Home Canning Jars

[Watchman]

If you can your own food, you can call this a warning! Get all the canning jars you can latch on to, especially quarts and pints. Believe it or not they are disappearing from store shelves in some areas where canning is common. Here in the mountain west they ARE expensive! We were at a church rummage sale last week and were able to pick up two dozen quart jars for $3. Do it now or you might be sorry. We have been busy accumulating them for a couple of years and it doesn't matter whether we "think" we have enough, when we get a chance to pick them up, we do.

[cowboy38229]

It's probably a good idea to stock up on all the lids you can get hold of too.

[dejure]

If nothing else, the jars and lids can be valuable bartering material.

[195357]

I recently attended a public sale where the auctioneer couldn't give the jars away. I got 4 cases of quart canning jars for under $1.00 I found out where there might be some more at that price and am planning to get them tomorrow. My kids are planning to do some canning this year and have even planted their own gardens. I am also stocking up on lids and rings as much as we can afford. There is a huge interest in canning and freezing this year. My church is having classes to teach newbies how to do it safely.

[Watchman]

The absolute best investment you could ever make, aside from a large gasket-less canner. Every time we see jars on sale at a flea market or yard sale, they're bought and in our car. We have a huge closet in our garage that is filled. Good example, last year the sisters at our church were getting ready to throw away 3 pumpkins they had used for a Fall display. My wife got them and canned 18 quarts of pumpkin chunks, Grandson and daughter last year each got a deer and asked us if we wanted any. We said just the little chunks of meat left after they have got all they wanted. We canned 35 pints of deer stew meat. In home canning at least you KNOW what you are putting in the jar. Grab all the jars you can. Rings and lids will be like bullets before too long, almost impossible to get ahold of.

[fern]

I had 300 of my own canning jars and through flea markets and craigslist, I added another 150 to my storage. This year I had to invest in a lot of jars but time was on my side for one. All the Dollar General stores in this area had their on clearance and I bought them all out. Their regular price is $8.50 for quarts and $7.50 for pints or jelly jars. If you talk to the manager, they will cut another 20% when buying all they have. It was a life saver for us. They only stock small mouth jars though but I also bought out all their rings and lids for $1 per box so I am set for another year or two. I also visited a very old hardware store in a small town and they dug out 4 cases of half gallon jars that were obviously in storage for many years. The price on them was $5.99 and I bought them all. Still looking for wide mouth jars...

[Watchman]

Be careful using half-gallon jars! Conventional wisdom from extension service here is that they are not able to be used in a pressure cooker because they do not attain full pressure uniformly and may be dangerous (botulism). They are, however, great for storing dry food.

[fern]

Which is exactly what I have in them! I was using too many of my quarts for the dried foods and the half gallons eased that problem. They vacuum sealed perfectly too.