Shoot me an e-mail right now lets see if you do have it and don't know it.

Here's the pic of overwintered peppers and new onion starts I took this morning! Fresh jalapenos and serranos at this time of year is a real treat.

Thanks for that pic Liz!

Now requesting some follow up help on tomatos, help please post(new2green) on New gardeners forum for our friend! Please read and think!

Liz,
from the pic it looks like your taller plants are practically touching the lamp.
That doesn't hurt them?
[I don't do indoor sowing.]

that is cool to have something that size inside

ellen

Yep, you're right. The taller plants are about touching the lamp. I brought them in from outside in the fall and that's about as good as I could get it. Doesn't seem to have hurt them any. I had to boost up some of the shorter ones to get them closer to the lamps, too.

By the way, since they're next to a west window that gets good afternoon sun, I've had the timer give them 4 hours extra artifical light in the morning and 4 hours extra at night (versus having the light go all day). I'm sure they'll all be happier when they can get back outside, but for now this seems to be working.

P.S. Note flypaper.

Hey, MHG. I think you're gonna like this one.

Makes you want to start even more veggies, doesn't it? Tomatoes may be a luxury. It will be interesting this summer to see how buyers react at farmer's stands and at market.

Nice Pic's Liz.

It sure does Dave. Maybe I should start more. Where's my mader seed?

Nice little setup there Liz1

I find it very frightening in what maybe to come in a changing new world....there was plenty of food resources during the Great Depression, but not the coin to produce or buy it.
I believe we may be entering a new era in the value of food, not only in it's relationship to the gold standard, but as in it's real value as a life nessesity.. I also believe that no one, not even those that produce it, are going to like it.
I was part of a conversation today; the price of scrap iron has turned most field cultivators that have lay rusting for many years from lack of nessesity into "something else". Round-Up Ready corn and beans are the standard of choice in both arenas. The Chinese have started shutting down their plants that manufacture our weed killers used in commercial agriculture in an effort to garner world acceptence during the Olympics while all eyes are turned towards them. There is already a dramatic spike in pricing of what stocks are left in this country. They don't make field cultivators for today's large equiptment as we knew of their use in the past for row crop weed suppression.
Now if you do a Cause and Effect on this impending scenerio; not only does the quality for the upcoming harvested crop decline, but also the quanity. Because of the lack of volume, pricing escalates relative to demand.

Your life expectancy is directly tied to the amount of stress associated with the variety, quality, quanity, and your ability to acquire your food.

Before you start cheering that the Age of Organic Farming to feed the world ( or just this nation for that matter ) has finally come....the math done by the super computers show that a great many of you have to die, and the rest be restricted in reproducing, so that those remaining can maintain their present quality of life thru total organics. Red meat will most likely become a Sunday meal luxury. The manure will be more valueable.

Some of you may remember we had this conversation almost a year ago to this date. A smart person might buy stock in manifactures of food preservaton equiptment and canning supplies.

I'm just rambling here; alot of things have to come to pass before you'll be remembering todays food prices as better times gone by. And we're not talking about the false apocoliptic scenerio of the Y2K scare ( how intellegent people ever believed in that I'll never understand ), this will be a steady progression over a period of time that the youngest of our generations will have to deal with. You think the desert peoples are pissed today, just wait until even their friends don't have enough to share with them.

Ramblin', ramblin', ramblin'......

....darn, my Corona is empty again......

Just lost my reply. In brief:

1. Availability (and cost) of diesel for farmers to operate equipment is an issue.

2. High cost of wheat (which we love around here b/c farmers did well last season) means baking industry has to charge more for that loaf of bread you're gonna buy for your sandwich.

Would that be a ... tomato sandwich?

P.S. Thx guys.

You haven't seen anything yet.......those are last seasons imput costs that you are seeing at the cash register today. What you are seeing now are for the large part pre-emptive increases.

i live close to the hard road that leads to the scrap iron yard, and as god is my whitness, there isnt a day that goes by that i dont see a load of junk headed for the scrap yard, i sold my old junker and got 400 bucks for scrap, adding to the value of a used car,used to be you could get a hundred -300 dollar beeter car, now your lucky to find a beater car for 800-1000, then there is the coal train that goes by, usualy an average guessing of 120-150 coal cars , and on one train,and have saw as many as 5 loaded trains a day of coal. then on those same tracks, you see all those big shipping containors stacked double hi, most all of them say china shipping on them, and only once in a while you see amercan made catapiller heavy equipment on those trains
what gets me is that over millions of pounds of beef recalled, you would have thought that the price of beef wouyld have went up, but i guess beef and oil are two different animals, i little scare in the oli industry and the price goes up, i giant scare in the beef industry doesnt effect the beef market, whats up with that.
i challenge every one here to realy look closely at produce prices, its shocking, 4 bucks for a half a handfull of herbs, to early n cant remember everything else but dang, and thats part of what prompted me to de market this year, i could sell for half price and still make a go at it, there are lots of middlemen in produce, eliminate them, become the grower, marketer and i think your in business, tomatoes iun the store here was 2.58 per pound, and not worthy of a squeeze or a sniff, i musta growed a half a ton of tomatoes and sold plenty just from folks stopping in, i cant imagine if i advertize, specialy my prices, and if the market doesnt come to me, i shall go to it, and i wont forget about the food pantries and old folks home this year, someone here suggested the old folks home and am thinkin with all these heirloom produce, i bet i could make them smile

Just read Liz's link. Here eggs went from a dollar to $2.29 over the last 6 months. That's over 100% mark up. Wish it was only the 30% the article claims.

They threaten that gas could reach 4.00 a gallon by summer. Said the same thing last year. They say this so you don't feel so terrible paying $3.20 a gallon right now.
Supposed to make you feel like you are lucky that the price Isn't $4.00, and be HAPPY that it is $3.20. Brainwashing?

And the most pleasing thing:

House prices went through the roof and it was a sellers market 3 years ago. $100,000 house soared to $250,000. Now you can't get that same $250,000 for that house. You can barely get $180,000 for it now around here, still crazy, but that is immaterial at this point. So those people, thinking they made a sound investment, have lost 70,000 BUCKS for now. They can't afford their mortgage, now that the rates have adjusted on thier ARM's and can't afford to sell the house, because they couldn't get enough back out of thier investment to even pay off the loan.

Lordy, why am I depressing myself? I'll stay in my little house, with my little garden. It's not much, but it is mine, ALL mine! HaHa

One more thing that pisses me off: My real estate taxes here in Maryland have not reflected the decline in resale value. Fight it every year, with a lovely meeting with a bimbo, that get's soooo impatient with all my papers showing values of houses in the area I live, that have sold in the last 3 months. She says, well you got all that from the court house, and I say yep? It should all be in your computer too, take a peek. Now, how about that adjustment that should have been reflected on my bill, so I wouldn't have had to waste your precious time? You will be rebilled. Good grief, why don't they just do that to start with? Cripes!

We are already almost at $4 a gallon. I think it was $3.80 last I let myself look.

What boggles my mind is that Alaska produces so much of that! Why are my prices one of the highest in the nation?

The rising food cost is frightening. Especially since my boys keep growing and eating more!

But up here, if they get too high, we will be eating close to 100% meat, no more fancy fruit and veggies for us! And that will be 100%cow, until that gets too dear, then only moose, ptarmigan, and fish!

Here a loaf of bread is $4, milk is often just over $4, what is it where you'll live? I can't remember the price of eggs.

*sigh* I guess I should start freezing and canning more.