Canning jars and lids

[skeets]

Man, when the better half passed so much stuff went away that I didnt know about. This morning I figured I would start getting stuff together to can, my garden didnt do crap so I need to buy from the locals. Anyway, the canning kettle is gonzo, not a bloody jar or lid left in the place, the squeezo gone, pressure cooker gonzo too. So I figure I would just pick up some jars and a canning kettle. HULLY JUMPIN JEEEZUS Well lets say I was every place that should have this stuff, nope all sold out have been for a couple weeks dont know when we will get any more! RK nope TS nope Wallyworld nope Sams nope same story,Target nope sold out! So just for shyts and giggles I went into the dollar general,,, BINGO ,,, I told the girl at the check out nobody has them, she said the manager was going to send them all back to the wear house because they were not moving. So I got 3 WM cases and WM lids. And a kettle. So Im good for a while, wait till someone else sees them, and they will be gone in a heart beat. I guess people are stocking up for the next wave?

 

[Creature Meadow]

Same here Skeets when my barn burned I went from having 2 pressure canners, 2 water baths, and about 16 cases of jars all destroyed by the fire.

My local grocery is the IGA, was able to pick up 10 cases of pints and 1/2 pints for my canning. Still no wm quart jars anywhere, had them order me 6 cases and still have not come in after a month.

 

[bucktail]

Man, when the better half passed so much stuff went away that I didnt know about. This morning I figured I would start getting stuff together to can, my garden didnt do crap so I need to buy from the locals. Anyway, the canning kettle is gonzo, not a bloody jar or lid left in the place, the squeezo gone, pressure cooker gonzo too. So I figure I would just pick up some jars and a canning kettle. HULLY JUMPIN JEEEZUS Well lets say I was every place that should have this stuff, nope all sold out have been for a couple weeks dont know when we will get any more! RK nope TS nope Wallyworld nope Sams nope same story,Target nope sold out! So just for shyts and giggles I went into the dollar general,,, BINGO ,,, I told the girl at the check out nobody has them, she said the manager was going to send them all back to the wear house because they were not moving. So I got 3 WM cases and WM lids. And a kettle. So Im good for a while, wait till someone else sees them, and they will be gone in a heart beat. I guess people are stocking up for the next wave?

Our Fleet Farm has them. They were leaving the jars and pressure cookers on the pallets.

 

[skeets]

I guess it must be regional

 

[sheepfarmer]

Whatcha gonna can?

 

[BAP]

Can’t find any canning jar lids here at all. Everyone sold out.

 

[ehenry]

Skeets its the same here in MS. I was going to order pints from Amazon because they couldnt be found. When I saw the $27 price tag for a flat of 12 pint Ball jars I changed my mind. My wife went Walmarting saturday with her mom buying weekly supplies and called to tell me they had jars $8.40 and boxes of regular and large mouth lids $2. She got me 5 flats of pints along with 4 boxes each of lid flaps.

The pears are ready. I put 30 pints of pear relish and this evening will put up some preserves.

 

[skeets]

Whatcha gonna can?

Well I think after scrounging in the basement and garage and barn I found like 8 more quarts all small mouth, I did find a few lids and rings in a bag pushed way back on a shelf. I figure I will try to pick up a 1/2 bushel of maters, and make up some sauce maybe 5 or 6 quarts, and some pickling cucumbers for maybe a couple jars of dill pickles and bread and butter pickles, and might do some peaches if I can find some at a realistic price. Beans I will blanch and freeze, again if the price is right. And if there are a couple jars left over maybe make up a batch of cherry bounce for Xmas. It sure isnt like the old days, when we would come home from school on a Friday, first thing we did was walk around the house to see what was sitting by the basement door. If there was baskets or boxes of maters or grapes or apples peaches pickles what ever,,,, you knew what you were going to be doing allllllll weekend,,lol Spent a lot of time with Mom canning, I didnt like it then but now I think back it was good times.

 

[SidecarFlip]

No issue here either but my wife got new lids a few months ago. We use and reuse the jars and still have and use the blur tint ones and if we give any canned stuff to friends we demand they return the jars.

Garden is excellent but it gets watered every other day. We did 20 2 pound packs of frozen shelled Ambrosia sweet corn already, 14 quarts of salsa, 5 flats of stuffed green peppers with spag sauce to come.

Gonna be a huge amount of peppers and we have been giving away zucchini and cukes and I have melons in the upper garden but again, everything gets watered every other day. Lots of potatoes too. Not ready to dig yet and the ones I planted in straw bales are growing like crazy.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Well I think after scrounging in the basement and garage and barn I found like 8 more quarts all small mouth, I did find a few lids and rings in a bag pushed way back on a shelf. I figure I will try to pick up a 1/2 bushel of maters, and make up some sauce maybe 5 or 6 quarts, and some pickling cucumbers for maybe a couple jars of dill pickles and bread and butter pickles, and might do some peaches if I can find some at a realistic price. Beans I will blanch and freeze, again if the price is right. And if there are a couple jars left over maybe make up a batch of cherry bounce for Xmas. It sure isnt like the old days, when we would come home from school on a Friday, first thing we did was walk around the house to see what was sitting by the basement door. If there was baskets or boxes of maters or grapes or apples peaches pickles what ever,,,, you knew what you were going to be doing allllllll weekend,,lol Spent a lot of time with Mom canning, I didnt like it then but now I think back it was good times.

I haven't canned anything for many years and have to admit I never got very good at it, mainly did jams and pickled beets. Everything now days goes in the refrigerator or freezer. I have a couple of good recipes for refrigerator pickles, mostly the bread and butter type, if you'd like them, save a couple of jars there. They last a couple years, although eventually they lose their crunch. Beans get blanched and frozen, and the tomato based sauces, and ratatouille get frozen, although none of the latter this year, the flea beetles are killing my eggplants. My cucumbers produced like mad for 2 weeks and have now succumbed to a wilt.
Anyway if you can get ziploc freezer bags or plastic containers you can get by without jars if you have freezer space.

My problem is my back and feet wear out before I get more than one recipe done per day, and the veggies are piling up. Last couple of neighbors I called offering veggies to didn't return my phone call....

 

[skeets]

I hear ya, Do I need to can, no not really, like you I have a freezer ,well 2 one is unplugged, cause I dont need a half a beef any more 2 times a year. And I have an old vacuum thingie I use. I may wish I canned more come later in the year, but we shall see

Mom was the jelly Queen, she made jelly out of everything. Dad planted a quince bush, and I swear you could use the fruit as a weapon! Mom figured out how to cook them and make jelly.. OMG it was as sweet as honey and tasted about the same. Looking back now 60 some years later, those were good day. My 2 Daughters still put stuff up sometimes, but working during the day, and kids, evern with the kids and their Hubbies theres just not enough hours in the day.

 

[sheepfarmer]

I hear ya, Do I need to can, no not really, like you I have a freezer ,well 2 one is unplugged, cause I dont need a half a beef any more 2 times a year. And I have an old vacuum thingie I use. I may wish I canned more come later in the year, but we shall see

Mom was the jelly Queen, she made jelly out of everything. Dad planted a quince bush, and I swear you could use the fruit as a weapon! Mom figured out how to cook them and make jelly.. OMG it was as sweet as honey and tasted about the same. Looking back now 60 some years later, those were good day. My 2 Daughters still put stuff up sometimes, but working during the day, and kids, evern with the kids and their Hubbies theres just not enough hours in the day.

My mother made quince jelly too!! We had to go somewhere in California to get the quince, we lived in Nevada, and I remember the pulp hanging in a cloth bag, old sheet I think, hanging from a cupboard handle to drip the juice off. Never see quince in the store, but then never looked either. That would be way too much work for me.

 

[skeets]

Now you are going back a few days,,,lol

 

[SidecarFlip]

My mother made quince jelly too!! We had to go somewhere in California to get the quince, we lived in Nevada, and I remember the pulp hanging in a cloth bag, old sheet I think, hanging from a cupboard handle to drip the juice off. Never see quince in the store, but then never looked either. That would be way too much work for me.

Amy made Quince jell;y one time, I thought is was kind of vulgar tasting. We have 2 large chest freezers in the garage. One is for meat, both domestic and game, the other is filled with frozen garden vegetables and store bought frozen stuff and my usual 3 loaves of Povitica nut bread.

Root cellar will have potatoes and onions in mesh bags hanging from wooden pegs in the rafters which are split logs under the house (it's a very old farmhouse. Canned stuff like spag sauce, jellies, pickles , sauerkraut and relishes are all stored on shelves down there too. Carrots are layered in wicker baskets in sand. We load it up (and the freezers) every year and eat well all winter. We even preserve meat in crocks of lard.

Sort of an ongoing hobby with us... Besides, we like to eat homegrown and home raised meats and vegetables. Just butchered a slew of chickens and froze the meat. Borrowed a friend's de- featherer. No kettle of boiling water, wack the heads off, hang them to bleed out and toss them in the machine and flip the switch. in 30 seconds, all the feathers are removed and flushed away with water. Pretty neat contraption. Chicken blood makes excellent fertilizer too.

 

[michigander]

Edited our town is cleaned out !!!

 

[DrankTheOrangeKoolaid]

I got back into canning about five year ago. My wife thought it was a great idea until she saw the price of jars and lids. She started watching for them at garage sales and now we have lots.

 

[bird dogger]

We don't do much canning but also have noticed the shortage of both jars and lids. Customers at our sweet corn stand have also been complaining about the shortage. Apparently the shortage here is exacerbated by all the restaurants that serve both food and alcohol. Since their in house seating is either shut down or limited they are able to still serve alcohol with their take out or delivery orders. Said alcoholic drinks must be in a sealed container. Yup, canning jars with the sealed lids fit that need. I'm thinking I need to up my wifes canning supplies......one jar at a time!

 

[armylifer]

My wife and I have been canning vegetables from her garden for many years. One thing that we started canning about 10 years ago is meat. Canning meat is easy to do and lasts for years on the shelf as long as you are taking the bones out. Canning meat with bones in does not work at all.

I don't know about other areas of the country but we are already beginning to experience meat shortages in the stores. It is getting increasingly harder to find some pork products. We have not seen Spam on the shelves for a few weeks now. Ham and bacon are still available but the prices have increased a lot. Beef went up in price for awhile but seems to have normalized as of late.

Anyway, for those disposed to storing food against a most probable coming shortage, canning meat is worth doing now.

One more thing that people need to start thinking about is that there is a high probability of problems with the electric power grid. Just look at California as an example of what may be coming. If that happens freezing food will not be the most reliable method of storage. If the day comes that we experience power grid interruptions such as what is happening in California right now, canned food will be the only reliable way to store it.

 

[Poohbear]

Can’t find any canning jar lids here at all. Everyone sold out.

Same here in East Tx. No sealing lids.

 

[armylifer]

Same here in East Tx. No sealing lids.

For short term food storage you can use beeswax if yoiu don't have any lids. My wife does that for canning jam and some of her garden veggies.