I have a note on my jam jars to return for reuse/recycling and some customers have proudly told me they faithfully put the empties in the recycling bins at the curb for trash pickup (their idea of recycling and yet have no clue what reuse means).

Nancy

That's sad, Nancy. But I'm in Houston, and we don't recycle glass here, that was discontinued several years ago, and I'm not sure why. Glass jars are so useful, it's a shame to take them out of circulation.

I've noticed it too, but it's not a 'sign of the times' if you're interpreting it that nobody cans anymore. Just the opposite is true. People watch those outlets for the jars to appear and scoop them up. The prices for new jars are prohibitive and amounts to gouging. Ditto cast iron. It's making a comeback. People have just realised that it's the original 'nonstick' cookware. I cook almost entirely using cast iron and stone ware.

Calliope, what I mean by "sign of the times" is that more people are canning these days and are scooping them up. That's what I suspect is going on, and since the store near me that sells canning jars sells a lot of them, I'm sure more people are canning these days. Ditto with cast iron - it never shows up in resale shops any more, and is hard to find at garage sales, too, which is where I got all of mine.

I live in an area where canning has always been popular, and I've never seen canning supplies cheap at any of the used goods stores. I almost never even see them at auctions or yard sales, I expect family has already grabbed them up.

At least they are very easy to come by new - in a town of 14,000 population, there are 5 stores that carry canning supplies year round, and a 6th that carries them seasonally.

My local thrift stores (Goodwill & Salvation Army) price them so high, that I don't bother looking! I am able to buy them locally at Ace Harware stores, Walmart and my grocery store, but I really lucked out when I put a request on my local freecycle. I received 180 quart and pint jars! I had to discard a few chipped ones, but almost all of them were in excellent, if very dirty, condition. The gentleman who gave them to me said he had "collected" them for over 15 years, but had never canned. They had obviously been stored in a shed because of the dirt and spider webs. He told me he'd even tried using some of them for target practice, but they were too sturdy to even break after being hit! On top of that, when he delivered them to me, he had them in the back of his pickup truck, piled up loose! Can you believe they were still good and unbroken? I've dated a few of the older ones to the late 30's and 40's, but nothing valuable and no colors. But I only wanted them to use for my canning anyway.

Jill

Jill, what a story! Freecycle is a good idea. I looked at cases of canning jars on amazon.com, and was surprised to find that they are quite a bit more expensive there than at the local grocery stores.

I have inherited my parents old canning jars. I haven't counted them but there are at least 400!

A note on the cast iron pots and pans, a lot of people are selling them at scrap yards. The prices on scrap metal have skyrocketed over the last few years. I sell my scrap aluminum and copper, and I have saw piles of cast iron pots and pans at the scrap yard when I take my stuff to sell.

Personally, I wouldn't want to buy used cast iron cookware, unless I knew the person that I was buying it from. You never know what may be imbedded in it!

I'm speaking from a personal experience. My X-wife took my very old, high $, hand hammered, best in the world, wok to my step sons house to cook some stir fry. She left it at his house, bad mistake! When she went back to get it, it was sitting in his garage, full of motorcycle parts and toluene!

Wertach, cast iron skillets are easily cleaned with oven cleaner. Spray the pan with oven cleaner and then place it in a plastic bag overnight. The next morning you should be able to rinse most of the gunk off.

If you want to get a bit more technical, build an electrolytic bath. I made mine with a battery charger, a plastic 55 gallon drum, and a sheet of stainless steel. I can clean a cast iron skillet down to the iron surface in about 6 hours for most pans. Once completely clean, I re-season the pan using canola oil.

DarJones

Here is a link that might be useful: electrolytic rust removal

Yes, so very sad to see that canned baby food is slowly but surely going to******** plastics.........I feel so sad for the innocent babies....
.course-we-all-know-fresh-homemade-is-prob-best...
I-try-to-tell-others-about-dangers-of-plastics--they-just-look-at-you-and-say-REA"LLY????"
THERE-are-too-many-sheeple-out-there----
Oh,well.......
Plus-mfg-are-putting-more="foods"in-plastics......
I-need-to-write-them-and-complain,,,,
,,vinegar-for-example.....I try-to-buy-that-in-glass.....except-for-the-white-vinegar-used-for-household-tasks.....
I-bought -some-salvage baby foods jars just to get the jars for some dried food -storage.....like-10cents,and-25cents each...
.I-asked on freecycle,etc but others ask-for-them,too...
well-found 4 jars last 1/2pints week-at-thrift-store.....
Got-a-few-from-elderly-neighbors........bought-some-used-ones-from-CL
I bought-quite-a-few-at-end-of-season......
Several-big-box-stores-reduced-what-was-left-in-those-cardboard-big-floor-displays----cause-it-was-prob-too-much-to-fit-on-the-regular-shelves....wide-mouths-lids-were-50cents....a-box
Course-it-depends-on-locatioms-and-getting-there-at-the-right-time,too...
Now-I-will-jump-off-my-soapbox.....LOL
Jean(-who-expensive-keyboard--spacebar-not-working-properly....)

(Jean(-who-expensive-keyboard--spacebar-not-working-properly....))

LOL too funny--Jean, you should have put that first! I was wondering what was up with all the hyphens!

Carla in Sac

As far as re-using somebody else's cast iron cookware, the best way to handle it is to do what I intend to do with some badly rusted cast iron cookware I got from a garage sale. I'm going to sand blast it all clean then wash it and dry in an oven and then re-season it from scratch with a hot oven and olive oil.

sand blasting will ruin it. try this...

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

I respectively disagree on "sandblasting will ruin it". I have sandblasted several over the years and they were just as good as new. However, they were very old, very high quality cookware, the newer cheap stuff may not fair as well. Also they were not "badly rusted, they were "badly crusted" from not being cleaned properly!

Robert, are you sure that you want to use olive oil? I have always used peanut oil because it has a higher temp rating than olive oil. I don't know for sure, but I think the cure would last longer with an oil with a high temp rating? JMHO!

I've been using cast iron cookware since the 70s. I was taught to take an unseasoned piece of cookware and set it in a campfire until all the old finish and/or rust burns off. Then, scrub with soap and water, dry, coat in cooking oil and bake for 40 minutes at 350 F. I first used plain vegetable oil. Since about 15 years ago I've used olive oil. So far we've been quite pleased with the results. Normally, a piece treated like this will be good for several years. I think I've had a frying pan go without need of refinishing, for as many as ten years.

A word of warning: back in 2001, we were renting and the frying pan we had purchased in 1981 needed refinishing. Our apartment had a wood stove, and it was burning nicely. I set the frying pan inside the wood stove, thinking that would work like a camp fire. It didn't. Apparently the wood stove was hotter and/or didn't heat as evenly. At any rate, the frying pan cracked!

My oldest piece is a Griswold 4 quart Dutch oven. I was a teen in 1976 and on a lark I drove to a large outdoor flea market, arriving as the sun came up. The first table I walked up on had this piece. I asked the fellow what he wanted for it and he said, "FIVE DOLLARS take it or leave it!" I couldn't believe it! That's all I had with me. So, I paid it and went home! That Dutch oven has been worth its weight in gold!

George

Tahlequah, OK

We do find the European bail & seal jars at thrift stores for far less than the new price. But "regular" jars that take the metal lid & band are hugely overpriced there. I usually see them for $2-$3 each. I can get them for $10 or less per dozen with lids, new, at the grocery store.

I keep an eye on Craigslist and have twice gotten good deals, but there are also people reselling jars after using them as vases at a wedding for about $15 per dozen. Maybe they expect to be haggled down. I also see people asking as much as $20 for single jar, apparently thinking they are valuable antiques.

I got my personal main supply (400+ jars) from craigs list and the man delivered it for 20 bucks. it filled the back of a pickup truck. It took me and my sister 3 weeks total to wash and sterilize the jars initially and then add new lids and rings. Since all I wanted was to USE the jars, I USED the valuable antiques after putting on new lids and rings and throwing away the zinc ones. The valuable ones now have stewed tomatoes and processed potatoes in them.

I just started to use jars I found in the oddest place, an industrial surplus store for $1.20 per box of 6 new pint jars with lids. Who cares that they are tall olive jars, they still hold a pint. Something I noticed 3 days ago that each jar has a serial number on it as well. No matter, they work well for canning breakfast potatoes or carrots or celery or even corn chowder. The price is just right!

Just start looking in places you wouldn't normally think of to find your jars. I have 180 olive jars full of food in the basement and still buy more of these (6 boxes of 6) every week.

Robert Dell, do your unusual jars require special lids? Were you sure that they could withstand the pressure canner?

I have my mother's jars, my grandmother's jars, probably my great-grandmother's jars! I have my (now deceased) mother-in-law's jars, and some new jars and jars that were given to me by elderly ladies in my church who no longer can but happily swap those empty jars for home-canned goods or freshly baked bread. I occasionally find jars at yard sales or second hand stores, but not so much any more.

Robert, it's too bad you threw away those zinc lids, they are worth more than the jars! I do use the old blue jars and zinc lids to store dried beans, rice, lentils, dehydrated onions and garlic, etc. Many have chipped edges so I can't use them for canning, but they remain useful for storage.

Cast iron is coming back with a vengeance. I've cracked a coule of relatively good pans by placing cold pans into coals, or once by taking a pan from the fire and putting it into a bucket of water so the children playing around the campfire didn't burn themselves. It was irreparable.

I recently bought several pieces of Le Crueset enameled cast iron for less than $30 a piece at a local on-line auction. I just bought a Squeezo for $24.00 there too, and have picked up a couple of old Griswold's for less than $20, but they are few and far between. I usually only find them because the listing sellers misspell the names.

Annie

If you've been on Pintrest lately, canning jars are the "it" thing right now for home crafting. Everyone is crazy about canning or mason jars!

I think that is what is going on with not being able to find jars in thrift stores, etc. Plus, I do think there is a "canvolution" going on with more people canning than before.

I found a mixed dozen at Goodwill yesterday in a box with a lot of rings for $5. 8, 12, 16 ounce. Not bad. Usually their P's and Q's are 99 cents each nowadays.

At a Savers thrift store today quarts were $2.99 each. Most pints were also $2.99 each, but one oddball pint was "only" $1.99.

The way quality on most things are falling so badly, I think I'm going to stock up on more new jars this year anyway. Get some decent ones while they are still to be had.

Just beware. We purchased some new jars, made in China. They were okay. But whereas we normally fit six quarts in our canner, with these, we could only fit five.

George, what brand were those? I determined last year that I will not bother with the ones Walmart was selling that were made in China. They were called "Mainstays." Besides the thin, lightweight glass, I read quite a few reviews saying that the lids that came with them buckled or otherwise failed to seal.

I don't recall. Perhaps my wife will. But, I'd say, if it doesn't sound like a familiar brand, I'd probably either stay away from them, or else try just a few at first. Fortunately, in the last couple of years, I've had people who heard that we can, simply offer me jars. Usually they are from the 50s through the 70s, all good jars.

I just scored at the local on-line auction, I got "50+" (they could have just said 51, sheesh) jelly jars, mostly half pints but some of those little 4 ouncers, for $25, and I got another box of 27 "fruit jars", for $12. The second box contained 11 of those wide and squatty pints that I like for salsa because people just stick a chip right in there, and 10 of the tall wide mouthed 20 ounce jars that I never find any more. Grandma used to call them "asparagus jars". The rest were traditional pints and quarts.

Annie

I feel so lucky with my freecycle haul a decade or so ago. A nice lady gave a lot of old quarts. I am protective of them. When my hubby needed some jars to feed his bees I wouldn't give any of the old ones. I went to big lots and bought him some Golden Harvest quarts, lol. They were still made in the USA though.