more people are learning hw to preserve food since covid. plus there is a metal shortage for lids n stuff.

"Of course Ball and Mason blame the shortage on Covid! But I think they figured out a way to sell more jars. What do you think?"

I agree with you.

What about checking out thrift shops or anywhere jars/bottles are recycled-maybe you could get the lids there.

Also, what about using green apples for the pectin if you can't get what you usually would use?

Forty-seven years of making jam! Respect.

I've been seeing Pamona's pectin for sale in large volumes at various internet sites. They have a website where you can probably order it in a variety of sizes. We ordered Sure-Gel from Walmart a couple weeks ago. I find Walmart might be out of something one day and have it again for another day before they are again out of stock.

I have heard good things about the Tecnocap brand (they appear unbranded) lids sold by fillmorecontainer.com They are a legit company. Last night they even had Ball brand lids but only in bulk. I hear some people have been able to get Ball lids at Menards this year.

Me? I'm using lids I bought from Lehmans.com at least seven years ago. In the last month, Lehman's started offering a lid called "Superb" that they say is made in Ohio. I don't know whether those are the same as the old unbranded Lehman's lids, but if they are, I can recommend them.

I'm not a canner, so I have a question. Can the lids -- the flat part -- be reused? Can the tops -- the circles that screw on top of the lids -- be reused? Or is it only the glass jar itself that can be saved and used again. Just curious at this point.

nickel - the rings can be reused until they get rusty. The flats can be reused but not for canning because they may not seal a second time. I reuse them for dry goods if they are still in decent shape and not bent.

When I was doing my plum jam canning a couple weeks ago, I couldn't find lids. I saw pectin for sale, but didn't need it. I ordered lids via Amazon. The brand name of the lids was Golden Harvest. They worked fine.

I’m not a canner either but there are plenty of lids and pectin available on Amazon. Are they not preferred brands?

I was looking for lids for my DIL and found plenty at Agway. Tractor Supply had some too.

LoneJack, thanks for the explanation. And "rings and flats" makes sense what to call the pieces.

I saw boxes of them at my grocery store, so no shortage here. i didn’t look for pectin.

My understanding is that there are counterfeit Ball lids on Amazon and that previously unheard of brands are not reliably sealing. I would not buy lids right now from any but a trusted source, unless I was desperate. Golden Harvest are made by the same company as Ball, are well known, and are also probably subject to counterfeiting.

why not buy canning supplies from ball directly

here is their website

https://www.freshpreserving.com/

guess that is to obvious!!!!!

A hint for caring for rings, When you empty a jar and wash it store the dry jar with the lid screwed on. It protects the top of the jar and keeps the ring flat. You cant use bent rings. Some people will remove the ring from a full jar so they can use it for another jar but I never do that.

"why not buy canning supplies from ball directly

here is their website.............guess that is to obvious!!!!!"

No, not too obvious. The website says the products are only sold by retailers and not on the website.

"America outsourced most of it's manufacturing. We are a CONSUMER not a producer"

Arcy's comment is partially true. A lot of manufacturing has been transferred abroad for the past many decades for I believe a number of reasons, including:

- Union wage contracts pushing what were always essentially blue collar factory jobs to unaffordable levels

- Increasing consumer price pressures because of a market focus of many to shop for the lowest possible prices with quality taking a back seat. Call this the Walmart and Costco effect

- Improved infrastructure in lower wage, lower cost less developed countries to permit reliable manufacturing operations for sourcing products at much lower costs.

Edit to add-

Another problem leading to shortages of all kinds is that West Coast ports are overwhelmed and jammed. True for the smallish Port of Oakland in SF Bay but much more so in SoCal, the huge ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles (adjacent to one another) have been unable to keep up with the traffic flow. The designated anchorage areas for these ports are full plus and a dozen or more ships are drifting offshore at 1-2 knots of speed doing the nautical equivalent of what a plane in a holding pattern does, killing time to wait for a spot. Seeing all the ships at anchor is quite a sight.

Ball does not sell lids direct to the customer. Here is their page with links to authorized dealers. https://www.freshpreserving.com/where-buy.html I checked on five of those dealers just now and none of them had lids in stock unless one wants to also buy rings. Most veteran canners would be looking for lids only. I can tell you I have 100+ unused rings/bands.

I tried to find pickling spice about a month ago, no luck and the canning section of Walmart was pretty much bare. I had to buy all the spices separately.

I have not been able to find lids or the pint jars since September of last year. And no lids at all that I would trust.

That's odd :-) I live only a few miles away from the OP and my local Ace Hardware is fully stocked with caning supplies. A 12 pak of Ball wide mouth lids and bands is going for $7.59 and a 12 pak of regular sized lids and bands is $6.49. They also have some off brands as well.

I also noted my local Safeway is pretty well stocked for caning supplies too.

No shortage online, but the price seems to have skyrocketed. Amazon had regular Ball lids, 24-count for $22.21!!! I passed. DH found one (ONLY one) pack of 12 at the grocery for $2.98.

The problem with waiting for a supply that is bought on line is that there is a very short window for putting up jam. For the folks who do not make it - the fruit has to be fresh and ripe! I buy the fruit from an open air market by the box. The boxes are about 61/2 pounds for $3 and the fruit is RIPE. There are only one or two days to make it. Growers know that 'drops' make the most wonderful preserves but you have to mess with the fruit to get the best jam. This might make city folks who don't grow stone fruit get the creeps, but it is something us thrifty old folks know. lol I had to reuse some lids today - the jam is given to family and it is opened immediately and eaten - not stored for even a year. The reused lids do reseal and I can hear them pinging now as they vacuum seal. We don't process them, just fill almost to the top, turn over and when cool enough to handle, turn them back right side up. You can also tap the top and it will give a different tone than the non-sealed tops. Time for some crackers with peanut butter and fresh jam!

I bought lids a couple of months ago and had no trouble finding them. I think that it is a good idea to buy early - like at the beginning of summer - so that you can avoid the rush. Not good advice for this year, but you can consider it next year.

I ordered lids from Amazon on July 27 and received them on July 29.

I wasn't aware you could reuse lids and get a seal on them.

Lars, many times you amaze me with with your basic common sense. I never stopped looking for lids and bookmarked product availability for lids from a number of retailer websites. Spring came and with during my weekly refreshing of the bookmarks started getting hits showing availability. My approach was the same as your advice and over the course of a few months was able to buy lids for myself and 3 others who use lids.

Last year I learned Ball limits production runs of lids to a few months of the year for the entire year so I knew if you didn't get them early odds were against finding lids later in the canning season. A good percentage of this years production run was bought up by on online retailers (including amazon sellers) speculating and contributing to another year of low availability on local retailer shelves. They've basically cornered the market and sitting on massive supplies, and now sell them for outrageous prices.

If any of you are in Michigan, some Meijer locations are well stocked with supplies, including pectin.

Ball says they have gone to year round manufacturing in response to the 2020 and 2021 increased demand. It is stated on the link above, freshpreserving.com.

Is there any person who cans who, after last year's shortage, needed to be told to look for lids early and often? I don't think so. As you said, it is common sense. I have been keeping tabs year round on availability and prices even though I have not needed to buy any more lids for a long time. I have sleeves of lids from Lehman's and an untouched case of Ball lids bought at Ruler, a Kroger affiliate 3 years ago. I also have a few dozen Tattler reusable lids. I have not continued to stock up because, now that there is a shortage compared to the number of people who need lids, I do not want to keep others from finding what they need. I stock up beyond my current needs when a product is freely available, but not when so many others cannot even fulfill their current needs.

If you don't use the hoard of lids and have sleeves and cases @matthias_lang why would you continue to stock up on more? Doesn't make sense to me. I sold (at cost) my extra lids last fall to people I knew needing them risking not having lids in the spring to can asparagus. I also sold (at cost) my 5 extra reserve cases of jars I bought when there was no supply issue and since replaced them.

March 2020 I walked into fleet farm and bought 20 packs of 12 regular and 8 packs of wide and no supply issue at the time, and before there was one. This year I did the same but at Menards and got what the others wanted also, and at the time every Menards in the country was stocked with lids, and with luck I'll be able to do the same next year. Based on your claimed concerns of others, did you help out anyone needing lids last year? Isn't a sleeve 348 and I think sleeves mean more than one, and a case is 288 lids, That's a lot lot of lids. Heads up, Costco and Sam's clubs around my area have a limit of one on Toilet paper right now. Could it happen again?

I found some at my Walmart, after trying Target and Home Depot.

Someone recommended Rural King, but I won't shop there due to their stance on selling guns with large magazines.

Thanks for all the good resources. I used my stock last year so had no idea of the problem. We finally found some lids - last pkg- at Safeway yesterday. I will certainly stock up for next year! I boiled the lids for a few minutes before reusing and all but one sealed. Of course to be super safe, I HAD to open the unsealed one and it was delicious on my toast this morning. lol

If you don't use the hoard of lids and have sleeves and cases @matthias_lang why would you continue to stock up on more? Doesn't make sense to me.

That doesn't make sense to me either. As I said, I do not continue to stock up on lids. Sleeves from Lehman's contain 60 lids. The case of Ball lids contains 360 lids. We can from a small urban orchard (28 trees), a small urban backyard garden, and a second urban garden that fills a 3,000 square foot lot. (We also dehydrate, ferment, freeze, and cellar our produce.) We are using lids from the stash we have. If the beehive on our not-yet established new little orchard had produced enough to collect this year, we would be using more of the lids. Maybe next year.

I did not pass any lids on to other people who can: I do not know anyone else who cans. I live in the inner city and it is not convenient for me to go shopping out in the suburbs or rural areas for anything, including canning lids. I will say, though, that in the past, Ace Hardware outside the city has been a good source. The first time I purchased there, they delivered; I think it was 24 half gallon jars (apple juice). I have gone there to purchase lids as well. If any one here uses Kilner jars, Ace might still sell those as well as the closures for them.

If you reuse lids, be certain to keep checking them periodically to make sure they stay sealed. Often they will seal, but will lose their grip after a bit of time.

Speaking of canning... I was gifted a bunch of nice ripe roma tomatoes today. When I say a bunch I mean I gave 3-4 pounds to my mom, 8-10 pounds to my sister and still have over 18 pounds to process. Plus my friend canned roasted tomato sauce and pizza sauce herself today. She said when she lugged the box of tomatoes inside her husband growled at her. She is winding down her canning for the year.

My plants were eaten several times this summer. So while I have enough for salads and sandwiches I have only froze a few pints of roasted tomatoes.

Anyhow my friend had reusable canning jar lids. A brand called Tattler. I have never seen them before.. She said there is a learning curve to using them. And it sounded like she just uses them with tomato products. Have any of you used them?

"We can from a small urban orchard (28 trees), a small urban backyard garden, and a second urban garden that fills a 3,000 square foot lot."

This sounds like a pretty substantial and serious amount of work. This is more than a casual hobby. How many people do this work?

I've seen some at Dollar General, and you might also check Save a lot.