Irony

I tweeted this earlier so I apologise to anyone who is already aware of my thoughts on the subject.

As many of you know I live in Kent, once famous for its hop gardens and orchards. The hops are almost all gone because of the shift to lagers, which don't use English hops, and more intensive farming techniques.  Orchards are being grubbed up and sold for housing because of changes in farming techniques but mostly because UK supermarkets rarely buy large quantities of English apples. I've done the "food miles" stuff often and you will often see apples from many different counties on the shelves. 

But how's this for irony? In Tesco this morning they are selling apple trees. Many of the people shopping in Tesco across Kent will be living in houses built where orchards stood until very recently but they can plant an apple tree in their garden and buy it from one of the agencies which brought about the decline of fruit farming in the area. 

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone.............." (Mitchell, 1970)