Oh no! I need to check my inventory. It's peach season, time for jam and pickled peaches. And there's no room in the freezer either. :-(

I just checked Lehman's website (they specialize in things like canning supplies and stuff the Amish can use) and while you can buy jars that come with lids, you can't buy the lids by themselves. Good grief, what's next?

I have that problem every year and it's just a matter of timing. The store managers around here clearly don't do any canning. lol! They consider it a "seasonal item" and they generally only have canning supplies available in spring and early summer. I think they take it off the shelves by 4th of July, but the majority of canning isn't done here until August!

I just ordered some Ball lids from here:

https://www.uhomely.com/

It's expensive though , $11.99 for a pack of 12 lids.

HU

I was just going to post that you can order them directly from the Ball website!

I hope this is more like the general packaging shortage, or restaurants using canning jars for take out, or folks making meal in a jar things or otherwise using them for storage, and not a whole bunch of people who don’t know how to do it safely trying home canning and killing their families, which the specific shortage of seals makes me think they're doing....

$11.99!!! The ones at the Gen. Store were $2.59, and that was high.

Price gouging I guess.

There are discounts if buying in quantity but still too high.

Might check out a Walmart and see if they have their off brand of lids " Mainstay" for cheaper lids.

I've read mixed reviews about those though.

HU

you might be able to find them at Ace hdwe; Lowes or tractor supply stores

The stores probably do not restock after a certain time, but they may be running out earlier in the season because more people have decided to try canning since there has been a huge increase in people having home gardens this year.

Madonna

The name brand "Ball" lids are no way near the same quality I used to buy. Both the rings and lids rust.

Heh, I just went out hunting today. Over the last couple months I picked up a couple cases of wide mouth quarts and pints, a bunch of wide lids, and a spare lids and rings. Was working on wide mouth stuff.

Yesterday I started canning tomato product- and realized I was running really low on regular lids. Forgot this is a jelly year and already used a lot of lids. I already knew my local small chain, dollar store, and hardware stores big and small were wiped out. I have the habit of checking that section of the stores any time I'm there. So off to Meijer I went.

Whew, glad I went while I did. Zero just lids, wide or regular. A pretty good stock of regular lids with rings, but no wide with rings. I got a few boxes of lids with rings. 2 cases each of regular pints and half pints- 2 four packs of wide mouth. No price gouging but for sure not on sale either.

They are pretty much down to ok-ish spread out on the shelves stocks of regular pint and half pint jars, the regular lids/rings, and a smattering of regular quarts, fancy jars, and some 12 oz. But I bet those dwindle down too.

Pink sure-jell pectin was out. and the usual selection of those pickling packets. No pickling salt, no pickling vinegar. Some yellow sure-jell, some certo blue liquid pectin, and a few boxes of Ball brand liquid pectin left. So for folks that are needing pectin, might be wise to look for that too if you can.

No gallons or even quarts of distilled cider vinegar- or red wine vinegar. Gallons of distilled white were ok.

Needed to pick up a big bag of ice on the way home, so stopped at the Dollar General- they had 3-4 each of American Harvest lid and rings in both sizes, nothing else. I asked an employee about it- and they said they are getting little bits in, but the stuff flys off the shelf as soon as it's stocked. I left what there was, I got enough now.

I am so glad that I bought ahead...when the shutdown started, I anticipated this would happen; a vague memory from sometime in the 1970's when there was a shortage. I bought mine at ACE Hardware because they were offering curbside before many others. I hope they ramp up production so they become easier to find.

ULINE has them, I just bought 36 quart jars and lids.

Kinda like looking for a bathing suit during the hottest month of the year!

I went out yesterday looking for a wading pool so my daughter could give her big ole 100 lb doggy medical baths for a skin problem. NOT! Back to school and even Halloween stuff out! (As if either is going to happen this year!)

I had enough new jars to can my first ever batch of salsa (been gardening almost 20 years, but never made salsa!), but I'm going to have to freeze the last of my peaches to be sure I can find supplies for jam!

I wondered if that might happen, so in the spring I had my daughters pick up some canning lids for me. I had some on hand but thought I might need more.

Sue

Last week grabbed I 10-12 boxes because DH, aka Dr Doom, was worried about a shortage and afraid we wouldn't have enough (we do). We shopped there again this week and they were wiped out. Then we saw the online prices. Wow.

Our hardware store had them on sale and they were out. The clerk checked and they can't order more. Hopefully that's just this year, not forever, lol. Yesterday I stopped at our little local grocery store and they had plenty, but Dr Doom got to me and I bought 20 more boxes for $2.99 ea. I'm set for a couple of years.

My favorite farm posted yesterday that they had Ball lids and rings in their market so I made the thirty mile trip out there. They had lid and ring combos in both regular and wide mouth at $6.+ a box but lids only in wide mouth. Limit of six per customer. I haven't seen either or canning jars in stores for a good time.

Madonna

No shortage where I live...I can usually find some on clearance at the end of the canning season but it's certainly not as plentiful as before the homesteading movement went viral. A couple years ago, I found some standard Bernardin lids for 50 cents a pack and bought about 50 packs so I'm set for years. If stores are price gouging disposable lids (a dollar per is just ridiculous), I would be looking at investing in reusable (Tattler-type) lids.

Went to MIL's house for a nice outdoor brunch today. Got a handful of my used canning jars back :) Hit a Meijer I don't often go to on the way home from her house...

No lids or lid and rings. A goodly smattering of the fancier jars. A bunch of regular half pints and pints, but not much else other than a case or two of this or that. They did happen to have the Kerr wide mouth half pints I like to use, so got a couple cases. I was almost out of those, so eeking out the last few jars I had. Now I really am fully stocked again on jars and lids- and rings. The packets of picking spices and pectins were in very good supply- no salt or picking vinegar.

I live in an area that sees a lot of canning- typically there's pallets of cases of jars and four-ways stocked with supplies in addition to the regularly stocked shelf areas. And now that I've been in a couple local Meijers- I noticed there haven't been any Kilner items on the shelves at all, and usually there is at this time of year. No canning kettles, and very few "starter equipment" kits. There haven't been some of their usual sales in their weekly flyers online either. Even the local hardware, grocery, and dollar stores that usually have some of the not-usual brand stuff are even more wiped out than the Meijers are.

Compared to what's normally stocked this time of year, it's a bit of a shortage around here.

And a kind of funny for me too... I've given a lot of jars away over the last few years to friends that never send them back to be refilled like MIL does... but a couple of them now are starting to pull them out of where ever they kept them and are starting to use them themselves. I think it's wonderful they don't have to spend for the jars and want to learn- also made me think it's part of the reason for the shortage of lids and rings too :) Folks that have gotten canning jars of whatever all over the country and the empty jars just sat.. till now.

I think I'm set. Wondering what the issue is, since they should be made in the US. I thought we were bringing back American manufacturing?? Wonder if the demand for canning supplies will outlast the pandemic. What's next, the return of the paraffin seal?!

Laurie, I hope to never go back to paraffin, although I know LIndaC still uses it, as does one of my elderly aunts, so if I had to I could. I sure would hate to do that though, it's messy, hot and imperfect, ugh.

I also stocked up at the beginning of the year when I was buying my garden seeds, I never wait until canning season because the prices go up. I've been buying canning jars at local auctions, yard sales and thrift stores for years and I can about 1,000 jars of product per year, so I'm pretty much stocked up on those, I only need to buy flats and occasionally rings when my old ones get rusty. I do not leave rings on the jars for storage, so I can just keep reusing rings countless times during a season.

I did check my local Meijer and they have stacks of canning jars in all sizes but few lids. They also have not had cider vinegar for over a year, nor has my local WalMart or Aldi. I did buy some last year at Menard's, which I thought was strange. I was taking paperwork to the County Clerk last week after the election so I stopped at the little independent grocery in White Cloud where I used live and they had a shelf full of gallons of cider vinegar. I almost bought two and then realized that I'd have to store the stuff so only bought one.

I don't use any of the seasoning type packets and make most of my jam without pectin, but I also noticed that there was Certo but no SureJell of either type.

Annie

From what I have read it is simply that the increased demand this year from traditional and newby home canners far outweighs the abilities of the supply chain to produce. Canning supplies over the years have had a pretty flat demand curve but there was also a demand spike in the mid 70s that led to a shortage.

I have not heard of temporary Ball or Kerr plants closures due to Covid but I suppose that is also a possible contributor.

I currently have way more flats than I need for this year and beyond because my son bought a large box of stuff at an estate sale last summer that had in it over 300 flats of both sizes. I already had several dozen to boot. I only use 100 or so a year give or take.

I just posted today and then saw that you had covered the subject so deleted my post.

I had wrote. We have a bumper crop of tomatoes coming in so going to can them. I think I have enough lids but checked online just in case. Checked local stores like Target and they are sold out. Checked Amazon and the prices are crazy. Have you noticed that canning supplies are hard to find or the prices have gone through the roof in your area?

Out of curiosity... how many folks here can year round? Most of us here sound like canners on the regular.

I'm betting to a great extent a lot of the new canners are doing it in this season- and may or may not drop it by this time next year.

I'm a year round canner. A lot of WB pickling, and some other stuff. This year I'm planning on starting to pressure can stuff too. I'm nowhere near annie's 1,000 jars- wow! More of a 100=150 jar canner right now, but I hope to up it to include more. Especially during the winter when canning can bring welcome warming to the kitchen.

I had a part time job at Bed, Bath and Beyond for over 3 years when we found out our store was closing. We became a "clearance store" in December, and got lots of clearance freight - stuff our store never carried before. In one February shipment, canning lids came in. Between the clearance sale and my discount I got packs of lids for $1.40 each. Only bought 6, but 72 lids will get me through this canning season. Looked for salt after reading this thread, and tried to order it online to pick up at my local farm and fleet. Order was cancelled, as I guess my local store didn't have any after all. I ended up ordering 2 and had it shipped to me - the price was reasonable at $3 each but shipping was $10. I'd rather pay a reasonable price plus shipping than support price gouging I saw on amazon and walmart.com. $16-20 for a bag of canning salt??? Don't think so......

lonejack, thanks for your post about a shortage in the 70's, too. I have some memory of that, as I was a new canner and so after experiencing that shortage, I started "hoarding" canning supplies...meaning that I always keep several year's worth of lids, jars and rings in the pantry. After remembering those times, I just kept wracking my brain to try to think of what might have caused shortages in those years, but I think it might have been the "back to the land" movement...at least around here.

We moved to a tiny, tiny farming community that had seen very little influx of outsiders for a couple of generations (our move was gov't job related). The community was also being inundated by trust account hippies, from the east coast and CA, buying up land and attempting to live "off the grid" - with kind of the best of everything that money could buy in order to live off the land. Quite ironic, actually, and a culture war ensued in that community, as I imagine it did elsewhere. I suspect those movements helped cause the shortages in food preservation supplies. During those years, I bought my first (and only) dehydrator and steam canner, kind of getting swept up in the idea of putting up food, especially since we lived in such a remote area. It seemed smart to put food by.

Jack, I remember that period of "shortages" too, and so I made sure I had enough far before canning season started.

I do can year round, everything from beef to venison to stock to fruit jams and syrups from fruit or berries that I froze in the summer because I didn't have time to deal with them. Plus, making jam is so much nicer in January than it is in July.

Annie

Yippee! Stopped at Meijers when I was out shopping today and found six boxes of regular mouth canning lids at $2 + per box. I bought them. None of the other stores I've checked have any and most are out of canning jars except for the half gallon and a box or two of what I consider novelties.

Madonna

Madonna, email me at annie1992 at yahoo dot com. You're close enough I could share a couple of boxes if you need them. I don't know how the heck I could get jars there, though, LOL.

Annie

Thank you so much, Annie, for your generous offer. I'm doing good right now on canning supplies. I thought about picking up a box of wide mouth pints to put up pears, but I have so many regular mouth ones that it would be a sin not to use them. I do have a lot of empty pint and jelly jars I've used as well as some unopened boxes. I even have one unopened box of quart jars here in the house and I don't know how many in the upper floor of the storage building. Haven't been up there in about a year. A black snake was up there. Even though they don't have a poisonous venom, their bite is dirty causing great pain and a large puss pocket. Would you believe, before my DH got so ill, we cleaned out a small storage barn and I gave away about a hundred canning jars?

Another question, Annie. Have you ever prepped the ingredients for your grandma's relish the night before? If so, how do you store it overnight, in water?

Madonna

Gave away canning jars? For shame! (grin)

I've never done the relish the night before, although I have done jam and salsa and then cooked it the next day. I don't see why you couldn't prep everything, add the brine, refrigerate it and then cook it the next day, it's a 100% vinegar solution so things shouldn't oxidize.

Happy Canning!

Annie

Well, Annie, I was prepping the veggies for the relish this afternoon, yes, late start cause couldn't find the locking ring for my salad shooter, when I got a phone call from the farm. My bushel of big beautiful Roma tomatoes were ready for me. Finished the chopping for relish, put the salt in and took off for the farm. Zara made a mess by pulling out a lot of stuff while I was gone, of course. Finally, the relish is doing it's slow cooking. Will get it canned tonight. Tomorrow will be all about salsa.

Yes, it is a shame to give away all those canning jars, but I gave them to a neighbor who had a husband and three teenage sons and did can a lot. I really don' t regret it and think I have enough to cover what I need.

Madonna

Madonna, good luck on the relish. Depending on how "wet" the vegetables are, you may have to cook it a big longer. As for the canning jars, as long as they went to a "good home" it's better that they get used. I have some that are over 100 years old and still going strong, LOL, so it's not like they are perishable. I save the really old ones for water batch items, though, I try not to pressure can them, or I use them for dehydrated items.

Be careful with those tomatoes, and make sure the salsa isn't too thick. Someone else had a problem here with very thick salsa and given that it's not heated before being used, the density really does matter. Also, on the advice of Michigan State Extension I've upped my cider vinegar/acidity level to one cup from the original 2/3 cup. It tested safely with the 2/3 cup but I like that extra bit of acidity protection, in case the tomatoes are lower in acidity. That can vary from year to year, place to place, variety to variety, so I like to be careful.

Annie

Annie, I've made your salsa before and love it. I have my original copy of the recipe and have increased it to one c. of vinegar. Will make sure it isn't too dense. Would rather be safe than sorry.

One of my pints of relish didn't seal because I didn't realize the lid was on wonky. Discovered it last night after canning so put it in the fridge and will use it now. Now, on to the salsa!

Madonna

Happy canning, Madonna! That sweet relish is pretty good in potato salad, Elery eats it with a "mess" of beans, I put it on burgers. And it keeps in the refrigerator for a long time, so you'll have a chance to use it.

I don't have enough ripe tomatoes for salsa yet, but pretty soon I'll be following along in your footsteps.

Annie

Yesterday I canned up three pints and eight half pints of Annie's salsa. Today was a day off since I figured all the tomatoes were in the jars or are in the freezer. Then it dawned on me this evening that I still had a bunch of flawed ones I'd put in the cooler. Think those will wind up as tomato sauce. Still trying to figure out what in the heck I did with the locking ring for my salad shooter. Did check Amazon and can get one from them for around $7.

Madonna