Gary has it. I got a large one of these for my wife as an anniversary gift a few years ago. I had to pack the soil down around the roots of the plants I put in it as I filled the pot. I would keep the soil moist so that it bound together as I filled the pot. Since then, I have been toying with the idea of covering each hole from the inside with cheap nylon screening material. I could then cut slits in the screen and place my plant and not have to worry about the soil coming back out. Haven't tried this yet though.

Suzytwo, The lids and rings that come with the jars are the same dimensions as widemouth Ball or Kerr lids. I got them because they were pretty and unusually shaped and I thought they would be very decorative when used on the table. I was just amazed at the jacked up instruction booklet they included for people to use to can with. After hauling them about three miles while walking around San Francisco, no one gets these with their jam in it. At the price of over $18 for six, though, they will be for my eyes only!! hehe! If I can't get people to turn back the Kerr jars, there's no way I'll ever get these back. Elaine

Thanks for all replies! Long post with specific methods & ingredients below! OK, what I did was stick 13 jars on a cookie sheet in the oven at around 200-225. Then, I had the canner heating up and 3 jars in it with some water so they don't float. When simmering, I took the 3 out of the canner and dumped the water into a bowl for the lids--I already microwaved some water for 4 minutes then added the lids & added to it the water from the 3 jars to keep the lids hot. Then I filled the 3 jars, put lids & bands on, and put them into the simmering canner. Then took 2-3 more at a time from the oven and repeated until all were filled and in the canner. I understood what Ken was saying about the flat sides against each other, as well as Shirley's reply--if flat sides touched, they wouldn't curve. But I realized he meant all the flat sides facing each other, as opposed to the corners facing each other or mixed directions. I tried many different ways, thinking it was like a jigsaw puzzle and only 1 way to fit 10, but obviously newer jars only can fit 9, which is a little stupid for fairly new canners! Don't know who to blame--the canner mfr or the jar mfr. How many current pint jars fit in a Mirro brand? Zabby, Annie's Salsa was the thing I made more than anything else this year--I think 41 pints + leftovers (as opposed to 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce as an example, though still have a gallon of tomato puree frozen to use for something.) I used to go thru maybe 1-2 jars of Chi-Chi's salsa per YEAR, but Annie's is so good that I go through a pint per SITTING! I know it's subject to modification, like with the # of jalapenos, ratio of onions to peppers, etc. I have made maybe 5 batches and all came out great and I wouldn't say any 2 were identical! Some I used different types of peppers to get different heat levels, and some I used just the paste and no sauce. All turned out great. This last batch had (for a double batch) about 5 cups mix of Red Bull & Ailsa Craig white onions, about 3 cups total of an Orange Bell, a red-ripe Big Bertha huge sweet bell, 2-3 red-ripe Joe E. Parker NuMex peppers, 1 red Big Jim NuMex, 1-2 brown Eclipse NuMex, 4 red Jumbo Jals, 3 red Primavera lo-heat jals, and 2 Yellow Peru hot peppers. For the black pepper, I doubled it for the double batch, less about a teaspoon, then ground up a dried jalapeno & a dried Boldog Hungarian Spice pepper in a cheap coffee bean grinder from ebay. For a double batch, I doubled the cumin. Half cup canning salt instead of 2/3c. I used 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar and a half cup sugar--I started with a quarter but then figured after the vinegar & chipotle I added another quarter almost. For the paste & sauce, I used 30oz of paste but no sauce, but 24oz of diced tomatoes & it's juices from 1. I only had about 1/4 cup of cilantro left after chopping just the leaves, probably could have used more if I had more, though I can't stand the smell or taste of it alone. I think I realize now that my yield is always less than I expect (even after draining the heirloom tomatoes many times before measuring) because I start heating the salsa mixture before I have the jars and canner ready. I used almost a gallon of chopped tomatoes, plus added 1 drained can of diced tomatoes and 1 16oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice. I think the heating breaks down the diced tomatoes and the water evaporates, thus leaving less. I must be cooking it too long... I ended up with twelve full pints instead of 16, and maybe less than a half cup left in the pot--though the ingredients add up to over 8.5 quarts I think. Next time I'll reverse the procedure and heat the mix up after the canner & jars are ready. I had extra jars ready that I didn't need. As for the Ball Hot Chipotle seasoning, it smelled great when I opened up the packet, but I think a packet only makes like 4 pints or so, so it probably got diluted in a double batch, though it did taste great before I poured it into the jars, but can't say if that was from the Ball seasoning or my pepper assortment & fresh ground chile powder. Mark

The jars, if in good shape with no rim nicks or cracks of any kind can safely be used IF the 2 part lids will fit on them. Many of us use really old jars. Some of us use them only for BWB recipes rather than pressure canning but some will also use them in pressure canning as all you stand to lose is thejar of contents if they don't hold up to the pressure. The lids are another problem. The bail top jars and gaskets haven't been 'officially' approved for decades now because of the questionable quality of the seals. Like many of the other old time methods of canning they fall into the Equipment and Methods No Longer Recommended category. Only the 2 piece flats and bands are 'officially' approved. But some of us who have some of the old bail type jars do still use them for really high acid foods like pickles. Most just use them for dry storage items like dried beans and such. That type of use is approved. Personally I wouldn't trust them in pressure canning or with low acid or border-line acid foods. If you are just getting back into canning after several years it would pay to spend some time exploring the NCHFP website for all the latest guidelines and information. Start with the FAQs there. Dave