Post actual shortages here.

[Brian in Seattle]

Hey Tin if you can get a copy of that memo I'll feel a lot better about deciding we're too far down the rabbit hole to get back intact.  :-)

How about a 24 pack of 2 ply toilet paper for 13 f***in dollars at the Cash n' Carry.  Does
that put us down the rabbit hole :-)

- Sis

You should hit Trader Joe's. $2.99 for a 12-pack seems far more reasonable to me. You should save your old phone books too.

Brian

[Hendrek]

Absolutely no Fruit Fresh to be had anywhere in our city.  Amazon can't even get it (for those unfamiliar with canning methods, Fruit Fresh is Absorbic acid, used to prepare fruit before canning, to keep it from browning).  This in my mind is definately a sign of the times.  One of our large groceries, (Dillons Food Store) says they have been out for weeks, can't get it in, but keep ordering it anyway.  Amazon has fruit fresh for veggies, but not for fruit. 

If you can and cannot get fruit fresh, you can use lemon juice instead, or a vitamin C tab mixed up in some water, to preserve the fruit and keep it from darkening.

This tells me that many, many, many people have woke up to the fact that something is going on, even if they don't really get WHAT that something is, and many are canning now, possibly for the first time in their lives.

A sign of the times.

Canning is a great thing to do, and I myself do it now, but while everything is still working and there are canned goods on the store shelves, it doesn't make sense to me that there would be a huge run on canning supplies, unless there's an accompanying run on gardening supplies.  It really only makes sense to can things if you grow your own food, otherwise it's SO much cheaper to just pick up canned goods while they're still available, since fresh produce is getting more and more expensive.

Then again, you might be right, and many many people are foreseeing a lack of canned goods in the near future...and are preparing to grow and can food.

[Widgeon]

My local WMT had their canning stuff on clearance for the season.  I got a mountain of stuff (just getting started).  Point being, I don't think canning stuff disappearing right now means anything ... stores rotate stock and canning items are not is season.  I bought 2 nice pressure cookers on the web - no problems at all.

[Aelah]

Several months ago, my BIL and his new GF came for a visit.  He had great fun teasing me about my mounds of toilet paper I was buying and storing. So much so, he called my other BIL just to share that hubby and I had gone off the deep end. Well..., 3 months later... I have lots of toilet paper (purchased cheap by today's standard) and other necessities. My BIL, is out $30K in AIG. How bittersweet! Now whos is laughing all the way to the bank!

On another note, I found Fruit fresh at Nob Hill Today!

[nanbullen]

No shortages here in Canada. I'm getting local produce. Farmers' markets are shutting down (short growing season)
I'm going to try some locally grown sweet potatoes and pumpkins (the latter make great soup as well as pies.) TP is readily available.

[SouthLeftCoast]

Hey Tin if you can get a copy of that memo I'll feel a lot better about deciding we're too far down the rabbit hole to get back intact.  :-)

How about a 24 pack of 2 ply toilet paper for 13 f***in dollars at the Cash n' Carry.  Does
that put us down the rabbit hole :-)

- Sis

You should hit Trader Joe's. $2.99 for a 12-pack seems far more reasonable to me. You should save your old phone books too.

Brian

Thanks for the reminder! And it's compostable (as is regular tp). For that matter, stop putting tp down the toilet, period, (keep a drawstring plastic bag handy, then recycle the contents when it fills) and you'll reduce the need for a plumber, and don't flush as often. Is there a plumber on board? I once read one should put baking soda and hot water down the pipes regularly, but perhaps it didn't apply to toilets.

TJ's does have some consistently good prices, at least as long as they have plenty in stock. Eggs are cheaper there than anywhere in (my) town, but I'll check for tp. Better than Amazon (my bolding) even delivered tax-free:

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[Ubiscious]

there is a MASSIVE shortage of women in their mid 20's without "illegitimate" children and/or divorces in my area, that are attractive....

this above all else, come nuclear winter or not, is the worst doom EVER!

[SouthLeftCoast]

there is a MASSIVE shortage of women in their mid 20's without "illegitimate" children and/or divorces in my area, that are attractive....

this above all else, come nuclear winter or not, is the worst doom EVER!

Decades late, dude. There has been a shortage of men who don't fuck around since forever. Didn't someone teach you to jack off instead of creating these ugly children you do/don't want to torture and re-fuck?

  I know you're joking, er, right?

In another thread I could have said I'd have made a fortune taking off my clothes (well, a decade ago--I'm no Tina Turner, but I still get hit on). How POSITIVELY SUCKY is that? Women and children should be sex slaves because, uh, why? Because you are a PERVERT who never learned it's OK to have a private orgasm?

Jaysus, it's time for this house of cards to fall.

[arewethereyet?]

Biggest thing I've noticed is a shortage of clues.


No one seems to have one...

[PerfectScotty]

Come on now SouthLeft Coast, it is horrible to not have single people around for potential dates. I don't think ubiscious meant his remarks in such a horrible way as you lead on.

[nomore]

On canning supplies I politely suggest to you urban and suburban dwellers that you take a drive out to the country to pick up jars, rims, lids, pectin, ascorbic acid, funnels, bubble removers, jar lifters, canning racks, canners etc. It has been my experience that the more urban the store the less canning supplies they stock...went through this five years ago when the family moved from the suburbs to the country and discovered this pattern. The stores understand that traditionally the more 'citified' you are the less you home can & 'put by', so they stock less to begin with, that and the suburban and urban stores only stock canning supplies in an extremely short seasonal fashion and just in time for the harvest (think August to October)

[motherearth]

There really was a shortage of certain items: regular lids, regular jars, fruitfresh, for some stores, even out here in the country.

Ball fell way behind and couldn't get enough product out even tho the stores were begging for it.
Now, our shelves are as full as they will get for winter.
An online store that I go to is now full up on all its out of stock items.

I believe that someone mentioned peak seed at one point in the early summer. I expect we saw a small increase in people gardening and canning.
I worry that it is a bad indication of what will happen when 50% of our population wants/needs to garden: shortages that do not just last one season.

[kmaine2]

we had the most gorgeous healthy potato crop; till harvest.  So many rotten potatoes!   We wound up with about a quarter of what we expected.  If others had that experience (I think it was the weird weather; no rain for a month, then non stop heavy rain and flooding, then drought again. . ._) then there will be a dent in the potato supply

We experienced late blight here because we had 3 weeks of rain in late July, early August.  We were spared because we harvested when we saw the plants with the sign of blight but if folks waited, they harvested mush.  Tomatoes were also affected.  But the tomatoes were so late to ripen it was an allaround bad tomato year here.

[nomore]

There really was a shortage of certain items: regular lids, regular jars, fruitfresh, for some stores, even out here in the country.

Ball fell way behind and couldn't get enough product out even tho the stores were begging for it.
Now, our shelves are as full as they will get for winter.
An online store that I go to is now full up on all its out of stock items.

There were zero shortages of canning supplies here in rural Virginia FYI. Maybe we've got people who not only have been canning longer and have more of the reusables on hand but stocked up on most of them long ago. But even though I have what I need I keep an eye on such things here and here there were no problems.

[kmaine2]

There really was a shortage of certain items: regular lids, regular jars, fruitfresh, for some stores, even out here in the country.

Ball fell way behind and couldn't get enough product out even tho the stores were begging for it.
Now, our shelves are as full as they will get for winter.
An online store that I go to is now full up on all its out of stock items.

I believe that someone mentioned peak seed at one point in the early summer. I expect we saw a small increase in people gardening and canning.
I worry that it is a bad indication of what will happen when 50% of our population wants/needs to garden: shortages that do not just last one season.

Every week I pick up canning lids. 2 boxes that way I don't have run down to the store when I am knee deep in veggies next canning season. 

 Seed saving is going to be  an important skill and each year I try to save a little bit more.  I also hit end of season seed sale at Fedco.  I know some folks frown on that but I look at it as insurance against shortages next spring.  My favorite seed company saw increase in sales by 30 percent this past year and were out of many varieties this past spring.