Limeapocalypse

If I were a Miss America contestant, Ok don’t laugh so hard that you stop reading, just go with my premise, so if I could possibly be a Miss America Contestant, OK, even states like North Dakota who only have like six women the right age have contestants, so if you are having a hard time imagining me being eligible, forget the fact that I am too old and married, imagine that I am Miss North Dakota, OK, as a Miss America contestant my cause would be the rekindling of the lime population. I know it’s no world peace as a platform, but the great Limeapocalypse is a serious problem.

Since Cinco de Mayo is still four days away you might not realize that there has been a terrible lime shortage this spring. On May 5^th you may not be able to get a Margarita made with real fresh lime juice or you might have to pay double and then this crisis will hit home for you. For me I have been silently suffering the shortage for a while.

Lime tree disease and lack of rain in Mexico have ruined this year lime crop. As soon as one Mexican drug cartel realized that limes were getting to be more valuable than weed they started stealing the precious few off the trees the poor farmers still had. A case of limes went from $14 to $100 practically overnight and poses no issue to smuggle.

I knew the shortage was really serious when my mesh bag of limes I buy every two weeks at Costco went from $3.99 a bag to $9.99 and for the last three weeks have not being stocked at all

For most of you the loss of the tart green citrus in not life threatening, but for me it is like I have lost a limb. I am a serious iced tea addict and my tea of preference is to take it with lime and sweet ‘n low. Please no comments on the sweet ‘n low it is my last vice. It is not just in tea that I use lime, but if you were to search for “lime” in the Less Dana blog you would discover 19 recipes that call for lime and at least a dozen other posts where I write about limes in some way.

Tragic as it is to admit I am a lime addict. I have so little in life that really makes me as happy a lime and this shortage has the potential to ruin a good summer. Yes, I know for many of you limes and lemons are interchangeable, but they are not. And have you seen the price of lemons these days? I know that the lemon growers are making the most of this lime problem and charging as much as they can for the poor lime substitute.

I ask, as only a Miss America contestant could do, with mascara stained tears streaming down my face, “Please pray for the Mexican lime trees, their farmers, packers and importers.” I’m not sure how I am going to survive through the shortage, but I am looking into the cost of building a glass house to grow lime trees in Durham.