Victoria's Green Matters - 30th March 2011

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

There was a disturbing report last week that British supermarkets sold more imported, New Zealand Gala apples than our native Cox’s Orange Pippins. Somehow, we have become accustomed to eating the sickly sweet Gala apples and our home grown Cox’s, with their zingy tartness, have fallen by the wayside.

This is very sad, not only because of the air miles racked up by importing fruits that we can so easily grow at home but because apples are our heritage. The oldest English apple, the Pearmain, was recorded in Norfolk in 1204. The first large-scale orchards were established by Henry V111 here in Kent and where would Isaac Newton be without an apple to establish his theory of gravity? We have our own wonderful orchards nearby at Brogdale, where the National Fruit Collection has examples of all 2,200 types of English apples. All these apples grow quite happily in our soil so why do we need to import apples? A good question.

In the supermarkets, homegrown produce has to compete with cheap imports from abroad – cheaper because they are exported in vast amounts throughout the year where English apples are seasonal. Different varieties are harvested at different times so we cannot buy the same English apple with the same taste all year round. And English apples have to be stored so as to be available throughout the winter.

But things may be looking up. Many people have caught on to the idea of only eating seasonally, whether fruits or vegetables and the supermarkets are flagging up goods that are English grown and here we are lucky to have Kentish grown produce.

It is important to try and buy homegrown produce wherever possible and if you can buy local produce, so much the better. Reducing carbon emissions and saving local jobs must be imperative today.