Canning Lids and Upright Freezers (Shortages & Reccomendations))

[VaTom]

Since Covid a lot of folks have gone back to canning and freezing foods. This past year there has been a shortage of canning lids. Most people have plenty of jars and rings but new/fresh lids are critical. Since the lid shortage I have made the rounds through that store section just like looking for ammo. HA! Shelves always empty.

Was in the local Kroger store Sunday and they had lids!!!! Downside is canning season is over but bought a supply for this year. Left some on the shelf - no need to hoard. Like ammo the price higher than pre-covid. $3.29 per box of 12.

Freezers. Looking to buy an upright freezer. We have two refrigerators with freezers (one in garage) but still need freezer space. Had a huge old chest freezer that had belonged to my wife's grandmother for years but gave it away when we moved to a smaller place 10 years ago. Trying to find an upright freezer in the 16 cubic foot size. Trying to find any size is a challenge - most places on backorder.

Hopefully the supply will improve and we can get one. Reviews on line are all over the place. Top rated freezers from Consumer Reports are GE brand.

Any recommendations from you guys who have recently bought a freezer. Appliances aren't like they used to be (like everything else).

Thanks,

Tom

 

[MRB1]

We needed a very small chest freezer to free up space in our refrig, and there was none available. We waited for almost a year before Lowes got a few in stock. Good luck.

 

[grover99]

Good luck getting what you need. I ordered a new dish washer and a new gas range three months ago and still nothing showing up. Lowes web site said 5 to 7 days delivery. However in small print down below it said some thing like in most cases. Would check Consumer Reports as to best appliances.

 

[robrossk]

We found chest freezers last year at Costco or Sams Club. Can't remember which one for sure. Nothing fancy at 7 cu ft but it works great so far. Have seen them at both places and at Walmart fairly recently (chest only). Maybe find an outlet or appliance discount place.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

As a side note the Mason Jar was invented on this day in 1858 by a
guy named John Landis Mason, a tinsmith.

 

[VaTom]

Thanks all. Some chest freezers out there but my wife doesn't want to move stuff around looking for what she needs. Have considered if can't find an upright.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I used to find canning lids cheap In January and February. That was in the oddest stores like: Odd Lots, Target, local ACE Hardware (year-round) and K-Mart (now gone, but check that type of store).

We had been married 7 years when we move into the farm house, my Father-in-Law ask what we wanted as a house warming gift? The wife told him a larger pressure cooker. (she had a 4 or 6 quart) He bought the biggest I have ever seen, a 7 gallon! It will can 2 rows of 7, quart jars or 5 rows of pint (never owned enough for that!) I tried to keep 15 boxes of small mouth and 10 boxes of large mouth lids in stock at all times! Also kept pectin and Gulf Wax in stock too.

Hint: If buying new jars off season, buy "Freezer Jars", You can put full jars of left overs (like soup or chili) in the jars and freeze them until you have enough for a canning batch. Save the normal jars for harvest time, which on the farm was late May to Thanksgiving!

People will give Jelly size jars back to you if you gave them gifts of jelly, and every canning jar they find in gratitude! I never bought jars at yard sales, but they have lots of them! Several young people left jars in apartments when the moved with their trash. I would carry them to the dumpster and empty each one, and set the good ones aside, over 30 years I probably took 200 home.

NEVER put food you know is bad in the trash still in the jar, The homeless will try to eat it and get sick (clogging up the hospitals even more!)

Lastly, full canning jars are heavy! Be sure your shelves and cabinets can handle all that weight. (Think ammo heavy!)

Ivan

 

[Maddog 521]

Some of the new freezers aren't made to run in cold garages. Be sure the one you get will work where you want to put it.

 

[VaTom]

Some of the new freezers aren't made to run in cold garages. Be sure the one you get will work where you want to put it.

Yes- Many are now advertised as "garage ready". Supposed to be able to operate between 0-110 degrees (F). Read somewhere that all freezers made since 2018 are garage ready. Don't know about that.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Some of the new freezers aren't made to run in cold garages. Be sure the one you get will work where you want to put it.

In 1961 my parents bought their first freezer, a Norge upright 21 cubic foot. I bought it off them in 1979 (for $50) and it still worked fine when we left it in the farm house 7 years ago. I know it was in the garage around 25 years and always worked fine.

Ivan

 

[lihpster]

Got 2 freezers in the garage that have never been in a heated or cooled area. Both still going fine after 40+ years. One's a J.C. Penny, and the others is a Montgomery Ward's.

 

[Skeet 028]

We bought one of the 7 Cu Ft freezers at Sam's just under 200 bucks. Working fine so far in the garage. We freeze a lot of food and staples. That little freezer has a 100 lbs of flour and at least a hundred pounds of meats in vac sealed bags. We found decent strawberries about 10 days ago on the cheap and we made strawberry jam. Freezer jam...so much better than cooked. We've been making it since before we were married. We also can quite a few things. String beans beets applesauce(freeze it too)and tomato sauce..or spaghetti sauce because we put spices onions peppers etc etc in it. Because I had a sight problem we didn't have a garden this year. We just made spaghetti sauce 2 weeks ago using the large cans of tomato sauce from Sam's and Costco and some of our own canned tomatoes(we had wayyy too many from last year). We used to make up to 150 quarts a year...but just us now so we only made 60 jars. We also make sweet pepper relish and can it but only every 3 years or so. 30-40 pints go a long way. We just bought canning lids from Amazon ...in stock. Not the cheap ones as we found them to be just ok but too many fails to seal. We bought Ball lids 96 large 96 small...but we do have many more. Another thing to try to find for short term stockpiling is Sure Jell for making jellies and jam. Mmmmm Peach and apricot jams Black Raspberry jelly(no seeds) Sam's had some small upright freezers a couple of weeks ago for around 250. Uprights seem to have too much wasted space

 

[Oldfrt]

I got a Media (20 cu ft) at Lowes last week, according to the internet they make the GE's. Not a lot of selections out there right now. Happy hunting.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

) Sam's had some small upright freezers a couple of weeks ago for around 250. Uprights seem to have too much wasted space

The wasted space people complain about in upright freezers is from people shoving any old package in any old way'

My wife said canning tomato sauce used too many jars! So I started with 96 quart freezer containers (that's around 19 gallons) two days later I bought I bought another 192! the next season we bought another 96 plus around 48 pint containers. They stack perfect and fit the racks in the door. One thing she didn't freeze in the cubes was fresh fruit. The cherries and wild berries and sliced apples, she froze on cookie sheets then put the frozen fruit in recycled bread bags, and stacked them like cord wood in the big basket on the bottom. (The pre frozen fruit does not sick together! If dumped into a cube, it becomes an ice cube of fruit!)

Ivan

One cooking tip for chili with beans: When using dry beans, put in the bottom of the cook pan and put frozen cubes of tomato on top. AS the tomato melts it rehydrates the beans, add water if needed after that. The soups and chili were cooked on top of the wood stove we heated with; you could always tell what was for dinner just by pulling in the driveway!

Like the theme song from Green Acres says "Farm living is the life for me!" Now that it's gone, I miss it so much!

 

[Skeet 028]

. One thing she didn't freeze in the cubes was fresh fruit. The cherries and wild berries and sliced apples, she froze on cookie sheets then put the frozen fruit in recycled bread bags, and stacked them like cord wood in the big basket on the bottom. (The pre frozen fruit does not sick together! If dumped into a cube, it becomes an ice cube of fruit!)

That is the way we freeze broccoli Asparagus, Limas and string beans as well as frozen fruit.Wife also makes peach cobbler ready peaches so when it thaws she bakes it in the oven. We do so much more canning because we don't have the worries of a dead freezer and freezer burned stuff. We also freeze applesauce in ziplock bags...freeze 'em on a cookie sheet and they stack really conveniently. We have had some last 4 years as good as when made

 

[charlie sherrill]

New appliances cost twice as much and last half (or less) as long as the old ones. Most are made in China and are built with planned obsolescence in mind. I would pay more for American stuff if it lasted longer.

 

[bgrafsr]

We went to Lowe's to order a refrigerator, upright freezer, and washer/dryer. All for our new to us home. They had the freezer in stock, but the other items didn't come in for about 2 months or so. Luckily we didn't need them right away.


The freezer is convertible, as it can be used as a refrigerator too.

 

[Maddog 521]

Some of the newer made freezers are not made to run in a garage. The severe temperature changes are the problem. The older units were made to run anywhere and would last for years. The newer units are made as cheap as possible and if you want more than cheap you must pay for that. Old isn't new and new isn't old. Check it out

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

We bought one of the 7 Cu Ft freezers at Sam's just under 200 bucks. Working fine so far in the garage. We freeze a lot of food and staples. That little freezer has a 100 lbs of flour and at least a hundred pounds of meats in vac sealed bags. We found decent strawberries about 10 days ago on the cheap and we made strawberry jam. Freezer jam...so much better than cooked. We've been making it since before we were married. We also can quite a few things. String beans beets applesauce(freeze it too)and tomato sauce..or spaghetti sauce because we put spices onions peppers etc etc in it. Because I had a sight problem we didn't have a garden this year. We just made spaghetti sauce 2 weeks ago using the large cans of tomato sauce from Sam's and Costco and some of our own canned tomatoes(we had wayyy too many from last year). We used to make up to 150 quarts a year...but just us now so we only made 60 jars. We also make sweet pepper relish and can it but only every 3 years or so. 30-40 pints go a long way. We just bought canning lids from Amazon ...in stock. Not the cheap ones as we found them to be just ok but too many fails to seal. We bought Ball lids 96 large 96 small...but we do have many more. Another thing to try to find for short term stockpiling is Sure Jell for making jellies and jam. Mmmmm Peach and apricot jams Black Raspberry jelly(no seeds) Sam's had some small upright freezers a couple of weeks ago for around 250. Uprights seem to have too much wasted space

The MBH (much better half) is reading this over my shoulder, and wants the recipe for freezer strawberry jam if you will share. You can post it here or PM me if you like. I just bought more canning lids today at Walmart, I have been buying them all summer when they had them in stock.

Thanks, have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[Skeet 028]

Leon...the freezer jam recipe is in the instructions in a pakage of Sure-Jell. Not the Sure-jell Light. To help though make certain the measurements are right. Mash with a potato masher..better done when strawberries are room temp or thereabouts...not with a food processor or blender(too foamy). . the recipe makes about 3 pints(or 6 1/2 pints too small). The jam we make goes in small peanut butter jars...well cleaned. Also if you have used canning jar lids that are flat and clean you can use them. After letting the jam sit on the counter for about 24 hrs ...freeze. The resulting jam is very sweet and not like canned jam and is a bit more runny....all kinda dependant on the type of berries. We used to grow SBs... about 8 acres. Tween U pick and what we picked and sold, a very good cash crop. +BTW if there are any crushed berries left after making a batch add a bit of suger refrigerate till that night and put them over Vanilla Ice Cream