Posted on 04/01/2021 9:26:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Want to know how the US economy is doing?
Forget fancy indicators like the GDP, industrial production and home sales.
If you really want to know how consumers feel about our financial situation, just look at mason jar sales.
It's true. Throughout history, when people grew worried about their own self-preservation, they eased their fears with food preservation. In wartime, Americans gardened and canned to not only proclaim their patriotism but to ease food rationing. The Energy Crisis of the '70s led to the "Great Canning Lid Shortage of 1975." And in 2020 - a year wracked by COVID-19 fears, political strife, product shortages and economic uncertainty - neophytes have started gardening and canning with a fervor that would do Ma Ingalls proud.
"I call it 'Sourdough 2.0' -- it was the next craze of what people are doing in the kitchen because they have extra time," says Marie Bregg, who says sales on her online store, Mason Jar Merchant, are up "1,000 times" what they were in previous years.
This utter can-demonium has translated into canning-supply shortages, which started last spring but have persevered. No. 1 on the Home Canner's most-wanted list: canning lids. While mason jars and lid rings can be used repeatedly, the flat metal lids with the rubber ring are engineered to seal one time only. After that, there's no guarantee they'll still work, which could mean quarts of spoiled food or, worse, food poisoning.
As a result, brand-new Ball and Kerr lids - viewed as the gold standard - have become as hot of a commodity as toilet paper was last spring.
The Forum checked numerous big-box and grocery stores throughout Fargo-Moorhead, only to find no lids were available. Online, Walmart featured lids from a third-party seller, but the price had shoppers flipping their lids: $17.98 for a 12-pack of lids and rings. (Normally, a 12-pack would cost $3 or $4.)
"It's outrageous," said Carol Kronbeck, a lifelong home-canner.
Kronbeck estimates she cans 90 jars of pickles, salsa, jelly, spaghetti sauce and tomatoes every fall after husband, Jack, a retired farmer, brings her the bounty of their large garden near Hawley, Minn. "You could hardly find lids all summer because so many had started gardening who had never canned before. I'm just glad I got all my pickles done," Kronbeck says. "I ended up having to freeze everything, even tomatoes and green beans."
Sue B. Balcom, who manages the Bismarck Farmer's Market, sells her canned goods through her Root Sellers business and is the guest contributor to "Main Street Eats," on Prairie Public Radio, says she ran out of inventory sooner than usual last fall because she couldn't find more lids and jars.
"It's irritating, to say the least," she says. "The shelves were wiped clean. It had slowed down by the end of September to a point where I was scrounging for jars. I told people, when it's gone, it's gone."
An up side to the "can-demic" is that Balcom says her sales are 50% higher in the past year than in previous years. Even so, she's frustrated by hoarders who are snatching up all the canning supplies simply so they can sell them at inflated prices. "If you're hoarding lids, stop it," she says.
Why is this happening?
Small groceries in rural areas are also experiencing a shortage. Donna Scholl, grocery manager of Valley General Store in Halstad, Minn., says jars and lids have both been in short supply since May of last year, and lids are still a no-show. For a while in the summer, the store did receive packs of jars with rings and lids. People seemed to buy them, even if they already had jars, just so they could get new lids.
The demand grew especially brisk in the fall, when people from as far as 40 miles away were calling the store to look for lids. Last week, Scholl was checking with her warehouse, but there wasn't a canning lid in sight. "Not even an off brand," she says. "There wasn't even an estimated delivery time."
Scholl says she believes the shortage stems from workforce shortages and factory shut-downs related to the pandemic. Many manufacturers have switched their production emphasis to focus on their best-selling items, but it hasn't yet bumped up availability of canning supplies.
Bregg thinks the shortage is the result of “a perfect storm” of conditions: COVID-weary folks turning to home-gardening and canning to alleviate grocery bills and fears of future food shortages; Pinterest-surfing millennials who find they now have time to try homespun pursuits like canning salsa, and pandemic-related slow-downs at every level of the supply chain.
Newell Brands, the maker of Ball as well as popular mason jar brand Kerr, produces the largest quantity of mason jars in the U.S. In early October, the publicly traded company told CNN this unprecedented demand has resulted in supply constraints, extended lead times and recently limited product availability at stores and online.
At the time, a spokesperson also told the news network it was "increasing glass production, finding new lid manufacturers, and expanding facilities in an effort to replenish stock." The official Ball site issued a statement about fraudulent sites, reminding people to buy only through authorized third-party retailers and that “appropriate legal action is being taken to have these sites removed.”
Bregg, who has been interviewed by several national news organizations on the shortage, says she doesn't have an answer on when the shortage will end. "Suppliers don’t see supply chain normalizing until maybe the end of this year. The supply chain got screwed up. They ordered more supplies last year than in 10 years' time. There's a lot of fulfillment to make up for just to reach the normal level. "
Bregg, who was born in America but lives in Vancouver, B.C., says she's been able to fill online orders for canning supplies by buying up Bernardin jars and lids. Bernardin is the Canadian equivalent to Ball and Kerr. "They are definitely more expensive than you would normally pay, but that's because we bought them at retail," she says.
Other options include ordering no-name brands off places like Amazon, which typically come from Chinese companies. However, standards vary greatly from factory to factory, so there's no guarantee of quality, Bregg says.
Another option is a lid that is truly reusable, such as the Tattler brand. Although they are more expensive than the one-time-use lid, "you can tell when a Tattler seals, let me tell you," says Sue Balcom. "It takes a lot of strength to break those seals."
At the end of the summer a couple of years back, I bought a case at half price of wide-mouth lids and rings-That’s about 144 lids and rings. We also keep a stash of about 8 new cases of jars and lids. As soon as one case is used, we buy another.
I also usually buy several extra packages of lids at the end of the summer sales-not last summer though. Hubby ran across some earlier this year and bought about 8 boxes from a couple of different stores.
After all this time, though we often have enough previously used jars to do most of the year to year canning. Hubby bought a bunch of regular mouth jars pints and half pints-I was trying to phase out use of regular lids, by giving them at Christmas to the kids and grandkids with their favorite goodies—usually some form of pickled something. So if we run short-it’ll be regular lids not the wide mouthed.
That’s a good point. We started getting extra parts a few years back, at the same time we bought the canner. And did the same for our Vacuum cleaners etc.
Great idea.
There are a few around here I can check out for that.
Last year at end of summer, by Aug, there wasn’t a canning supply left to be had.
Even the local Mennonite store was out and they usually always had them.
You'll eat what they feed you!
The Amish grocer one county up from where I live stocks rings and lids in bulk, and doesn’t charge rapacious prices.
I picked up 100 each regular and wide lids summer before last. I also grabbed another three dozen new wide mouth quart jars when they went on sale at the local grocery. Didn’t do a lot of canning last season so I’m still well stocked. I’m hoping to do a better job of preserving the harvest this time.
I got a Nesco dehydrator several years ago. I like that it has the motor at the top, so food can’t drip into it. We have to run it in the garage because of the noise.
I also bought a bunch of extra fruit roll-up trays. When I set something on the screen, it often sags into the holes just enough to make it hard to get back out. By using the solid trays, the screens last longer. (I had a previous dehydrator that the screened trays kept cracking. It was annoying, especially when a piece would break off still stuck to the food.)
Awesome!!!
I lucked into a freeze-dryer that the local research university was auctioning off. They do that every time they upgrade their equipment. Usually bidding gets pretty fierce, but I must have hit a lull because I got it for less than $150! I haven’t tried using it yet, partly due to lack of a permanent space for it, and partly because I’m still tracking down a users’ manual for it. But I’m looking forward to being able to freeze-dry my own stuff!
Try setting the dehydrator in the garage for garlic.
Also, try roasting some before drying. It changes the flavor some. I think it tastes better that way, but try it and see.
Next time you have too many syrup jars that don’t seal, let me know. I’d be happy to help eat them!
You’re on the ‘Syrup Overflow’ list! :)
Sounds like you got a great deal. I hope you enjoy it.
Freeze-Drying is an almost hands off experience, much easier than canning.
I had a SCORE!!, yesterday, that I know you two can appreciate.
I was cleaning out old Christmas stuff - tins/deco, etc, from a hutch...I moved a stack of tins....and, to my delight....I found stacks and boxes of NEW canning lids!! Wide mouth and regular.
I am set, for some time, hallelujah!
Same here for all the usual stores. We have a True Value Hardware store that tries to fill in the gaps between Walmart, the grocery and local lumber Companies. One gap being rancher’s supplies. So they have baby chicks for sale in the spring, and some limited farm equipment. And they have pressure cookers and jars etc. They got cleaned out too.
Just glad I have always managed to stay ahead of the shortages so far. Once hubby has finished the shed/root cellar, if there’s any leftover money, I’m going on a spree shop-anything that lasts forever and got short supply last time buy more.
Even Toilet Paper. When Covid hit, I had 9 month supply. Now I have 12, but I’ll get some more cause it lasts forever, should be a good barter item.
Plus if the kids had to come home, it’s be more like a 3 month supply. Ha. Course, I could make the kids use the phone book pages that I have stashed.(wish I was mean enough to do that).
We have recently used TP that I stored up in the attic, when Bammy got selected.
Works just fine.
Of course, we’ve stored NEW TP in the past year :)
I’ve got a good store of tp too.
I’m jealous of the canning lid find, but having just moved, I do know where they all are.
Maybe it’s time to move them to the gun safe.
Maybe it’s time to move them to the gun safe.
LOL!! Well, that is a thought. Although.....my old hutch...with Christmas tins as a ‘front’ seems to be a good hiding place, too :-)
At least from myself!
That is true.
If you wouldn’t have thought to look there for them, nobody else would either.
Note to self.....ashcay and idslay are in the utchhay.
Is that obscure enough?
😂
Not for me. I remember that.
Kids these days probably never heard of pig latin.
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