Shortage of canning supplies in the stores

[kathy003]

Are any of you seeing a shortage of canning supplies this year? DH wanted wide mouth canning jars last week at Walmart, while he shopped I went to grab him a case. I was surprised to see the shelves empty. I had thought by this time, the shelves would be well stocked. 

 

Luckily, Dollar General had a good supply of canning jars for this year. 

[Jeepers]

Most places have been out for about a year now. They are starting to trickle into the stores. I'm seeing some regular mouth pints but still very few quarts. Wide mouth jars are still lagging behind. 

 

I'm still not seeing any lids yet. They have been out for about eight months now. What is available is mostly from China. Even if the boxes say made in the USA with the flag on the box, they are counterfit. I don't know what the solution for that is. 

[Littlesister]

I have been seeing hit and miss in some of the grocery stores on both sizes of jars. Canning lids is still a no go. Need to start looking for some on line. I just bought 2 cases of pint jars the other day. With canning season starting up for me now, I am going ahead and buying jars when I can find them. Don't want to be in that situation again where I can't find them when I need them. I now use more pints than quarts with it only being me now. But I still use quarts for some things.

[mommato3boys]

All I am seeing is jelly jars and some pint jars with regular size lids. No quart jars any where. Really don't want the pint jars unless they are wide lid but I may have to go with what I can find.

[Jeepers]

Two weeks ago I saw two cases of regular quart jars at Meijers. I bought one. I probably should have bought both of them. I only use them for tomatoes.

 

I'm with you Littlesister. Living alone I use nearly all pints or half pints. 

 

I remember last Nov.- Dec. Ball said they were out of lids but should be stocked back this March. Here it is almost July and still no lids yet. 

[Littlesister]

Last night I was looking on line for canning lids. found a place called Niceedeal-official.  I placed an order for both wide mouth and small mouth lids.  Price was not bad. Got 144 of each.  I went on line to Leman's and all they had was the tattler. So I also ordered some more of those. So I hope to be covered both ways. Don't want to run out of lids in the middle of canning season.  Ran out of pint jars last year. That was bad enough.

[Darlene]

I posted this site a little while ago and they have supplies. If you keep

checking they consistently update their inventory. I bought a lot from them and they are the real thing. I had bought off Amazon and it ended up being fake lids that didn’t seal. 
 

Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest is the USA labels. Bernardin is the Canadian label, all made by the same company. 
 

https://masonjarmerchant.com/pages/canning 

[Littlesister]

Darlene that is a great site. I have used the Bernardin lids before with no issues at all. They are as good or better than the ball lids. I got the canning lids from niceeedeal and they seemed to be fine. Haven't tried them yet. There are no markings on them to state they are ball lids like they said. But will see. I have bought ball lids before with no markings and they worked well. 

[Annarchy]

Our WM has 2 boxes of small mouth Ball lids, and about 3 cases of jars, when I went on Monday.

[Jeepers]

Meijers in Indiana had a skid full of Ball pint jars. But no lids.

Wal-Mart had two cases of the little quarter pint size jars and that was it. No lids.

[Joyfilled]

Has anyone tried the ones from webrestaurant? They say Ball on them. I'm thinking I should move more towards Tattler lids at this point....

[Midnightmom]

My Winco is well supplied now. If anyone needs lids I will pick them up for you and send them USPS priority mail _ if it fits, it ships for one low price.

 

You will have to send me the $ for the lids and the postage, but I can probably get 6 of each and not feel like I'm shorting the local canning community in the process. 

Send me a message through MrsS and I will let you know how much it will cost. 

[Beryl]

Is impossible to find here or at very high prices.

Only thing I make is chutney and fridge pickles. I did make some jam in past, but fruits are expensive.

Past summer very few raspberries in my garden , so just 1 bottle of raspberry vinegar I made.

[Littlesister]

I went on line to masonjarmerchant that Darlene posted. I was able to get both small and large mouth lids. Good score. But not the best of prices. But still not to bad either in this day and time.

[Darlene]

16 hours ago, Littlesister said:

I was able to get both small and large mouth lids. Good score. But not the best of prices. But still not to bad either in this day and time.

 

I'm sure it's a 'supply and demand' thing too. Everything has gone up and continues to go up and in spite of all the increased prices across the board, I personally feel the need to get certain things while I can...before they are no where to be found or so cost prohibitive that I just can't afford it.

[Littlesister]

You would not want to see my shed my Dh got me for my canning supplies and other things.  It's overflowing with jars but I went through a lot of lids. I do have a lot of tattler lids but the kids forget to give those back to me with the jars and they get thrown away. I am just getting through their thick heads those are reusable and if they want something that has a tattler lid, if it gets thrown away they won't be getting anymore food that I used a tattle lid on. They need to learn. I was low on wide mouth pint jars, but now have that situation fixed. It wasn't easy but I am in good shape now and have started back into canning. I have chicken looking at me now to can. It's not really looking at me. But!

[Midnightmom]

8 hours ago, Littlesister said:

It wasn't easy but I am in good shape now and have started back into canning. I have chicken looking at me now to can. It's not really looking at me. But!

 

Chix isn't too much of a problem to can - at least not since I learned about "raw packing" it! Do you raw pack?

 

ETA: The National Center for Food Preservation has updated their recommendation from 1" headspace to 1 1/2" - for the raw pack chix only. Something about the current birds creating more broth in the jars than any other meat. The additional headspace is intended to prevent "siphoning" which was becoming an issue with canning raw pack chicken.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Midnightmom

[Midnightmom]

This video is about raw packing chicken legs - bone in. 

Note: She says you need to go up to the quart time for pressuring canning but then quotes the time for pints! The proper time for quarts is 90 minutes.

 

 

[Jeepers]

Here is the video explaining the raw pack chicken (ugly chicken) new head space guidelines. To help prevent siphoning we are now supposed to use 1 1/4 (one and a quarter inches) of head space. It has to do with new chicken breeding methods making the meat bigger and juicier. Mostly the juicier part. 

 

This is the same example I use when people say, "My grandma always did it this way and lived, so it's good enough for me." Well, farming practices have changed. Seed varieties have evolved. Our soil has been depleted of vital minerals. Example is tomatoes. I remember back in the 50's - 60's if you ate too many tomatoes you got sores in your mouth from the acid. True story. BTDT. People complained, farmers wanted to sell as many tomatoes as humanly possible so the big ag guys developed tomatoes with less acid. Ta Da problem solved. No more canker sores in the mouth. Except for the home canners. They now have to add back more acid, like lemon juice, when canning their tomatoe products safely. What science taketh away...momma has to addeth.  

 

 

 

[Littlesister]

I do raw pack my chicken, but I do not fill the jars with chicken but half way on a pint jar. That is because I can them for what I need them for, Chicken salad takes one chicken breast. So most of my chicken are the breast. So I have plenty of head space.  I also raw pack a lot of my beef and pork. though the pork is cooked if I'm canning barbeque. 

I now am good on the one time use canning lids.  I am now just going to concentrate on the tattler lids and get those built up. I have now canned barbeque, chicken and getting ready in morning to can hamburger. Got 7 lbs. this morning for 3.99 a lb. Next year I will start back into a garden but not the size Dh and I had. By then my last granddaughter will have been moved to S.C. And it will be just me. So I am going to just plant what I am either low on or what I am out of next spring. Right now I am concentrating on getting my meat supply stocked. I am close to having that done now and can take a break.

[Midnightmom]

3 hours ago, Littlesister said:

I do raw pack my chicken, but I do not fill the jars with chicken but half way on a pint jar. That is because I can them for what I need them for, Chicken salad takes one chicken breast. So most of my chicken are the breast. So I have plenty of head space.  I also raw pack a lot of my beef and pork. though the pork is cooked if I'm canning barbeque. 

 

It is my understanding that headspace is a part of the calculation for safely p-canning any food item, so I'm not sure how this practice is/would be affecting your end product. You may want to invest in some half-pint jars just for that reason. I know I heard that in one or more of Leisa's (Sutton's Daze) Canning Chats but I can't remember which one. Anyway, you might want to call the OSU Food Preservation Hotline and ask them this question. 1-800-354-7319 (9-4 Mon thru Fri). It is a seasonal service and they may have shut down by now but it is worth a phone call to find out.

 

ETA:

Quote

Do I really need to leave a certain amount of headspace in the jar?
Yes, leaving the specified amount of headspace in a jar is important to assure a vacuum seal. If too little headspace is allowed the food may expand and bubble out when air is being forced out from under the lid during processing. The bubbling food may leave a deposit on the rim of the jar or the seal of the lid and prevent the jar from sealing properly. If too much headspace is allowed, the food at the top is likely to discolor. Also, the jar may not seal properly because there will not be enough processing time to drive all the air out of the jar.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#4

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Midnightmom

[Littlesister]

Midnight mom, I have been canning chicken this way for many years with no issues. The chicken breast are to big for the smaller jars and one chicken breast fills a pint jar just over halve way. If I have one chicken breast left over after I get them all in jars, I cut that one up to add to the jars and that fills them a bit more. So I may only have a two inch head space. I can them in their own juices. This method has worked out really well for me. I do add about 10 minutes to the timer and can it for a bit longer and let the canner vent for 10 minutes before putting the weight on. Never had a problem with a jar sealing. 

 

[Jeepers]

I've never canned raw chicken. I just do cooked shreds to add to casseroles ect. I have meat issues. Sigh. I can't stand to see skin, bones, fat, veins or any other part of an animal on my plate or in my mouth. It doesn't have anything to go with eating animals. It's more of a texture thing I guess. 

 

But I would like to can up some raw chicken breast chunks to use for dipping in bar-b-q sauce for a meal. Maybe a whole breast in a half pint jar would be a good size for me. 

[Littlesister]

Jeepers, canning raw chicken is easy.  I only use boneless, skinless chicken breast and they are huge. You don't add water or anything, just put in jars, clean the tops of jars and put on lids. Plus of course taking air out of jars. I have been doing it for years with no issues. I don't cut the breast up, I put them in jars whole but sometimes I have to cut down middle to get them in jars.