need mailing advice, please

[brdibug]

anyone ever successfully mail filled canning jars? my daughter wants moms homemade veggie soup... i am in Maine and she is in Florida. Any ideas? Post office Ups? help

[Kmac15]

I sent jar cakes to my BIL to Turkey.
I used the insert from my jars to seperate them after bubble wrapping each one.
bubble wrap on top and bottom. I found liquor store boxes had the height I needed for all that padding

one note...it was EXPENSIVE.

Karen

[amwitched]

I mailed several jars to my relatives for Xmas. I, too, wrapped them in triple-layer bubblewrap with extra padding on the top, bottom and sides of the box that I sent them in. I sent them UPS. All of the carriers just seem to throw the packages around, so just do your best to give your jars extra padding.

[frogmammy]

Ok, I used to sell crystal and porcelain on ebay. These are what I see as your main problems: 1. possible freezing, 2. glass breakage due to handling.

Pick jars that have the most headroom in them to allow for possible expansion if frozen. Wrap jar in a layer of paper, then bubblewrap, then place each bottle in its own plastic bag. Pack tightly in the box and allow NO movement of content...none! When the box arrives she should let it sit for 3-4 hours just in case the contents have been frozen....if the items are frozen and she opens the box right away in a warm/hot house, it may cause the glass to crack. (temp differences...although *maybe* she could dis-regard this last bit)

Relative worked for one of the major shippers...you wouldn't believe how they toss packages around!

I'd ship something like this by Fed-Ex...UPS can be far too picky, and the USPO can take a bit longer.

Mon

[susieM]

Send her a canner and the recipe. She'll thank you, eventually.

[stanb999]

You could also just freeze it.

If you put the soup into a freezer container and Freeze it in a deep freeze to -5(not the one in your fridge). Then pack it with newspaper in several layers. It will make the trip just fine. Heck it will most likely still be frozen totally. We used to send stuff to my Aunt in Maine that way from Jersey. That was regular mail. So I'm sure the two day stuff is way faster today. I'd also just use the post office. The priority two day shipping isn't real expensive.

[Momwannabe]

Last year I shipped a bunch of pint jars of homemade preserves. I used the USPS Flat Rate Priority Mail box. They have a couple sizes, but the ones I used will hold 8 wrapped jars. I put three down each side, 2 in the gaps in the middle, then stuffed the holes with crumpled newspaper. At the time it cost around $8 to ship anywhere in the US- I thought it was a good deal and I never had a broken jar in about 5-6 shipments.

[haypoint]

As added assurance, leave the rings on them to keep the seal intact.