Some time in early March, an $8.50 cauliflower appeared in a Brooklyn Heights market. True, it was an organically grown cauliflower. But not a very big one. Next came an overnight 10% increase in the price of a Danish at a popular local coffee shop, a victim of the rise in wheat prices. Not to mention the tulips on sale at $35 for two bunches. Admittedly, not your ordinary tulips. These seemed to be plucked from a Dutch master still life and were probably a bargain at the price.

It’s pretty clear by now that prices aren’t going up just at the pump. Fortunately, conversations with local storeowners suggests that some merchants, because they are small, independent and, therefore, flexible, are making a real effort to resist the trend.

At Key Food on Montague, where a broad sampling of items has increased by 10% since 2007 (hey, that’s only four months ago), owner-manager Ivan Arguello shops the food distributors himself; not limiting himself to the inflexible giants as the big chains do, but seeking out values often on foot. He proudly points to a display of Hero Preserves, straight from Switzerland and priced 20 cents a jar lower than at other markets in the borough. They had to be squeezed in next to the pasta display, but Ivan wasn’t about to forgo the value for lack of shelf space.

At Seaport Flowers, owner, Amy Gardella, has to grapple with the two biggest instigators of high prices: oil and the euro. Oil, because so many of her magnificent blooms are flown in from abroad. The euro, because “abroad” often means Europe and its dominance over the dollar. So Amy also tracks down the few remaining quality growers in the northeast for beautiful, healthy flowers at domestic prices.

In the same way, Michael Correra at Michael Towne Wines and Liquors hunts out countries where the vineyards produce increasingly superior wines, in part because the great French winemaking families now own many of them. Chile, for example, and Argentina. And there’s no euro to deal with.

We certainly aren’t suggesting that Brooklyn Heights is immune to rising prices, but we do have some degree of protection, thanks to merchants who think of themselves as responsible neighbors.