None at my local supermarket yesterday (and I got the last bottle of lime juice). It has been very hard to find in stock for most of the summer. A local deli/convenience store always has it, but it's a bit more expensive. But when you're putting up tomatoes, you can't NOT buy some...

Same here. Found several of the little yellow squeeze bottles - the ones that look like a plastic lemon in the produce section. Expensive as all get out! But no bottles of juice on the shelves.

Dave

Yep, apparently there is a worldwide shortage (see link below.

FWIW, one commenter said: Many uses for lemons in recipes are really just a call for acidification. This is easily and cheaply achieved through using citric acid, a common and harmless ingredient in confections and jams. A small bottle of citric acid may be purchased, usually by order, at any pharmacy.

I'm not trying to rub it in but I'm fully stocked, I bought two large bottles a couple of months ago when I was topping up our pantry and have half a large bottle in the fridge. Now if I just had this kind of luck when picking investment stocks LOL.

I hope GW members can find enough to meet their canning needs.

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: Lemon Juice shortage

I buy fresh lemons and have noted an overall significant drop in their quality. I bought a rather expensive bag of them a week ago, and half were rotted in the fridge just days later. I have seen years where the same thing happened in other citrus crops like grapefruit and oranges after freezes or other weather events. They just seem to drop the bar on quality.

Aldi's is out and will not have more. Price was $1.79 per qt. I went to another supermarket and paid $2.49 per qt.for the store brand. I have two quarts which will not go far as I need to can at least 100 quarts of assorted tomatoes, plus juice. So far I canned only 10 pints of salsa and prefer lemon juice in it. I'll be going out later to all the grocery stores and see what they have. I do have citric acid for the tomatoes if I must.

Hope no one tries to get by with using fresh lemons instead of the bottled juice.

Just got back from my lemon juice run. I went to the same store where I paid $2.49 yesterday and the price went up to $3.89. There were 8 bottles on the shelf so I bought one and scooted to the next store 5 minutes away. That store was out except for Real-Lemon pints. Went back to the first store and bought the last 4 bottles. These are 32oz. so I have 7 total. Hope it gets me through the canning season.

I guess I'd better feed and water my precious Lemon tree. !

PS I'm not seeing a shortage on any store shelves or produce section here in CA.

I started canning tomatoes tonight and started thinking I didn't have enough lemon juice and went out, looking for the stuff, not knowing about the shortage.

First store: Lemons, but no juice. Lime juice a-plenty, but I was hesitant to pick it as I didn't know if it'd give my tomatoes an off flavor.

Second store: Nothing, except lime juice in bottles.

Third store: Squeeze-type LJ in the produce aisle, $0.79 each. They also have a "dollar store" section, and it occurred to me to try that, where...voila! Lemon juice, $1.50 a bottle! I bought two, as holiday baking is coming up, and I don't want to be without. : )

So, my advice would be to try a place like Big Lots, or Dollar General - someplace a bit off the beaten path for grocery purchases, in short.

Jason

I also am overstocked because I bought the set of two giant bottles from Costco when I thought I was almost out but still had one giant bottle left. I would suggest trying Costco.

What a shame during canning season!

Melissa

I guess nobody is hoarding it around here yet. Sam's Club, Aldi and Walmart had plenty of it today and at the normal prices.

I went to the Dollar General today and found lemon juice for $1.00 per 32oz. I bought 6 bottles. When I got home and checked the Tops brand @ $3.89 per bottles I bought Friday eve. I read the contents and found this list of ingredients. Lemon juice from concentrate [water, concentrated lemon juice], sodium bisulfite[preservative],sodium benzoate [preservative] and lemon oil. Contains the juice of 21 quality lemons.

The Aldi brand Nature's Nectar contains filtered water, lemon juice concentrate, bisulfite and benzoate and lemon oil.

The $1.00 Clover Valley brand has water, concentrated lemon juice, sodium benzoate, and sodium metabisulfite as food preservatives and lemon oil.
I'm tempted to return the five bottles at $3.89. The store is a block away. The return would be $19.45. and I will have 5 less bottles. If I keep it I will be $14.45 out.
They all expire in July and Oct. of 2009.

Do you think the Tops brand is of better quality? What would you do?

Generally I avoid the generics and off-brands and only go with the Real Lemon brand. No proof, just an assumption on my part of better, consistent quality. Especially since they don't list the amounts of ingredients used.

But that likely won't be possible this year as we may all have to resort to generics. So I too picked up 2 bottles of Always Save brand yesterday and the 5 yellow plastic lemons I had to pay $1.79 each for don't expire until May 2010 so I'll hang on to them too.

Don't know the brands you mention but I'd sure have other things I could spend that $20 on as long as you trust the brand name. ;)

Dave

I would take the expensive ones back if you don't need them. I paid $1.48 for mine. So, not much more than your dollar ones. It has to meet a standard to be sold, so I would not worry about using the cheaper brand.
I also have someone getting a bulk order of calcium chloride for pickles. She is going to divide it up and sell in half pound bags.
Wonder what else we are going to have to deal with in the days ahead ?

I picked up the large two-pack at Costco in the spring. It never occurred to me there might be a shortage of a product so common.

But since I'm always aware of the risks of running out of lids or other canning basics at the end of the season when shelves are bare, I've gotten in the habit of stocking up on this stuff very early in the year.

A lot of things are changing in the supply chain. I think we're all discovering adjustments we have to make. Lemon juice is just the tip of the iceberg.

Carol

Carol,
Who knows what shortages may crop up. I have enough lids for 800 jars of assorted. Wide and standard. I never worry about having enough jars. Most of mine get returned. All my friends know they won't get refills if they don't return the jars. and I'm not afraid to ask.
Last year I bought a case of powdered pectin from Save-A-Lot. I love the stuff @ $.49 per pack. Have 8 left. I just finished my 4th batch of Elderberry, rasp, currant jelly. It set up perfectly.
Today I am multi-tasking. I made Roasted tomato garlic soup and PC'd it, made Linda Lou's Salsa and PC'd it, froze whole green beans and am in the process of making pickled beets. Oh, almost forgot, I went to the Dollar general and to the veggie stand for a 10lb bag of onions for $3.99. That makes 5 bags of onions so far this canning session. I'll probably need 5 more.

I'm out of half-pint jars for the first time in my 5 years of canning. I had to dump some old relish I knew I'd never eat to get jars for Madras Pickled Eggplant. I've dumped pretty much everything I won't eat so now I have a closet full of salsa, pickles, applesauce, and jam. It actually felt kind of good to have to hunt for empty jars. I'll probably buy more before next year so I can make more raspberry jam. My self-defrosting freezer is making me worry about the raspberries I froze so I've been trying to use them up before too long.

A few more types of pickles and another double batch of Annie's salsa and I'll be out of pints too. :-)

Melissa

I'm doing the same thing. I actually gave away four cases of jars because with the two of us I just don't can in the quantities I used to.

Mainly I gave away quarts; pints are more precious. I use those and the 12-oz. jars a lot.

However, I compensated by going through the shelves and discarding things I canned (always trying new recipes) that we just didn't like well enough to use up. I also "gifted" some hot sauce and some pickles that friends like and we don't.

The upshot is I enhanced the compost pile, retrieved a bunch of jars that were on the shelf and actually have some empty space for the tomatoes I need to can (when/if enough ever ripen).

I do feel fortunate that I drive down the Willamette Valley regularly. There are enough Old Believers and Mennonites in the area that the odds of failing to find canning supplies are pretty slim. Too many people still doing things the old-fashioned way for that.

Carol

Jason, Dave, and others who have bought cheap-o lemon juice from dollar-store places, I'd really love to hear if it works out.

About two years ago I canned a batch of something---suddenly I can't remember what, I think a single-fruit jam---and the result had a slight but detectable "off" taste that I was able to trace to the dollar-store lemon juice I'd used. I'd had it in the fridge, opened, for at months (I had never thought, or experienced, that lemon juice could go bad, given how acid it is!). But it definitely had an unpleasant overtone to the taste, which was noticeable enough in the jam that I dumped it.

Since then I've stuck to Real Lemon, and used fresh lemon juice whenever appropriate.

But it may be I just had one bad bottle, and that generally there's no problem with off-brand juice.

As Linda Lou says, theoretically it should be all meeting a certain level of quality to be sold at all. But of course we all know there have been problems with supposedly regulated foods of all kinds. And I've noticed in many dollar stores some groceries sold where the labelling suggests that it was originally intended to be sold in another country---there is usually English labelling (though sometimes NOT French, which makes the product actually illegal to be sold in Canada), but smaller than a label in a European or Middle Eastern language, leading me to guess that a multinational company is dumping its extras designed for various parts of the world wherever the market seems likely. So that made me wonder if a minimum standard for North America might not be met in some of these dollar-store sales.

In general, I'm not very picky about food. I eat more and more local food and fresh in season or home-canned food because I prefer it, but I have never felt the need to buy organic produce and am happy with grocery-store brands of most things. But that bad lemon-juice experience really ticked me off and left me suspicious of dollar-store groceries.

So, bottom line after a too-long spiel (sorry!), since it sounds like several folks might be buying off-brand lemon juice who don't usually, I would really appreciate hearing if there are any problems with it. Maybe I've been paying more than I need to for lemon juice for no good reason after just a fluke bad bottle!

Zabby

Well, once again I'm terribly grateful to my buddies on this forum for the head's up. After I posted the above, I suggested to DH that this would be a good time to do that grocery run we'd been planning for today and tomorrow, and the local No Frills indeed had a nearly shelf where the lemon juice used to be!

There was no RealLemon at all. There were three or four of the little lemon-squeeze-shape ones of some other brand at the usual outrageous price, and two 750-mL bottles at a very good price. I scooped up both.

The brand is S&G, which I have never heard of, but it says it was packed in Montreal so hopefully it meets Canadian food standards. I opened one and tasted a bit and it tasted fine, nice and lemony, no "off" overtones. Whew!

Thanks, Linda Lou. I never would have known to stock up and would have been very sad next week when I tried to can tomatoes!

Zabby

Fresh lemons here, about Spring time were selling 2 for 1.00, double from last year. I was lucky then I pick up some at 4 for 1.00 at the Mennonite store. Now, 3 for 1.00
I haven't noticed a shortage of reconsitutied lemon juice, although I picked up mine up at the other Mennonite store last month when I purchased the bulk low sugar pectin and bulk spices for upcoming canning.
Glass jars are at a premium this year, gees at Walmart I had to fight to get someone a case of quarts in the canning section. Yard sales have, none. I resorted to using some of my blue Mason jars, called everyone I know for more jars.
Have 3 that have more jars for me. I usually make 6 to 8 cases of jam/jelly a year and for those, including my brother, who don't return the jars aren't getting any this year. Lost 3 cases of jars from last year. The local chain grocery store that always has canning jars has none.
Regular lids are another thing at low inventory here, I picked up the last 5 boxes on sale at the grocery store.

Do you think it is offensive to have a small sticker on the bottom stating, please return jar?

Do you think it is offensive to have a small sticker on the bottom stating, please return jar?

Shoot! no. ;)

Zabby - I know what you mean about the off-taste. We had one go old and cloudy on us sometime back - assume it was the lemon oil going rancid because it was quite old. Now we always pre-taste.

Dave

I was at Costco today. I saw a stack of the usual humumgous two-packs of ReaLemon. I'm wondering if it's a distribution problem even more than a supply problem.

Zabby, I have had ReaLemon go bad. I can remember a previous refrigerated jar I opened to discover mold. I think for any of us whose pattern of use is sporadic, dividing and freezing the excess is a good idea.

My favorite return label is Return Jar for Refill which is I think is a nice hint that if the jar doesn't come back the supply ends. There's already a cost in lids, sugar or other extra ingredients plus the value of labor. I don't see any necessity for absorbing the expense of replacement jars as well.

I do think a lot of people haven't had an opportunity to learn canning etiquette, which includes returning jars. Of course, it's not always an advantage, remembering a friend who brought bag a plastic bag full of empty jars. I shivered hearing the sound of the clanking.

Carol

busylizzy,

Like Carol says, I think many people just don't think to return the jars; if you're not a canner it isn't as easy to really internalize how appreciated doing so is, and how the expense of a lot of unreturned jars can make the price of home-made gifts add up. (I KNOW this because I only started canning a few years ago, and I am afraid I rarely made a point of returning jars of the few canned gifts I received. I just kind of assumed that what I was given was all part of the gift. I would have been happy to return the jars if I'd known the makers were hoping for/expecting it, but just didn't know the etiquette, as Carol says.)

So sure, why not a little sticker to remind? The politer the better---"Please return jar---thank you!" or I like Carol's "for refill" idea! I make a point of telling people when I give the jars: "by the way, if you bring back the jar, that increases the chances of it making its way to you full another time...."

Carol,

I guess anything can go bad.

Though the not-right-tasting stuff I had didn't so much taste BAD as kind of STALE, giving an unpleasant aftertaste to the jam, so it didn't seem "rotten" even a wee bit but just kind of "off" (my DH thought it tasted fine---lots of fruit and nice and sweet, what's not to like? but I could really taste it).

Especially if lemons are in short supply this year, I may well freeze whatever of these bottles doesn't go into the tomato canning this fall....

Dave,
You are right, tasting first is the best idea no matter what!

Zabby

Looked in the grocery store last night, yup we have bottled lemon juice.
I also ran into my, no glass return brother in the store, as we walked past the isle with the canning supplies, all jelly jars are out and still not restocked for the last 5 boxes of regular lids I grabbed last week. I pointed the costs out to him and the short supply.
What he replied was, yes I really like those Elite ones.
I suppose I really shot myself in the foot last year, because I don't give away rings and I love the plastic lids for after the product is opened I screwed the plastic lids on the lids and labeled tops. Now they can be reused by non canned food storage!

All our grocery stores up here have been out of lemon juice for about a month. Lucky for me, I bought a 2L jug in april expecting to be canning enormous amounts of tomatoes from my new greenhouse...
Well, there are no tomatoes thanks to very poor weather, (no sun) and a bad bout of powdery mildew.
We took a trip to visit inlaws labour day weekend and went to Costco while we were there, there were lots of 2packs of 750ml bottles so I bought 4 sets for friends and brought them home with me.
If you can't find jars and lids where you are try fillmorecontainer.com I've been ordering replacement lids for all kinds of recycled jars. (they ship to Canada which is RARE!) Great service fast shipping.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buy Jars and Lids Here

Bottled lime or citric acid are options. I use Nellie & Joe's lime juice in a lot of things and usually buy a case of 12 bottles at a time. Great for spicing up drinks, and acidfying salsas.

If it helps anyone...

Costco in Seattle (4th Ave store) had plenty of ReaLemon today. Two 48 oz. bottles were $4.99.

Lorri

Also checked the local grocery today. Lemons are $1.29 each. (They are always expensive at this store but I've never seen this !!) There was no ReaLemon at all. A 16 oz bottle of organic lemon juice - I think the brand was called Santa Cruz - was $3.99. Glad I went to Costco today.

Lorri

Those cheap bottles of lemon juice from Dollar General look diluted (pour clear) and it seems like it doesn't taste as sour as other brands. I got a bottle last year and decided against using it for canning and used it in iced tea. As for substituting lime juice I much prefer the flavor with lime juice but using it is much more expensive. I always use lime juice in salsa though.

I haven't had trouble finding lemon juice at Aldi's @ $1.69 for a 32 ounce bottle but again the price of it has skyrocketed about 70% YOY.

The item that was hard to come by was Golden Harvest one piece lids. Too many hoarders out there.

I just finished reading all the posts about the scarcity of lemon juice and it dawned on me that I haven't used lemon juice in anything I've canned. What I have canned:

Zucchini relish
Green beans
summer roasted veggie stuff
roasted red pepper (used citric acid f0r the first time)
annie's salsa

You will probably recognize the recipes (Annie's) I have gotten from this link but I'm wondering if I have gone wrong somewhere along the line.

Jude

I read an interesting article a week or so ago (and now I can't remember where I saw it online) anyway, the premise was that a lot of peole are getting very worried about the economy and their jobs. Sales of vegetable seeds rose in 2008 by about 36% which is HUGE when you consider a normal year rises about 1% or not at all. The article also sited a rise in vegetable gardening books and "back to basics" type books. They said they had not seen this kind of activity since the pre-millinem hysteria. They also tied this in to the rising cost of gas which has tripled produce costs in all states that must import everything (like mine, Wyoming)
I am wondering if the scarcity of canning supplies (jars/lids) can be attributed to that, at least in part.
It is amazing to me that we have once again come "full circle". Foodstuffs became mass produced and consummers wanted nothing but "instant" and fast. I think many are now seeing, most for the first time, all the preservatives and other stuff in commercially produced foods and are also finding out that commercial produce of any kind does not come close to thetaste of home raised. Interesting stuff.

Linda Lou - question. Wife and I seem to recall from back when we took one of the extension classes that we were told pineapple juice was an acceptable sub for lemon juice. Do you know if this is still approved or not? I can't find anything on NCHFP about it.

If it is, it would seem to be a good sub in salsas like lime juice is?

jude31 - the lemon juice is primarily required for tomato recipes - juice, whole or crushed, sauces, some salsa, etc. so those of us who can gallons of juice and gallons of sauce or crushed tomatoes are in a bind. Nothing on your list requires it tho I'm not familiar with your "summer roasted veggie stuff". ;)

Dave

Annie doesn't have a "summer roasted veggie stuff." She's generously shared her salsa, chutney, relish and instructions on canning less usual items like rutabaga, amongst others.

I think it's perfectly possible to can and not use bottled lemon juice or almost never. I have it on hand but generally use very very little, for marinated peppers principally. I use citric acid for tomatoes and of course for pickling use vinegar. I also use vinegar for salsa (I pressure can mine.) though I am thinking about trying lime juice in some this year.

In fact, I use so little bottled lemon juice I ended up giving one bottle (of Costco's set of two) to a cousin who uses it in lemonade for the grandkids.

I hadn't heard of the pineapple juice. If it's true it would offer some interesting options acidifying some foods.

Carol

Jude, was that Carol's roasted veggie stuff? That's not supposed to be canned, just frozen, because of the oil (not to mention the lack of testing). Here's a link to a thread about it.

Melissa

Here is a link that might be useful: Carol's Roasted Tomatoes, Peppers, Corn, and Capers

Melissa, you are probably right, that it was Carol's. I've read so many recipes they all kinda run together sometimes. You're right in that it did go in the freezer.
Dave, I didn't can any tomatoes this year, in fact I haven't canned any in a long time but never used anything in them when I did except a teas. of sugar and a teas. of salt per qt.(instructions from my mother). Am I just lucky to be alive or what?

Jude

Lucky. ;) Acidification of tomato products has been required since 1994 - least that is the date on the USDA Bulletin - maybe even before that it seems to me. Lots of discussions here about it.

Dave

Jude, did you say up until this year you hadn't canned in decades? So the unacidified tomatoes were pre-1994 and therefore everyone was lucky to be alive I guess. You still get the safe-canner cred for pressure canning green beans back in the day. Sounds like you have a good story, and I look forward to catching more tidbits. We have a pretty good mix on here of people who grew up canning and people who learned on the internet. :-)

Melissa

In 1976 four varieties of tomatoes were identified as low-acid. The recommendation to acidify all tomatoes appeared in the 1988 USDA Guide.

Carol

Thanks Carol. I thought is was earlier but couldn't remember for sure.

Dave

Oh Melissa. you just don't have any idea how inexperienced I am at canning. It rates right up there with computer use. I don't know anything about that either, not having used a computer for very long. I see all these little terms I'm not familiar with (what is a DH? somehow husband seems to fit in somewhere) and I suppose a BF is a boyfriend. Threads and bumps, I'm not really sure about that either. As I mentioned earlier, somewhere, 31 is the year I was born. You can teaach an old dog new tricks, it just takes longer. I had only canned green beans and tomatoes and some red pepper relish before 1989 until this year. I got so excited when I saw all these wonderful recipes and I'm having fun. More Annie's relish tomorrow!!!! Thank you all for being so helpful.

Jude

Jude, you should see some of the new computer users I know. :-)

DH seems to mean "darling husband". I thought it meant "designated hitter" as a metaphor for the husband, but that wouldn't explain DD and DS for the kids. Designated hitter is cuter though, just picture a husband who only has one specific task he helps with, and the wife takes care of the rest.

Personally I'd be happy with a "go-getter". You know, when his wife gets off from work, he'll go get her. He could clean the house while I'm out, too. ;-)

Melissa

Jude,

DH means "Dear (or Darling) Husband", unless he's in big trouble and then it can mean something very different. :-)

DS/DD = "Dear Son/Dear Daughter"

BF/GF/SO = Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Significant Other

Thread = a single conversation on a chat board, such as this one.

Bump = Posting to a thread to bring it back up to the top of the page.

ROTF = Rolling on the Floor (often with LMAO at the end, meaning "laughing my a** off)

LOL = Laugh out Loud, of course

and then there's the whole emoticon thing, lol! You'll soon get the hang of it - it's a whole 'nuther world out here, isn't it? I am still awed by the amount of information at my fingertips - it is not always accurate/good information, and a lot is more like misinformation, but it is there. Wow! :-)

Robin

P.S. :-) is a smile emoticon

Earlier in this thread, digdirt mentioned that it would be bad to use fresh lemon juice when bottled is called for. I can only imagine there may be an acidity difference between fresh and bottled? However, is bottled lemon juice actually of a normalized acidity, like vinegar? If not, there's no guarantee of a particular acidity.

Just wondering, since I was about to use fresh lemon juice in jam...

The type of lemon juice in jam is not an issue because jams are already acid products and the lemon juice serves other purposes (acid for pectin formation, flavor). So you can use fresh or bottled, whatever suits.

The exception would be pepper jellies, which generally call for vinegar as the acid; there it's needed to compensate for the low-acid peppers in the mixture.

Bottled lemon juice is standardized, so yes, in that way it's comparable to commercial vinegars. Fresh lemon juice, on the other hand, will vary considerably in acidity depending upon variety, season, growing conditions, degree of ripeness when picked, etc.

That's why bottled lemon juice is specified in recipes like marinated peppers. For consistently safe results it's important to have assurance of sufficient acidity.

Bottled lemon juice (and bottled lime juice) are more acid than vinegar. Therefore, whenever a canning recipe calls for vinegar, you could safely replace it with bottled lemon or lime juice.

However, if a recipe specifically calls for bottled lemon juice don't substitute vinegar, as it's a weaker acid.

Carol

Goya brand in the Latino produce isle has quarts for about $2.50. Saw many there yesterday, as well as very cheap herbs and spices packed in small bags.

Top Foods had plenty of bottled lemon juice this week, but $1.79 for a 15 oz bottled natural strength from concentrate, their own store brand - Haggen. Expiration May 2009 and I bought just one bottle until I can check Costco....the weather is much too nice to make the 110 miles Costco round trip right now :) I'll go first rainy day.

No Realemon on the shelves at all, just a big gap where it would normally be.

Robin,

Thanks for the clarifications. My daughters laugh at me because I'm so computer illiterate, but that's okay.....I found y'all, all by myself. So there, daughters!!!!

I'm working on fig jam on another thread and the lemon thing has me baffled. Do I use fresh lemon, bottled lemon or lemon peel, is the question I posed. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks,
Jude

Jude, let 'em laugh---you'll be the one with delicious fig jam! ;-)

Zabby

Lost every single fig, as they were all on the ground when I came home from the hospital. I did tell the next door neighbor to give the pot a gallon of water per day, but I think she must have given a glass of water and only once, oh well, there is always next year?