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

Linda Lou, I wonder if we "scrub" those bumps off? I use a #8 Griswold for most frying and if I need a larger one, I use my Martin Stove and Range Company skillet for which I have a lid. I think the Martin Company went out of business in the early 1940's, having started in the early 1900's. Don't know the year of my Griswold either. But, they have both been around for many decades. In all those years, both have been scrubbed many times with some pretty old fashioned pot scrubbers. "Elbow grease" was never spared at the kitchen sink in the past. Maybe a few thousand scrubs with a steel pot scrubber kinda takes off those bumps. Just a wild speculation. Jim in So Calif

I'm a "bad Master Food Preserver" and Master Food Volunteer. I was taught in both courses the need to boil low-acid foods is still a precautionary measure suggested for "foods not canned according to the recommendations in this publication [Complete Guide to Home Canning] or not canned according to other USDA-endorsed recommendations". Even though the Ball Blue Book follows the USDA standards for their recipes, they don't cover the safety of foods that are NOT canned in Ball/Kerr jars - as it states the the Ball Blue Book (which few people doing home canning read, or realize there is the disclaimer). I still suggest it for all new home canners and older home canners as well; because they all tend to "go-off-the-reservation" when it comes to using tested recipes. If you get in the habit of boiling low-acid food, you won't have to remember was this Aunt LulaBelle's untested recipe, or was this a USDA tested recipe? Was it in a Kerr/Ball jar or a recycled mayo jar? Or as a cover-your-backside because your pressure canner isn't working properly. Home canned foods don't get better with age like wine and cheese. Between harvesting and canning the foods begin losing their vitamins. As much as half of them if it isn't properly stored in a refrigerator before canning. The heating process destroys from 1/3 to 1/2 of vitamins A and C, thiamin, and riboflavin. Once in storage (depending on the temperature of storage) additional losses of those sensitive vitamins are from 5-20% PER YEAR. Old canned goods are more often than not perfectly safe to consume. Although the jar being seal proves nothing other than the jar is sealed, not that there isn't any botulism toxin- another mistake people make. And as already pointed out the color, texture and flavor alter over time - more so on some foods than others. But maybe it's only me - the health nut talking - why would anyone want to consume "dead" food with so little nutrition in it. It's a waste of energy to boil it for 10 minutes - where it loses even more nutrition. But then, I'm a thinker, not a risk taker. I'm inclined to be over cautious when I teach classes - dot all the i's and cross all the t's kinda gal. I want canning mistakes to fall squarely on the home canner, not me as an instructor because I left out the part about boiling low-acid foods. -Grainlady

tbenjr, I use those same Atlas jars regularly. I do find that I have more breakage in the pressure canner, and so tend to use them only for BWB items. I used to love the marshmallow cream jars, they were the perfect shape for salsa, I could dip right out of the jar and they took a wide mouth lid. Now they're plastic, of course. I've also canned in mayonnaise jars, both pint and quart size. If the lid fits, I use it for canning! You have to be prepared, though, for some breakage, because those jars tend to get clunked with a knife while dipping mayo for your sandwich, and be sure to carefully check the rim of the jar, as they become chipped by the same utensils. I haven't really found that the breakage is significantly more than with regular canning jars. Every time one broke I thought "darn it, that's what I get for recycling my jars", but then I realized I get breakage with regular canning jars too, mostly an occasional thermal shock issue when I'm not paying attention or become complacent. For what it's worth, my extension service says it's just fine to use recycled jars. It really is not a safety issue at all, as long as you realize that you may get slightly more breakage. Annie