I have two cases of half gallon Ball jars. All are wide mouth types. Somehow I came across a single regular mouth half gallon jar and assume its many years old due to them not being made in that size anymore. I use them fro my refrigerator pickles and some sweet cherry peppers when I have a lot to can.

Marcia, the half gallon sizes are great for many uses, but canning isn't one of them.

In a typical boiling-water kettle there isn't enough room to cover them by an inch of water---unless you want a lot of it slopping out when it starts to boil. It's true! But don't ask me how I know. :>)

For pressure canning they might work, except I have never seen time/pressure figures for them.

On the other hand, they'd probably work great for refrigerator pickles. But they take up a lot of space on a fridge shelf.

I like using them for holding beans, dried fruits & tomatoes, grains, etc. They really look good on a kitchen shelf, that way, and serve a decorative as well as practical purpose.

I've got about a dozen or so with regular mouths, and wish they still make them because they look better than the wide-mouth versions, IMO.

Ah, well.....

I use the big half gallon jars for dill pickles, which I make like the Canadians do. They always come out good, and seal good, pickles are good, in fact, we're just using up a half gallon I made last year in an old blue jar. I prefer the wide mouth, it's easier to pack the pickles in them, but this one is a reg. size. BTW, planting is in full swing now in Michigan, DH just planted rows of tomatoes and assorted peppers, hope they don't get rained out like they did last year! Shammie

I have a kettle that was probably useful to do a whole turkey as a fryer. Its more than 24 inches tall and can easily hold 3-4 of the half gallon jars in it with more than 6 inches of space at the top.

Shammie, mine have been in for three weeks, albeit under hot caps. Last year was such a horrible year that I'm in a hurry, LOL.

I've only lost one so far, and that was to the birds.

Annie

Almost 25 years ago my sister gave me about 10 Nescafe glass jars with red plastic screw on lids for Christmas. I at first thought it was an odd gift, old coffee jars. She pointed out they would make great storage containers. Years later I asked if she had more! I have about 20 of them, they are a quart or a bit larger, taller than a quart canning jar. I keep all my beans, rice, powdered sugar, corn starch, etc. in those jars in the cupboard. But we bake so much we always have flour, sugar, corn meal, etc. that we don't have enough cannisters for them. Just came home today with a big haul of such things from an Ammish store we visited over the weekend. I should wash and use those half-gallon containers for that. Thanks for the ideas!

As for my half-pint GH jars, I am saving those mostly for my organic black raspberry jam which I decided I am NOT giving away in pints this year. It is just too good! I am thinking of selling jam but that is so complicated.

Marcia

Marcia, I probably broke about a zillion local rules, but I yard saled a bunch of my jam last year for $3 a jar. It sold as fast as I could bring it out.

Annie

Annie, is that $3 for a pint of jam? I guess I wouldn't get busted in my own yard, but I don't live in a high traffic area. I may or may not have sold jam to a few yuppie friends of mine last year all decorated fancy (don't want to incriminate myself.) Prices for pints being $4 for most jams, $5 for strawberry (because I hardly had any) and $7 for the organic black raspberry jam. My friend that may or may not have bought 10 jars :-) for Christmas presents said I should charge MORE. It seemed like a lot to me, but they are really expensive in stores, the homemade/gourmet jams, and evidently my friends would pay more. But they aren't a big enough market for all the jam I make. I gave away 30-50 jars last year to friends and relatives. I am going to be less charitable this year, especially with the black raspberry jam, because it is so good and it is hell to pick the berries!

Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of my fancy looking jam jars

Marcia, that was $3 for a half pint, and it wasn't decorated prettily either, just plain old jam with plain Kerr lids and rings. LOL

I sold strawberry, strawberry/rhubarb, pear marmalade, blueberry, apple butter and hot pepper. The hot pepper sold fastest and people came back asking for more.

Here a pint of jam is about $6 or $7 in the farm markets, etc. I also may or may not have sold my last jar of homemade salsa to a local attorney the year before last for $10 a pint!! He loved the salsa and HAD to have it for a Super Bowl party. My, my, I love those obsessed people....

I have a friend who owns a coffee shop who keeps telling me that I need to go into business. Maybe when I retire....

Annie

How about $33.00 for 3 ounces of currant preserves? Check this article out.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Bar le Duc Preserves

Wow, remove all those tiny seeds? I think I'm sticking with strawberry/rhubarb. LOL

Annie

There's no money in the world enough to pay those women for that kind of work.

I actually found the recipe online. It suggests clipping a 1/4-inch incision in the side of each currant with an embroidery scissors then using a needle to remove each seed.

You've got to be kidding!

Carol

The local Ace hardware stores sell the half gallon Ball jars as 6 to a case. As mentioned, they are great for refrigerator pickles, etc, as well as for canning IF you have a deep enough canning pot.

Why Oh Why...Why in heavens name would anyone buy GH jars ? Maybe ok for canning jam to sell where you'd never see the jar again. As I've posted before, I buy older Ball, Kerr, Atlas jars in good condition and have had good luck. When we married in '74 we bought 7-8 dozen new Ball qt & pt jars on sale and have used them all these years with a loss of maybe 2 jars due to breakage in the pressure canner. With buying additional older jars over several years we now have the capacity to can about 300 gal. Considering the number of problems people seem to have with the inferior quality GH jars, why even bother with them ? As with most things, the cheapest way is to by the best quality and take care of it. (and buy on sale or off season prices !)

Well walkerWI one reason is that I don't have the time or energy to run around to garage sales etc looking for jars and I give away dozens of jars of jelly and salsa etc and I rarely get the jars back so the price is right on GH for gifts....

Same here, don't usualy see anything coming back unless I beg for them, and people don't like beggers. I have never had a problem with GH jars and here, they are still packed in real full cardboard boxes with the lids as a seperate packge insert. Checked yesterday again, and still no regular mouth GH jars. Around here, most people don't do much home canning, as the area is more like an urban area would be, as far as small lots of land for homes vs. sprawling farms and big gardens. The GH do seem to be a slight thinner, but some of mine have seen more than one contents. The GH are made by Ball anyway. I have searched for used jars and never seem to find any in the huge local Salvation Army center nearby, or at garage sales. Had maybe 20 cases of the older rubber ringed bail mount types and these were A LOT thicker than anything made today. Unfortunately, they are not recommended anymore. Using a commercally made products' empty jar is a bit more dangerous as to breakage. Besides that, if I do get some jars back, they seem to be so badly crusted with; Who knows(?), and have chips, that I toss most of them out.

I buy my jars at the St. vincent for $2 a dozen. If I buy 10 dozen at a time they throw in any Mayo jars that I want too. I have bought 700 or so jars there for about $60. They charge the same for any size, so some times I buy just the pints. We cann't eat a whole quart of corn or carrots so that helps.
I had only 2 jars break last year, both were GH that I bought new from Wal-mart before I found the St. Vincents. One of those was in the boil bath, not the pressure canner.

Just basing my results on the past year (and I think I underestimated how much stuff I give away, more like 60 jars of stuff, some of it canned pears, but most jam) I only get about 15-20% of my jars back. But, I have found another helpful phenomena. I give jam to someone, and if they have a stash of jars and don't can much anymore, they give me some of their jars. So I get jars, but not necessarily the ones I give.

I emailed someone I had given lots of jam to 3 times before seeing her 2 days in a row, and she still didn't bring me any of the jars back. But to make up for it, a friend I have given 4 or 5 jars of jam in the past year gave me her collection of jam jars. Her family had been giving them to her for years, I got about 2 dozen pint and helf-pint jars. What a great pal!

I am trying to get more light to my red currant bushes (somehow they all live under trees) so that I can make red currant jelly as my mom did in my youth. Would not consider taking the seeds out like that, but would strain them all out. Have realized that old cotton pillowcases make great jelly bags.

Have also gotten some jam jars from the local recycling center, where they encourage me to take stuff home, unlike some places I have read about which don't allow that. Didn't think of the Salvation Army, I did recently buy GB Packer sweatshirts there. (I'm a cheesehead who has somewhat recently returned to my native cheeseland.)

Marcia

I also give away a lot of produce, but I have most of my recipients trained. My mantra to them is "If I don't get empty jars back, I can't refill them".

It works very well for me, but maybe I have more considerate friends and family. Or maybe they just want the home canned stuff really badly.

As for the Golden Harvest jars, I hope to never buy another one. I stop at the second hand stores like GoodWill or the small local places and pick some used ones up occasionally. Although I work 60 hours a week outside the home and help Dad run the family farm in my "spare" time, plus being a single Mom, I manage to hit a yard sale every now and then. More likely is that my friends or family will find some. They know that they should buy whatever they find and I will repay them promptly. Although I should tell them I don't need more, I probably have enough jars in my basement to last my lifetime and both of my girls'. LOL

Annie

Led zep,
Ever try a Villaware food strainer? Virually any berry can get its seeds/skins seperated from its juice in a matter of a few minutes. Compared to an over night drip through a big pillow case.

We have a chinois [pronounced sheen-wah], a cone shaped strainer on legs, with a pestle for squashing things, for those who don't know what the heck a chinois is. I never heard of it until my hubby got his grandparents' old one. That works pretty well to get most of the seeds or pulp out of things, but it doesn't do completely seedless unless the seeds are big. And it doesn't filter enough to make clear juice, for example. But we like it a lot and are too thrifty to buy something to replace it, we are attached to it. I think it is an antique. But we also got old pillowcases from his grandparents. :-)

Thus far I have just made jams (I prefer the actual fruit bits, plus they are easier, and I don't mind seeds anyway), but I have intentions to make red currant jelly, and I think it should really be seedless. I did find a red currant jam recipe that leaves some berries intact, might try that too. First I have to develop my currant crop further. Plenty of bushes, mostly started by birds. Was also going to order a black currant bush but dawdled too much this spring. I love the black currant flavor (cassis), but it is harder to find/pricey here. It is much more common throughout Europe.

Marcia

Marcia, forget about trying to grow black currants in Wisconsin. There's too much white pine blister rust around. There are controls for it but none are effective on black currants. Red currants will also become affected but are able to survive for some years before finally also dying.

Martin

Well Big Lots had the Golden Harvest jars advertised in their Sunday flier today. I ended up going over and buying some of the half-pints, even though I can get the ball jars $.50 cheaper at the commissary (or at the same price for the quilted variety). And even though the only jar that has broken on me was a golden harvest half-pint. I just think the embossed fruit on the jars is too cute. I'm ready for jam making, I guess. I hope there are some good local markets where I can buy produce..... I should at least be able to make apple pie jam this fall.

Perhaps the newer screens are smaller, Ken, but the berry screen on my old villaWare did not remove all the raspberry seeds from last year's raspberry jam. Some were small enough to slip through and Dad can always tell, the seeds get under his "plate" and bother him.

Annie

I used the Villaware and had not a single seed get through. I used a couple of big bags of red raspberries my dad had picked from our patch out back, and were previously forzen. Strawberries, however are a bit more difficult to get seeds out of.

Hmmmm. Maybe the newer screens are finer? The berries I used were also picked locally, by a friend who has a raspberry patch. She was cleaning her freezer and gave me all the "last year" berries so she could make room for this year's.

There were not a LOT of seeds left, but I'd say about 10% made it through the berry screen. Blueberries also have tiny little seeds, and the VillaWare doesn't strain those out either. I'd never noticed them but Dad sure does.

Annie

I saw the Big Lots ad this week also, but don't need more jars right now. Got lucky - someone local freecycled a whole big Sterilite tub full of Ball/Kerr jars!

I'm also among those who might or might not have sold some jam, and I might or might not have gotten $5 per half pint for it. The ordinary (but tasty) strawberry and peach jams stay at home, and the tomato jam, paradise jelly, home-made chutney, and similar exotica might or might not find their way to the craft fair. Usually the jars that are taken by endusers find their way back to me, and my sister hands over jars from jams that she buys or is given (by me or others). My usual source for jars is the thrift stores, though - when our local one gets overloaded, they go on half-price special, and I snap them up in quantity.

On a related topic, does anyone know of a web site where I can compare/identify jars from different manufacturers and periods over the last ~50 years? I've got some odd ones which probably aren't real antiques, but I'm curious about them.

I got quite a few quarts and pints from freecycle, but not many half-pints, which is what I use the most. I haven't tried thrift stores. Norfolk is so full of thrift stores that I wouldn't even know where to begin. It is so full that recently they turned down PETA for a new thrift store when they went to get approval for their zoning. I guess I could have "let my fingers do the walking" but I'm weird about making phone calls.

I too find good jars at thrift stores, flea markets and yard sales. I have yet to get jars from Freecycle as everytime I inquire, their already gone. I did score a good haul two weekends ago. I happened across an estate sale with 9 dozen jars, mostly quarts, for $2 a dozen. I took the entire lot and only found 1 mayo jar in the bunch. I'm still running them through the dishwasher a case here and there with our regular dishes and haven't found a bad one yet.

I actually got my jars on freecycle by posting a want - the folks that had them to give away then contacted me. I did post some offers first, though.

I'd also be interested in a website to research jars. Recently purchased 150+ (with more coming from same garage sale) that included bicentennial, Dominion and Anchor Hocking and a few other brands, one stamped 1915...... About half of them are pints - yeah!

Here's a listing of websites for old jars. I'm also member of the Southeast Bottle Club. There's just something about these old jars and bottles that I love.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Jar Collectors Webring

They sure are.. After seeing a few posts here, I went back for the 5th time today and they had the quart regular mouth jars. Nicely boxed in the ever familiar full sized brown corregated cardboard boxes. No crushed lids I hope!

Five times in one day!! That's borderline obsessive, Ken. Do we need to schedule an intervention? LOL

Golden Harvest prices must be going up again. I see that the Lynn, MA Big Lots store has them at $5.49 per box of 8 ounce jelly jars or regular pints. Regular quarts are $6.49 with wide mouth quarts at $6.99. And those are their 4th of July sale prices!

Martin

Martin, those were the South Texas prices too, starting a couple of months ago.

Looks like my local Big Lots sold out of them all at that price. Big stacks of them to begin with, and now just zero. Zip. Zilch.

Of course, they still have four commemorative quarts at 5.00 a pop, but those aren't going too fast.

Got some half pint jars to compare to older ones. Jars in 2005 are different from older GH halfpint jars. 2005 jars are almost ½ ounce heavier, are taller (3/16 inch), and are tapered at the very bottom than older GH halfpint jars. Code 05 appears on 2005 jars.

Not that this affects anything except when you mix the different jars in a canner you will notice the height differential. Lids aren't coated on the inside in 2005.

I would guess that between more glass and the tapered bottom design, the new jars will be more durable than previous years. Don't know if this applies to the 1 pint jars. Prices have really jumped over the past few years.

I was in northern WI at the end of June, taking my visiting Mum to see other relatives. I gave my aunts and uncles and cousins jars of jam, as I did last year. Aunt Ruth asked if Aunt Rachel was giving me jars again (I mentioned it in my Christmas newsletter) and told me that the local thrift shop had canning jars cheap. So I got directions and stopped there on the way home. They had quart canning jars for $.47 and pint jars for $.37. That included mayo jars!

Since I can buy brand new pint and half-pint jars at Big Lots for $.46 each with lid and ring I would have to be insane to pay that much. So my first attempt at thrift shopping for canning jars was a bust, but I did get 3 pairs of shorts for $1 each so that turned out okay. :-)

When we arrived at Aunt Rachel's she already had a bag of jam jars in the kitchen for me, and sent me into the crawl space to find more. So I brought home a lot of jars, pint and quart sized both. Aunt Ruth has since allegedly bought some canning jars for me at a rummage sale and is sending them home with another cousin who lives far away but closer than the 'up north' bunch. And a cousin on her way up to visit others stopped and gave me 3 cases of new 12 oz. jelly jars complete with lids and rings. So that seems to be how I get most of my jars, people I give jam to give me other jars.

Have been visitng relatives, attending Summerfest (World's Largest Music Festival), and harvesting black raspberries so much recently that I haven't had time to read this group. I miss it! Have about a dozen gallon bags of black raspberries in the freezer so far and one bag of destemmed mulberries, that was a real pain. My fingertips are very purple, and sensitive (from the thorn pricks.)

Marcia

Just got back from going to Big Lots on my lunch break for jelly jars. I have lots of quarts and pints but always seem to run out of jellies. This latest round of blueberries depleted my reserve. Anyway, that had plenty of Golden Harvest jelly jars for $5.49 a case. Interestingly, they also had Ball brand jelly jars for $2.99 for a set of 4. I really shouldn't have bought any of these but they have the peach lids and I'm making peach jam this weekend to gift over the holidays.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ball Jar Style at Big Lots

Malon, I always run out of jelly jars too, I guess that's what I give away the most.

Cute lids, though.

Annie

Please forgive if I'm misposting or off-topic. I've come across your messages in my search for info on how to use the 60+ Atlas EZ Seal canning jars a neighbor gave me. I am finding lots of info on collecting, not much on using! I've always made jams the "modern" way with screwtops. Is there a place you folks can point me to, to learn how to use the old-style bail jars?

(p.s. re: the seed-filtering methods, I've used my Victorio strainer the first time this year to remove blackberry seeds, it's been GREAT! I've picked 7 quarts of blackberries so far off the wild patch around the block.) (oy, the scratches!) thanks much--

Sorry, these old jars are nice to look at, but are very difficult to tell if there is a good vacuum inside. With the newer metal lids with the indented dimple, once a vacuum is in place, the lids go concave. With a domed glass lid and rubber ring (yes they still sell those too), you have no sure way of knowing if the jar is air tight, vacuum tight, or has leaked at some point. The only GOOD thing about an all glass jar and lid, is that there is virtually no metal that can corrode or cause any effect on the contents. But without knowing if there is a good vacuum, you risk spoilage, or worse, botulism. I had about 30 cases of these old jars and gave them all away. Now, they are only collectables if they are the green glass type from many years ago. Nice for storing dry goods or beans, but for home canning too risky to use. Sorry..

Agreed, the Villaware with fine holed berry screen makes quick work of seedy blackberries, raspberries, etc. The Victorio model is the older one without a crank shaft seal (leaks a bit while cranking), as it also has wing nuts to hold the conical sieves on the housing. The newer models have a twist one screen helpd by a small thumbscrew, also, they have a wrap around plastic shield the helps to reduce splatter. If you haven't done tomatoes in it yet, your in for a treat..

Hummm, we get the GH jars too, at Walmart, but here in Canada, I have not noticed them being much different from the Bernardin. The covers are on, and yes they are a pain to take off, but I never had one not seal properly, nor a jar brake on me. I buy around 1500 jars a year at this point so maybe the difference is where you buy them. I use my grandma's old jars for the larger sizes (quarts) but only Mason type jars. I have however over 200 old canning one, with the glass and metal top and the snap band. I use those for storing dry goods and they work really well since they still sell the seal. Gotta get myself a Villaware strainer. I am up in arms in blackberries and raspberries.

Marie

When you get that Villaware, be sure to also get the finer holed berry screen. Without the smaller holes, the raspberry seeds and bind and go through the holes. Quite noticable if you use just the regular supplied screen that comes with the VIllaware. That regular one is great for tomatoes however and will take out all the tomato skins and seeds in one single operation. Afer running the product through, I collect the waste thatis forced out the end, and run that through a second time to get out the rest of the liquid. The result is a very dry waste, which can go in a compost pile. The old glass domed lid type jars are great for dry goods, and they still make the rubber rings for them.

Helenore

Mason is generic for this kind of jar. Kerr, Golden Harvest and Bernardin are brand names, and they all make Mason jars. Mason, Kerr and Ball are the names of the gentleman who invented the jar, the two piece cover and the metal cover with a rubber seal, although I am not sure which of the last two gentlemen invented which part of the cover. I have never had any problem with the covers despite them being screwed on, since usually hot water softens the rubber enough to make a good seal. I don't think you will have a problem

Marie

Kerr and Ball and Golden Harvest are all made by the same company now. They are all interchangable as to lids, rings and design. Mason was the inventor of thsi original canning jar, so that name as been used fro quite a long time to describe this shape and style of canning jars. Because of recent packaging changes, all of the jars are now packed with lids and rings screwed on. They do soften a bit once the lids are soaked in hot water. If you still see a few of the older packaging, grab them up. Its an easy thing to replace the rings and lids. I always have a few boxes of spares here just in case. Here, I never see the jars at Walmart, and the BIg Lots will only have these on sale in the late winter early spring. They usually carry the Golden Harvest brand. Right now, I have stocked up long before canning seaon, so have about 12 cases of pints and quarts, as well as lots of pickling lime (don't use much of it anymore, so it will be spreading it in the garden in the fall), and also spices and pickling salt.

I kinda thought that the those names were kinda like "Kleenex" and "Vaseline" - But the actual box says, "Mason" - Oops. I just looked at the box (it's right under the counter I am typing on.)

Guess what? They're Golden Harvest Mason Jars! LOL.

So, the Walmarts in the Twin Cities carry them. BTW, I paid just under $8.00 (I think) for 12 quart jars. Is that a good price? (Obviously not compared with the Big Lots price, but based on the time of year, etc...?)

$8.00 per case of quarts is OK, and is about the same price as a Ball quart jar. Big Lots usually sells the pints of Golden Harvest for about $5.99, and the quarts for about $6.99. I might check BL again soon, but every time I go there I spend too much money on other things.

A few other places to check for jars. The Dollar General carries them where my Mom lives but you need to ask the store manager for them. The jars are not on the floor. Also some smaller chain hardware stores carry them: Ace Hardware & True Value Hardware carry them. all are comparable prices to Big Lots.