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Post by paquebot on Jul 31, 2020 22:22:12 GMT -5
Just less than a month ago, needed more lids for the peas. I had bought the last box of Mainstay lids at WalMart before and needed more. Asked my wife to bring some home from her store. They also didn't have any. I ended up using some 2# Queenline jars which took #63 lids. When they did finally come in, she grabbed 6 boxes of Ball lids before they were even on the shelf. Into WalMart today and hoped to pick up a few more and there was nothing. Even the jar shelves had a lot of bare space. Haven't seen this for at least 30 years.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 31, 2020 22:38:55 GMT -5
Not only a shortage, but what you do find there is extreme price gouging with. Like many things during this pandemic.
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Post by september on Jul 31, 2020 23:56:41 GMT -5
It's impossible to find pint ziplock freezer bags. Lots of quarts, but no pints. This does happen every year though, so it's my own fault for not stocking up in spring before planting started. Even Amazon was out, except for gougers selling one box for $15! Or a couple of places selling 12 boxes for $63 to $90. Instead I ordered 200 pint vacuum sealer bags, which worked out at 12 cents per bag.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 1, 2020 7:33:10 GMT -5
I was just at Giant yesterday and noticed the low supply on Zip Loc freezer bags september, I do use the quarts so I bought 2 boxes. I will be harvesting corn soon and I use them for that. I noticed quite a few other areas of bare shelves. My brand of toilet paper, Cottonelle has been out of stock for weeks but luckily I stocked up when it first became available again and I have a couple of packs in reserve. We like to eat a fudge pop in the evening and I have not been able to find them for over a month. I looked in the 3rd local store yesterday and they do not have any either and Giant even had empty freezer shelves where they normally have ice cream. Strangely the local brand was empty and it is produced within 30 miles of the store! I really do not understand these shortages. It has been 5 months since this started. Why have supplies not evened out by now? And cleaning supplies - didn't people clean before the pandemic? Why is everything still sold out?
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Post by spike on Aug 1, 2020 8:03:16 GMT -5
Between Walmart, the grocery stores, Ace Hardware, Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's I have been fortunate find all the lids I needed >,< Sadly I am running low. Need to hit up Tractor Supply and Family, Farm and Home.
SO annoying.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 1, 2020 8:33:17 GMT -5
This is the third such lid food storage shortage since I've been canning. There was one in the 1960s when lids were hard to find. Ball and Kerr could not keep up. A company somewhere in the South was producing them and truckers were returning with cases to sell. It happened again in the mid-1980s. First the lids vanished and then the plastic freezer containers. I froze more than I canned that year.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by paulf on Aug 1, 2020 10:27:09 GMT -5
Every once in a while we post on a social site some stuff we want to get rid of. We had an abundance of jars since we no longer can so they were put up for sale. There must have been twenty people who inquired about the jars in the first hour they were advertised. The price was fair we thought but I think we could have asked twice or three times as much and still sold them in the first hour. I talked to a nursery owner yesterday who said they sold out early of all fruits and vegetables this year and even flowers did well. He thinks the trend of home growing gardens will still be strong next year as people who gardened this year will continue. Jars and lids are in short supply and freezers are impossible to find in this area.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 1, 2020 14:30:01 GMT -5
Checked on-line bulk lid suppliers. Some are limiting quantities and some out of stock. Lehman's is the big supplier to the Amish and they are out of both wide mouth and regular. Local Menard's out of stock. Wife has orders to grab another 6 boxes if they come in.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Aug 2, 2020 16:27:18 GMT -5
The good new is that there are a lot of new gardeners. The bad news is that I was planning on making pickled pumpkin.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Aug 2, 2020 17:27:48 GMT -5
Ugh! I was just about to make the rounds on the web looking for lids. They've been elusive this year, and I just told DH that if he's in any of his stores and sees canning supplies to buy lids or lids-and-rings. I definitely don't have enough on hand to get through the season. Guess tomorrow I'll be checking for freezer bags at a few places. I didn't think of that either! And we're suddenly in a TP shortage situation here again too. Guess we should skip preserving the healthy produce anyway and just eat the foods that stop up the inner workings for a few days at a time.
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Post by september on Aug 2, 2020 21:10:10 GMT -5
And we're suddenly in a TP shortage situation here again too. Guess we should skip preserving the healthy produce anyway and just eat the foods that stop up the inner workings for a few days at a time. ha, ha, yes! Good one, that would be one way to use less TP!
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Post by paquebot on Aug 3, 2020 11:15:53 GMT -5
The lid shortage is real. Checked every place in the area with on-line information and possibly only one hardware store may have them, at their usual higher prices. Wife has orders to grab another 6 boxes of regular when they next show up at her store. Was going to get more corn next weekend but will freeze instead of can. Still have lots of snap beans and then tomatoes and carrots. Lots of empty jars to fill.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Aug 3, 2020 13:37:55 GMT -5
So I stopped by Woodman's after work today where I was able to stock up on freezer bags. Ziplocs were mostly gone, but their store brand is the same quality and those were still there.
The canning section yielded no lids, but they did have cases of jars with lids in all sizes. So I picked up two boxes of quarts and will go back later this week for more. I think I have plenty of jars, but if this is the only way to get lids right now, so be it.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 3, 2020 17:57:00 GMT -5
WalMart does have a sale on Ball pints right now for $10+ which is good if jars are needed. That was about the only canning item in any quantity today. There was not a single quart and a couple half-pint cases. I'm not too worried as long as there are some in the Kroger system. Even if all stores get only a reduced quantity, my wife will grab some virtually off the truck. And, get 15% discount!
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 5, 2020 21:06:59 GMT -5
I was at my local supermarket today and I checked for canning lids. They had about 20 packs of the wide mouth lids for $4.95/pk. I have no idea what they used to cost since I have not bought any in years.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 5, 2020 22:50:11 GMT -5
Something that I did related to this yesterday, was to switch a bunch of the things I had in mason jars into many empty jars I had down in my basement - all sorts or jars with rubber seals, like olives, pickles, salsa, and the like. I brought them all up a couple of days before, and ran them through the rinse cycle of my dishwasher (they always went through the DW before they were stored), dried them, and used similar sized jars to transfer many of the grains, legumes, and peppers into. Doing this, I freed up over 2 dozen mason jars! I have over 2 dozen small and 3 dozen wide mouth new lids, so that's good.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 6, 2020 7:10:24 GMT -5
I'll be raiding a sweet corn field again Saturday. That freezes well so no canning. I put 3 cups in a quart bag and stack them flat in the freezer. Have a box of 75 on hand so no worry about supply. I can easily boil 3 dozen ears at a time in a 5-gallon stock pot. Won't have to worry about lid supplies.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 7, 2020 10:51:38 GMT -5
Something told me to get to WalMart early this morning. Weren't any lids yesterday but I needed a few other thing today. There were 10 boxes of Mainstay on the shelf. Only 4 there now! Wife's store got some in but I had told her to hold off until I gave WalMart a chance. Now good for the rest of the season.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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lisaann
Junior Member
Posts: 76
Joined: June 2016
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Post by lisaann on Aug 7, 2020 19:05:20 GMT -5
He thinks the trend of home growing gardens will still be strong next year as people who gardened this year will continue. Well, as you know, gardening is an addiction. It is harder to quit gardening than smoking. I'm glad people have caught the garden bug. hahaha Now I just hope seed quality does not suffer. People will sell people anything for a buck. Gees. And they don't feel guilty about a crappy product they just sold ya.
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tallpines
Pro Member
Posts: 298
Zone:: 4a
Favorite Vegetable:: This week, it’s Rhubarb
Joined: February 2019
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Post by tallpines on Aug 10, 2020 19:41:10 GMT -5
Made a visit to the Mennonite bulk food and hardware.
They had lids and rings.
Ball wide mouth lids were $4.80 for box of 12. I was SURPRISED! Have not bought lids for sometime.
But then ..... I was even more surprised to find they had plastic bags each holding 24 lids ..... for $5.oo
So .... that’s an extra 12 lids for just 20 cents?
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Post by paquebot on Aug 10, 2020 21:30:10 GMT -5
But then ..... I was even more surprised to find they had plastic bags each holding 24 lids ..... for $5.oo Were they generic with no name printed on them? Some company is making them but haven't fond out who. Someone got the equipment from Gardener's Kitchen but I don't know who. They were the last to produce #63 lids. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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tallpines
Pro Member
Posts: 298
Zone:: 4a
Favorite Vegetable:: This week, it’s Rhubarb
Joined: February 2019
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Post by tallpines on Aug 11, 2020 9:28:17 GMT -5
But then ..... I was even more surprised to find they had plastic bags each holding 24 lids ..... for $5.oo Were they generic with no name printed on them? Some company is making them but haven't fond out who. Someone got the equipment from Gardener's Kitchen but I don't know who. They were the last to produce #63 lids. Martin That’s the conundrum...... after I was in the car on my way home, I realized I had totally failed to take notice of any brand name. 🥴 The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 11, 2020 12:00:47 GMT -5
Ball, Bernardin, and Kerr all have their names printed on the lids. If no name, they are not from any of those. Anchor Hocking does not have their name but are produced mainly for WalMart under Mainstay brand. Someone else is making unmarked lids only for bulk sale, not packaged. That's what you have.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 31, 2020 22:37:13 GMT -5
The shortage is believable, what people are buying is not. A week or so ago there were still some jars at our WalMart but most were the expensive special edition blue or purple. And there was always the usual 2 cases of 2-quart jars. Today there was not a single jar of any kind or size. Haven't seen this since 1983-1984.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 1, 2020 7:31:07 GMT -5
These shortages are so strange. I find it hard to believe that so many more people are canning. It just does not seem possible. Maybe people are hoarding?
All sorts of building materials like lumber are also out of stock and the suppliers have no idea when they will be available. Appliances, especially refrigerators and freezers are also out of stock.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 1, 2020 7:46:33 GMT -5
The warning should have been recognized when the big seed companies began running out of seeds. Now all of those seeds are needing things to store the results in. The classic Kerr canning guide was the 1943 edition which was needed for the Victory Gardens produce.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Sept 1, 2020 8:46:58 GMT -5
I've been buying up jars here and there specifically to have the lids- I will worry about excess jars another time. But! I DID decide to take the plunge and try out reusable lids. My package is en route as I type this- my order took about a week to process. I ordered 50 regular mouth lids and seals to try out. canninglids.com/I will have to be mindful to use these on items that I'm not likely to share with other people, and I'll obviously have to buy fresh seals to re-use in the future, but I hope I take a liking to them. Their FAQ's suggest that you can even re-use the seals 5 or 6 times before they lose their sealing ability.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 2, 2020 10:00:35 GMT -5
I have a dozen or so of those reusable canning lids. They work fine - just pay careful attention to the directions: canninglids.com/information/, especially about not overtightening the metal bands before putting them in the canner, and when to tighten them after canning. It's a little different than using standard metal lids. Yes, you can re-use the gaskets several times. Mine have only been used a few times and I haven't had to replace any yet. Though they haven't been used in 4-5 years, so I wonder if I need to replace them just due to age? I'll look them over carefully before the next time I use them for any signs of drying or cracking. For foods that I will use a bit at a time and store in the fridge between uses (like jelly, pickled hot peppers, etc), I like to swap out the reusable canning lid and gasket for a standard metal lid when I put the leftovers in the fridge. My reason for this is that I tend to forget the gasket is there when I reopen the jar. So I drop the gasket down into the jar/on the counter/on the floor every time I reopen the jar. For something like jelly that won't leak if it gets tipped over, I just wash and store the gasket and keep using the plastic lid with a metal ring to hold it in place. But for foods with liquid, I use a standard metal lid and band so that won't leak if it gets tipped over. Since it's just for refrigerator storage, you can reuse old metal lids and bands for this. And if you are better than me at remembering the gasket, you won't have to bother!
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 2, 2020 15:38:22 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, Ball makes plastic storage lids and that is what I use in the refrigerator. They are dishwasher safe too.
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Post by september on Sept 2, 2020 22:46:49 GMT -5
I use those plastic lids too, once a sealed can has been opened for refrigerator use. They are heavy white plastic, so no rust ever, and can be used forever. Saves on wear and tear on the threads of the metal rings you want to keep from corrosion.
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