How about tonic syrup and club soda? Works in a pinch - you can even make it.
With respect, the best practices are not safe. They are safER. There is still risk. Why take risks you don’t have to? Sit home and make phone calls. Then you make one trip (less gas, less $) and are done.
Putting my money and health where my mouth is, yesterday I made about ten phone calls to track down a couple of cases of wide-month pint canning jars. When I found them, the store (a TrueValue for what it’s worth) set them aside for me and I will pick them up this afternoon. As it happens that store does curbside pickup so I paid for them and they’ll bring them out to me. Not only safer but more convenient.
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We have Club Soda here at the house, for when we feel like an afternoon Highball. I’ve never seen Tonic Syrup in the liquor stores I frequent…
Back to stocking up: canning gear is in short supply. Between canning season and CV-19 pretty much everything is in short supply. Jars, lids, and rings. You’ll have trouble finding pressure canners anywhere except at userous (sp?) prices. Ordinarily I send people to estate sales and yard sales but not sure that is a great idea in current conditions.
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@Auspicious, think the word you may be looking for is usery?? Agree heartily about the fewer trips the better - less exposure = less risk. Yes to the lack of canning supplies. I also see potential for limited holiday cooking foods, but that’s just a guess. For those that are able, I’d keep personal stock levels on the high side, as we may be facing supply chain interruptions due to natural occurrences as well as Covid impacts.
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May not need a lot of holiday foods if Covid 19 continues to spread. Thanks for the suggestion to stock up once again. Paper products seem to be in short supply.
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Yes, grim but true @carolina1, especially in the sense of not gathering. Still, I think the holidays, albeit celebrated differently (and whichever you celebrate) may take on an added sense of importance, as all else is so changed in our world. Just musing about stuff…
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Spelling check: usurious
sigh Back home with big boy Internet.
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Good - new word for the day!
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Back home and doing prep for Isaias. Good on food and as noted scored Ball WM pint jars. Catching up on laundry, clearing sump pump filters, fueling cars and jugs for generator. Really not too bad. CV-19 is a bigger deal for food and dry goods so it’s mostly power and flooding prep for us. Still have a patio umbrella to bring in. Latest models suggest this is a practice run for us. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
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I’d like to clarify my post. We live in rural Texas and while the virus is very slowly on the rise here I feel more comfortable going to stores with a mask and hand sanitizer than I did a month ago. We have a mask mandate in effect now. If I lived in a hot spot like some of you do I would feel quite differently. Guess what I’m trying to say is just use a little common sense wherever you live.
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I think that’s quite reasonable @Miss_belle; I’m super paranoid myself, engaged in high risk behavior last week (ate indoors at a resto!), and just gave my 94 year old dad a thorough tongue lashing for his cavalier behavior. I need to chill a bit, probably, but at least I’m stayin alive! Just like the ever so popular song from the 70’s…
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I love that song and the Gee Bees. 
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usurious
(brought to you by your friendly local language “pedant”…
) (ETA who replied before reading your own later post 
)
PS: “Extortionate” might be a better word, unless you’re just borrowing the pressure canner… (YFLLP 
)
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I haven’t looked but reports from a canning group I’m in is that prices are generally not relevant as pressure canners can’t be found. I see some on Amazon at least 50% above usual prices.
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I was thinking pressure canners might be available from Offer Up, or EBay, but probably not at great prices. Goodwill offers some items online too, I think.
Have to watch the price point and the condition. That’s hard without an experience base. sigh I was watching for a bigger canner than my 16 qt before CV-19. Just too hard now. It would be great to be able to do two levels of pints or more quarts.
Our next shop will include fixings for a couple of gallons of my pasta sauce and my wife’s tomato-basil soup. Probably family recipe of pickles. We may do some chicken chili and some ground beef chili; both of those are to move chicken and beef out of the freezer into shelf stable so we can fill that space with…well…more chicken and beef. grin I still haven’t made the brisket I posted about elsewhere and that may be a target for canning at least some of it. The more food we have on the shelf the more flexible we are with the freezer.
I keep eyeing the deer in the backyard. grin
LOVE shelf stable foods; freezers can become a nightmare, but are great for large hunks of protein, or storing bodies. Just ask Dexter 
@Auspicious.
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What would I do with all the meat and veg if I cut up a body to put in my freezer?
On the other hand “get off my lawn” backed up by a Winchester Defender, a good knife, a hacksaw, and an air compressor is part of my plan for anti-maskers who don’t clean up after their dogs.
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