Empty Jars

Canning anything in a half pint jar is waste of my time and a waste of a lid. IMHO That is why I gave them all away.

Adding them all together I am sure there are way over 2000 canning jars in this house. I know I have just over 1100 regular mouth quarts and 150 large mouth quarts. I know I have well over 1000 regular mouth pints and 200 or more large mouth pints. I only have one small mouth pint with a ring but no small mouth lids.
For years I wondered why there were Regular and Large mouth jars instead of small and large. Then I gathered that one small mouth jar.
most of my jars are downstairs on shelves but I see there are a lot of jars in boxes too.
All of the full ones are on our pantry shelves. I hope to can a lot of green beans and tomatoes this year.

I can a lot of salsa and jelly/jams in half pint jars. It's a nice size to give away. And it makes me happy.

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“If I rest, I rust”

Same here. The small jars are also good for making lots of small jars of condiments, or specialty stock and broth. Once you start using reusable lids (Tattlers), jar size doesn't matter much.

Those half pint jars are perfect for Crab! If I am making Crab Cakes or Cocktail, for just us two, a half pint jar is perfect. The 12oz is more the size for a Quiche or Chowder. The pint is for more than just us two, like when we have company. I prefer the 12oz jars for jam and the half pints for syrups. I use pints for fruits/veggies. Quarts are usually for sauces, fruit juices, soups, and larger portions of fruits/veggies for family dinners (more than us two). The half pints are also the right size for Horseradish Sauce.

It is almost time to make up fruit jams and syrups with all the berries we grew, picked, and froze. I have well over 200 jars, but haven't counted them. It is obvious I'll need at least 500 jars for yearly canning, if rotating yearly. This is due to canning a lot more meats!

I store the empty canning jars in the boxes, or on shelving, upside down. They always get washed before I used them again, too. I store the lids separately, in bags, boxes, and little bins.

Everything I have canned is being stored, in a way to prevent breakage in case of an earthquake. I don't put jars in open shelves without doors. Also, I am storing a lot in the original boxes (all like foods and label the boxes, too).

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I can in smaller than half pint. To be fair, I am not quite sure what that is metric, but I think I know which you mean. I even can in those super tiny quarter pints.

Mostly because I like variable flavours and I hate to open one jar of jam and eat strawberry jam for like, a year. This way I can have strawberry, mango, spiced apple, blackberry, redcurrant, seville, etc... and only take up a tiny space in the cupboard. I have bigger batches/jars of it and it's actually THOSE I give away.

For tomatoes I find pints [500ml I THINK] to be the best sized, as well as for pickles. For corn, soup, chutneys, relishes, smaller pickles [not cucumber] I like the smaller jars.

I can my syrups in small jars because we use them to flavour our water we have a fizzer-thingy for. So I can have homemade peach soda and the like - but, again, I like to switch it up. Elderberry soda. Mango soda. Mango Peach. OH MANGO PEACH ELDERBERRY BLACKBERRY AND ALL THE THINGS SODA.

It's even more devastating to open a giant jar and watch half rot away than it is to have to open two jars, for me.

we store ours in plastic totes with lids.
Our basement got a bit damp one year and the boxes all were ruined.
We do a lot of stuff in pints now that were are down to only one kid in the house.
Jelly meats, and tomatoes are still mostly quarts though..

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

Half pints here are mainly used for pizza sauce and taco sauce. First is just right size for one pizza and the other the right size for one pound of ground meat for tacos. I know that they are very popular for a lot of other great things as I've received a hundred or more from my seed offers. Rather than accumulate a lot more than we'll ever use, I swap 2 to 1 for pints with fellow gardening friends.

Martin

Half pint jars make perfect gift sizes to give away. With 2 kids in school I give a lot of canned goods to teachers, bus drivers, coaches, etc. Great size to tuck into any gift!

So I don't do this, BUT.............

Several miles from me is a lovely old farm house. They have (maybe 10??) small, well maintained outbuildings. He dis-assembles them, moves them to their property, rebuilds them. One is a working black smiths building, another is an old log cabin, etc.

ANYHOW they have a "thing" in their yard where all of their empty canning jars go. Picture a long, wall mounted wood coat rack, with longer than normal pegs.
Each jar fits upside down (at an angle) on the pegs.

Each board is mounted horizontally between posts. I think there may be 4 or 5 boards, attached to both sides of the posts. Fits probably 100 jars.

We got the grand tour, and the Mrs. explained that this set up was what was used "back in the days" I don't recall what "days" or where, but it looks pretty cool, and it had my curiosity.

She said she uses it as intended. That even if she stored her jars on a shelf in the basement she would wash and sterelize them before use any way, so why not do it this way.

Very cool place.

And your mom lives where? And when is her yearly yard sale? And you didn't think I'm the only one interested, did you?

Crown Ranch, God's Gatorade? Please share the recipe?????? DH has problems with dehydration (works construction) and something I can make would be so nice!

Here's a nice commercial product for jars http://www.disasterstuff.com/store/p...x-141p1405.htm would be great to set in a bin.

However it is so expensive I doubt any of us would buy.it. But memorize what it looks like, maybe you'll see some at a yard sale one day!

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To have what we want is riches, but to do without is power.

"Oh to have a basement" I 2nd that!!

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Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

We are ranch hands on a century old cattle ranch that is 4 hours from town. I found a gazillion really old canning jars in one of the old sheds. I bring them in a box at a time as I need them, wash and fill them, etc. When I have used the contents, I wash them and put them in a box on shelves in a back room. I've had to buy pints, but there are plenty of quart jars I haven't gotten to yet. Misc. glass jars from things we buy, I keep to store milk cultures, or dry goods in. Large plastic containers, such as Folgers coffee, I keep and use to store cookies for gifts. They have downloadable pics you can glue on to dress them up.

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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results -Winston Churchill

Any jar with a canning lid makes the cutest pincusion/button jar! Just toss the solid part of the lid keeping only the rim. Make a pincusion that will fit the rim and hang down a bit inside of it when the rim is screwed onto the jar.
Make a lil 1/2" ruffle around the pincushion, sew or glue it on, and then use a glue gun to place it in the rim gluing the ruffle down on the top/outside of the rim. Screw onto any cute jar that fits the canning lid.

Large mouthed jars are really nice as you can have a larger pincushion. These make wonderful and practical presents as most anyone has to keep and then sew on a button from time to time. My favorite jar to use is the small ones that hold a cup or so of contents and the person receiving the gift can get a larger jar easily.

Goodwill has a lot of pretty jars that also accept a canning lid with threads. I can take a photo if anyone would like it by email.

LQ

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I store my canning jars stacked in cardboard boxes with a sheet of cardboard between the jar layers so the mouths dont chip. I keep alot of very small regular jars to save seeds in and alot of the bigger regular jars for honey from my beehives.

My woodshop has several 2x4's attached to my ceiling where i nailed the lids to the the 2x4 and screwed the regular jars up onto the lids. The jars hold all my screws, nails, widgets, and other "odds & ends" in them up out of the way so they dont clutter up my tool drawers. More importantly i can readily see them so i dont have to go fishing around for what i need or end up buying doubles of something i already have.

OK, got my mind moving. I am seeing me building a wooden box with dividers for my jars. I have access to lots of lumber from the family sawmill. They would be very sturdy too. If I get any made I will post a picture. HMMMMMMMMMMMM, I needed another project.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

i'm gonna get organized someday I like to wash let drt and put the old lid back on to keep dust out a spiceal bunch of shelves would be great but for now most of the beds have jars under em

In case any of you save your old flats for hard times or vacuum sealing; they fit perfectly in pringles cans. The cardboard ones at least.