GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – We’re familiar with COVID-19 related shortages: from Lysol and toilet paper, to change. Now, it’s canning jars - especially the lids.

Covid lockdown this spring drove people to take up new hobbies in attempts to stave off cabin-fever and reduce anxieties. Whether caused by more time at home, reduced income or concerns over goods disappearing from grocery store shelves, home and garden stores saw increased interest in gardening - especially the planting of “victory gardens.”

Al Carmona, manager at Mac’s Hardware in Gridley says that during the spring planting season, which coincided with the first shelter in place orders, they were ordering flats of over 300 plants a week. The sheer volume of produce plants selling out just hours after the orders arrived was “crazy” says Carmona. It was also an early indicator that come harvest time, there would be a greater than usual demand for canning supplies. 

In anticipation of a mass-canning mindset, Mac’s Hardware increased order quantities, but Carmona says that it is difficult to keep the jars and lids in stock. And they are not alone. Canning supplies throughout the area are scarce. Harshbarger Ace Hardware owner Keith Harshbarger also foresaw the increased demand for canning supplies and ordered as much as possible from his suppliers. He just can’t keep them on the shelves. Harshbarger says that “Ball (mason jars) just can’t keep up” - the demand is so high.

Long-time canner, Brenda Kirby says that she has felt the pinch of the shortage and agrees there is an increased interest in learning how to preserve. In just the last few weeks she has taught multiple first-time-canners the basics - many of them in their 20’s and early 30’s. While she appreciates the interest in the craft, she also questions its longevity, and finding supplies amid the shortage has caused her great frustration.

Carmona attributes the new interest, in planting gardens, growing your own food and food preservation to people wanting to “sustain themselves by extending the life of their produce they bought, or their vegetables in the spring… Because of COVID, everybody’s trying to live off the land.”