You may have guessed that what I consider to be the best new simple living invention is tied to gardening. One of the things I LOVE about gardening is preserving the harvest. Last year, I canned and froze a bunch of homemade tomato sauce and jam. It’s nice to eat food you’ve grown, knowing you’re not ingesting any fertilizers or other additives that can be found in much of what’s bought on grocery store shelves these days. And even though it does take a few hours in the kitchen, that’s a short amount of time to have months’ worth of food ready to eat the rest of the year.
The Canning Lid Conundrum
One thing I didn’t love last year was running out of canning lids. They couldn’t be found anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Every store was completely wiped out. In desperation, I ordered some from Amazon that turned out to be counterfeit. I could tell by the beat-up packaging and amateur design work on it. If you’re ever in doubt, legit Ball canning lids have the logo on the top, like this one.
Turns out there’s nothing like a pandemic to make people think there will be a food shortage. Everyone was racing to start gardening. While I was very happy to have one of my favorite hobbies adopted by the masses, I was not happy to have zero canning lids. Traditional canning lids are only able to be used one time.
What I Do With Used Canning Lids
I despise wasting things, so I try really hard to give disposable items a second life when possible. To utilize used canning lids, I pour homemade salad dressing into extra jam jars. I just put a band over the top of the jar and lid and give it a good shake before pouring the dressing. They’re perfect to take to get-togethers and you don’t have to worry about it spilling in transit.
Unfortunately, used lids don’t help at all when you have fresh produce ready to harvest and preserve. I was lucky to have a friend give me a few of his unused lids, and I scrounged enough from my supply to get me through the sauce and jam. Because I had a ton of grapes last year, I also pulled out my mom’s recipe for epic concord grape pie.
That was a wonderful and delicious way treat! But, I had no choice but to freeze some other things I wanted to can. And, since we have no chest freezer (yet), we have limited space in our fridge freezer. Matt wasn’t thrilled to see freezer bags and containers galore in there blocking his ice cream.
Although the hope is that canning lids start becoming more available this year, I don’t see the gardening and canning hobby boom stopping anytime soon. And I really don’t want to be in the same boat as last summer without lids. So I was thrilled to discover the answer to my canning prayers, and my favorite new invention, Harvest Guard reusable canning lids.
What Makes These Lids The Best New Simple Living Invention
- They’re made in the USA, by a US veteran
- They’re BPA and phthalate-free
- They greatly reduce waste, something I hated about conventional lids
- You can use them to infinity and beyond
- A pack of 50 lids and gaskets is $34.00, which is very reasonable
- You can use them for both water bath and pressure canning
They’re currently on backorder due to their popularity or I would feature them here, but I’ll have them in plenty of time for canning season. As a PSA, If you’re considering giving canning a whirl this year, I highly recommend buying some now before you’re in the canning conundrum I faced last year. And if you’re not, please share this with a friend who is. Trust me, they will thank you for it!
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