180g punnets retailing at 99p and are expected to be on Waitrose shelves for approximately eight weeks.

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