I decided I needed to try my hand at canning, so I bought some jars at Big Lots the other day. I paid $3.95 for a dozen regular quart jars (including rings and lids), $1.69 for a dozen rings and lids, and 49 cents for a dozen lids. Was this a good price, or did I get fooled by thinking they were a bargain just because they came from Big Lots?

Now, if I could just find one of those wide-mouth tongs for taking the jars out of the water.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), June 21, 1999

Answers

Pearlie, you got a good price! Jars at other places (in my area) are at least $3 or $4 more per case. Lids are more expensive, too.

Most WalMarts sell the canning tongs now. Try a farm center or big hardware store, too.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), June 21, 1999.

I imagine that they are not Kerr or Ball but Golden Harvest. And they work just as well. Our Big Lots never seems to have canning jars other than the occassional jelly jars. But think I will give them a call today and ask. Anyway...thats a hell of a buy any way you look at it. Good luck with your canning. Its kind of fun and certainly is one of those jobs that give a great deal of satisfaction when done. I always have to leave my jars out for about 3 days just to admire my handiwork. So few jobs in our current life give satisfaction of a *job well done.*

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), June 21, 1999.

Try Goodwill or other thrift stores. Sell quarts for about 15 cents. They may have thousands in back, in piles, because they think no one wants them. Our stores occasionally toss out bunches, I heard.

Cut a (free) apple box down to 7 inches tall, make dividers from the leftover scrap, and you have a case to hold 15 quarts, for $2.25 total. Sometimes they even have rings.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), June 21, 1999.

I have good luck raiding neighbor's glass recycling bins on trash days. canning jars are good items to give away to my GI but poor neighbors, especially found this way, because it keeps folk's preparation momentum up and is friendly.

We are planning a big group canning day or days in our church when the tomatoes come in, also for some of the fruit from the new property. Working together is sometimes harder than just doing the skill, so in itself is a skill to be practiced.

One of our less active members has been giving me all kinds of gardening and info books like canning.... I don't have room, but we are going to make a whole section in the church library for us all to use. yes, we have a physical community right around the church, so it is practical. Important to involve people in the parts they are good at, like this guy is a book buyer as a business. His generosity is wonderful. Of course, this whole forum is an online community and library. thanks, everyone.

-- seraphima (seraphima@aol.com), June 21, 1999.

I used those Golden Harvest jars from Big Lots last year and they worked beautifully. I'd been waiting til they had them again this year - and finally yesterday I picked up a few more cases. They're the best buy around. Pints $3.69/case. !

-- Alene Brandt (thread@nbn.net), June 25, 1999.