I need advice please

[Kiwichick]

I need advice about glass jars for storing garden surplus. What type? What sizes? Any tips or advice?

I'm starting from scratch and don't know anyone who cans/preserves. I'm growing a variety of culinary and medicinal herbs, fruit trees, berries, and currants.

 

[TexPrep]

In an unrelated note.....
Do you happen to frequent a political board called USMB?
We have a Kiwichick there.

 

[Danil54grl]

Think it will actually depend on your needs./family size . . I can and preserve on a regular basis. I would honestly get as many jars as you can now along with lids that go with them. Stock up while you can. With just Hunny and I, I now
do the pint jars,

 

[Illini Warrior]

unfortunately - just like the Euros you don't have eazy access to the familiar US "Ball" canning jar type food preserving - best you'll probably do is the Weck jars - they water bath preserve with them but any pressure canning is a total "No Way" ....

 

[EastenerWesterner]

This is the way it was always done when I was growing up. Sorry if I dont know metric equivalent.
Quart- tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, peaches pears etc.
Pint- Chili sauce, pickles, occasionally jelly or jam.
Probably not a recommended jar to use now- my grandmother always did jelly in baby food jars. Those were reused for years.

@Kiwichick, just look at the size can or jar you use for a meal now. How much you want to put up and use by your own “best by” date when they are open.

 

[bill harrell]

They say don't reuse lids in all the canning books ,but we have been reusing lids my whole life. If it has a rubber gasket in good shape where it can be sterilized and will seal , it will work. Save all the jars that you buy goods in right now. Ask you friends and neibors to save you jars and lids. If it's a size you buy, it's probably the right size for you to can that item in. If anything needed adjusting , I would go smaller due to the idea of losing refrigeration. You can always open two instead of one. Make sure they seal ,and don't be shy about chunking one out that seems dubious.
Remember, the people selling you jars and lids are the ones telling you not to reuse lids. Buy all you can, and can all you buy. Good luck.

 

[Kiwichick]

In an unrelated note.....
Do you happen to frequent a political board called USMB?
We have a Kiwichick there.

Nope, first I've heard of it.

 

[Kiwichick]

Thanks everyone
I'll go with a mix of quart, pint, and saving jars from shop bought items. I can get the ball jars but like everything else it's more expensive here ($11 for 1x pint jar) so I didn't want to start without getting advice first

 

[Danil54grl]

They say don't reuse lids in all the canning books ,but we have been reusing lids my whole life. If it has a rubber gasket in good shape where it can be sterilized and will seal , it will work. Save all the jars that you buy goods in right now. Ask you friends and neibors to save you jars and lids. If it's a size you buy, it's probably the right size for you to can that item in. If anything needed adjusting , I would go smaller due to the idea of losing refrigeration. You can always open two instead of one. Make sure they seal ,and don't be shy about chunking one out that seems dubious.
Remember, the people selling you jars and lids are the ones telling you not to reuse lids. Buy all you can, and can all you buy. Good luck.

I've been reusing lids for years now. As long as they are still "perfect" and don't get damaged (with bending) while opening a jar they will be reused. I find the bending problem mainly in items that have been pressure canned.

 

[Danil54grl]

Thanks everyone
I'll go with a mix of quart, pint, and saving jars from shop bought items. I can get the ball jars but like everything else it's more expensive here ($11 for 1x pint jar) so I didn't want to start without getting advice first

1/2 pint size is good too, especially if ever you don't have a reliable electric system. I put relish, jelly, balsamic onions, candied jalapenos, rotel tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc. in those. Just a thought. Most of those can get used with 1 recipe or maybe 2.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

The babyfood jars after the lids went bad went to holding nuts, bolts and screws with the lids screwed into a piece of wood.
Reading this, you would think I grew up in the Great Depression. I guess I just learned from those that did.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

Sorry for double posting. It fits..

 

[Danil54grl]

Sorry for double posting. It fits..
View attachment 16537

I currently wash out all my ziplock bags and as long as there are no holes, I save them for the next use. I do currently reuse tea bags and even coffee grounds just adding to bump back up. Saving bacon grease is a major always!! I use it often when cooking. I will be honest and say I have not yet been washing my tin foil, but I will never say never. . . It may just get to that point in the near future. I have a good amount in my stockroom. With what I had and then when we cleaned out Granny's house when she moved in with us, I have enough for at least 5 years.

 

[Kiwichick]

Sorry for double posting. It fits..
View attachment 16537

It looks that way.
Helped a friend clean out her grandparents house and found a box labeled "too short string". They lived by the 'use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without' motto. They threw nothing away just in case they found a use for it.

 

[Kiwichick]

I currently wash out all my ziplock bags and as long as there are no holes, I save them for the next use.

Me too, my friends think I'm crazy for doing so. I also collect banksia seed pods from a friend's driveway to burn in the fire. Waste not, want not I guess.

 

[Digout]

Fowlers Vacola is the brand of preserving outfit my mother used to use in the 1950's and 60's, still available in Australia.

See Online Shop

 

[Illini Warrior]

Thanks everyone
I'll go with a mix of quart, pint, and saving jars from shop bought items. I can get the ball jars but like everything else it's more expensive here ($11 for 1x pint jar) so I didn't want to start without getting advice first

if you can get a quantity of the Ball type canning jars/lids and then a pressure canner - you'd be one of the few canning meat and other veggies/fruit with that requirement - it's something you could co-op with other local canners ....

 

[LibertyLady1952]

It looks that way.
Helped a friend clean out her grandparents house and found a box labeled "too short string". They lived by the 'use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without' motto. They threw nothing away just in case they found a use for it.

My husband's father had a ball of string that was too short use. He was born in 1891. (He was 60 when my husband was born.) He would use the string to tie packages that went through the mail. He would tie the strings together to use. (There was a time when you had to mail things in brown paper tied with string.)