Lemons & Limes ... Getting Expensive??

The news reports that the recent freezing temperatures in California's Central Valley has caused the loss of approximately three-quarters of the state's $1 billion citrus crop. The Golden State supplies about 87% of the country's lemon crop. This big freeze, according to reliable sources, will cause the citrus prices to go up, including lemons. Go up? Holy smoke, they've been so expensive the past few years they ought to be called yellow gold. When did someone decide that a dollar was a good price for a lemon? Well, go to supermarkets in Reno and you find plenty of them for a buck a pop. Granted, they can be found a lower prices—I buy them in bags of five at Trader Joe's for $2.79, but they're not monsters, by any means.

So what can we expect if the price goes up—three dollars apiece? And what about limes? Will they become green jewels? Some stores in Reno try to get away selling them for 50 cents each, Albertson's for one. I buy them at the King Ranch Market on Well Ave., where they're always at least 4 for a dollar and sometimes twice that. If they go up I may have to quit drinking gin & tonics—heaven forbid!