If any of you do
any home canning and preserving you know it has been difficult these past two
years to find supplies and equipment.
Fortunately, it can still be found and I've managed to added five new
flats of canning jars as well as ten boxes of regular mouth size lids to my
stock. Before the pandemic I felt
confident that what I had on hand was adequate for my needs as I had scaled
back considerably on the amount of canning I did. Now that I'm trying to be more prepared and
sufficient I realized rather quickly I needed to add to my supply.
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| My latest batch of seasoned beef for tacos |
Earlier this year I picked up two cases of jars, twelve per case, from the neighborhood
supermarket. I bought one for $12.99
(gasp) then five days later realized I needed another one and the price had
jumped to $14.99 (gulp). Since then I've
been searching for jars at thrift stores and online until I found that Target
had the best prices, but for quite a while they've been out of stock. This week I happened to check again and they
were in stock so I ordered a flat of half pint quilted jelly jars for $10.99
and two flats of regular mouth pint jars for $8.99. When I got there they only had one flat of
pint jars instead of the two they showed online, but they had already substituted
a flat of wide mouth pints so I was happy with that.
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| Salsa |
Right now wide mouth lids are more difficult to find, but since the jars already come with lids I should be fine. Plus I have one box of lids in my stock to use next time so that gives me a buffer of sorts until I'm able to find more lids. I like the wide mouth jars for canning pickles which I'm hoping to do this year - dill and bread & butter. Sweet pickle zucchini relish and lots of tomatoes are on the list too. Now I just need my little backyard garden to grow.
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| Strawberry rhubarb jam |
I'm glad I was
able to find these jars and at fairly reasonable prices. Have any of you struggled to find canning
supplies like this?
Canning stuff has been nonexistent in our area since summer 2020 until March 2022. A friend in WA state sent me 4 boxes of lids that fall. I continued looking every time I was at a store. Finally this March I saw lids at Fred Meyer and bought 10 boxes. And on FB Marketplace someone posted new pint jars still in original package. I bought 6 cases for $8 each which was an awesome price! In early May I went to Walmart for something specific I needed. I found 1 case of quart jars and 2 boxes of wide mouth lids. So I am set for this year's harvest. At last!
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I don't drive store to store looking for anything. I look at the stores I'm in and I only shop 1-2x/month. I'm in avoidance of the large online store except for a few items no store in town carries anymore. I stock up on those when they offer a free shipping trial ;-)
Cheers to the successes and fingers crossed we all get great garden harvests!!!
Quart jars and wide mouth lids seem to be elusive. Yes, here's to a great harvest this year.
DeleteThat salsa looks delicious
ReplyDeleteThanks Lee Ann :o)
DeleteMiddle of the country here. I can order from Ace Hardware, but they are more expensive. I have been picking up jars and lids as I find them. Mostly from Orschelns (farm store) and Walmart and Menards. I also got Harvest Guard reusable lids & rubber rings online. I use those my own canning and if I think I'll give something away, I use the regular lids. I'll be getting 2 more cases this week when I do my grocery pickup. I've been vacuum-sealing dry goods and have used up most of my quart jars.
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble finding quart jars here, half pints are easy, pints are hit & miss. I loaded up on regular mouth lids in March when I found them. I still cpuld use some wide mouth lids. Keep up the good work Kay!
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