2020 shortages

[Myrthryn]

News clip in this video is saying that for October, the purchase of baking goods is up 3400%.

 

[baymule]

If there is no bread and no yeast for baking bread, look up recipes for Irish soda bread. Better get baking soda! LOL

 

[flowerbug]

hopefully apple cider vinegar and any basic fairly tasteless additive will give you some lift if you need it. a lot of times basic ingredients will have enough of something in them that you don't even need to add anything else. lemon juice can also be used as an acidifier for a lot of things, but people may not want the flavors that come with it...

we keep a lot of baking soda on hand along with plenty of baking supplies.

the item i'm trying to get at the discount stores when i wander through them is another cast iron pan or a plate. one just isn't enough... i'd like to have one that i use for frying meats and the other then can be used for pancakes. we don't cook/fry meats often, but when i make pancakes and sausage (about once a month) it would be nice to not have to use a different pan for frying the sausage and i much prefer the results of the cast iron pan anyways.

oh, and now i need a new small pan for cooking about a quart and a half of beans. my old one broke on me (i think it was too hot when i set it in the cold sink - it was an old glass pan and it was perfect for making a small batch of beans. we have four huge pans for our normal cooking of bigger batches of things, but that's more than i want to make... which reminds me i should be making some beans right now. ...

 

[flowerbug]

We had a shelf in the back room of canning jars at the grocery store i work at, and it has been there for five or six years. Whoever force-shipped them to us knows nothing about canning...they're all narrow mouth quarts. We moved some this year, but not enough to get rid of everything. We are also completely stocked on toilet paper...we had enough backstock on top of our freezer section for the entire county, but shipped quite a bit of it to one of the bigger city stores in desperate need. We now get paper products force shipped to us weekly, the cart room where we have been stashing it (right in front of the canning jars), has enough toilet paper in it to buy a used car.
...
The one thing we haven't been able to get at work for months now? Spices. Everybody is cooking at home, and the spice companies haven't been able to keep up. We try to order the entire spice rack three times a week...and usually don't get a thing.

those jars we would have been able to use this year. i prefer narrow mouth canning jars for putting up tomatoes and tomato juice (the lids are cheaper or at least they used to be) - wide mouth are nice for making pickle spears and a few other things but i don't really like them for the most part other than the fact that i like that i can get my hand in them when cleaning them out to give 'em a good scrubbin'.

for spices i've not noticed a huge problem, but we have a pretty good selection available between all the places we normally visit and the various other stores we can check if the usual places are out.

 

[Carol Dee]

Was at the clearance store (Home goods) today. Managed to find Mom her frying pan, but everything else was sort of sparse.

Most notable was the olive oil. We go through a LOT of oil and Home Goods has always been our way of getting good quality at a discounted price.

It being a clearance store, we naturally do not expect to be able to simply walk in and find any specific brand on a regular basis, but we have our favorites.

But getting to the point, the amount of oil is really down especially considering that October/November is usually the season where the oil is coming in and is at it's most abundant (well, Mediterranean oil; because of the opposite seasons, anything Australian, New Zealander or otherwise across the equator has everything reversed). I've only managed to find two bottles over the last two weeks that were worth buying, and one of those is a brand I have not tried before, and is Italian (not to get racist, but 1. I tend to prefer the flavors of Greek or African Olive oils to those of the Southern European countries and 2. I have often heard that Italian Olive oil is the most likely to be adulterated.

Other than that, slim pickings, two bottles of teriyaki sauce (unfamiliar brand) and a chocolate bar (just like last week and another branch was just a bottle of vinegar, two bags of hard candy, and a jar of honey.

Ah honey, that's another thing that's normally abundant in winter and is almost non-present. At the moment it's no big deal since I have gotten around to bottling mead in a while and the jugs are full, but for the first time I can remember, once that is bottled I have only honey enough for one more jug before I'm out.

HONEY is sparse! We have about 75 gallons here! Try a farmers market locally.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I meant the exotic honeys I use are sparse.

 

[Carol Dee]

I meant the exotic honeys I use are sparse.

O.K. now I see! Our bees did very well this year. Now to get them to over winter safely.

 

[valley ranch]

the prices not only scooted up a bit ... our water heater died suddenly ... plumbers in our neck of the woods in SW Washington are charging at $170 / hour ( or more).

You should be able to repair the water heater (tankless) or replace it if it's the tank type ```

but I know what you mean ~ my tankless is turning off in the middle of filling the tub ~ I wish my daughter would come and install a thermocouple, I'm feeling not capable or confident to do that ```

 

[valley ranch]

Get the paper blue shop towels. Wash in the sink and keep using, they are tough!

Yeh, mom used to do that ```

 

[Zeedman]

Get the paper blue shop towels. Wash in the sink and keep using, they are tough!

Which reminds me of the local Walmart in Spring, which placed boxes of wash towels in the empty TP aisle. Hint, hint...

News clip in this video is saying that for October, the purchase of baking goods is up 3400%.

The conditions are ripe for another panic, all it takes is a media trigger.

To a point, "hoarding" may just be stocking up, buying as much as possible each store visit to limit exposure to potential super-spreader events. DW & I, being in the at-risk category, have followed that philosophy since the pandemic began. But for those living in urban areas, where riots & post-election violence are anticipated, the threat of food shortages is very real. Some groups & individuals (such as the one in the video) are stoking those fears... whether that is ultimately helpful or destructive remains to be seen. I expect to see massive panic buying next week, if it hasn't already started.