Glass canning jars are absolutely ridiculous here in Belgium. I garden and I am going to scale up my gardening next year, so I need to get into canning and preserving again.
If you live in the US, you could get a 12 pack of standard mason jars in a store for https://www.target.com/p/ball-16oz-12pk-glass-regular-mouth-mason-jar-with-lid-and-band/-/A-12794405 under $15.
Here, any sort of glass jar is no cheaper than 20€ for 6 online and in stores it is often 5-10€ per jar, depending on size!! That is 300% more expensive on the cheap end here. It is not super sustainable to have to spend 200 euros on glass jars to can your extra fruit and vegetables.
Is there a secret to finding reasonably-priced glass canning jars that some people have found? I would reuse glass jars that I get from the store, but you are not supposed to reuse the lids because they degrade and will let in harmful bacteria and let things oxidize.
Why buying new jars if you can reuse the old ones. In my family (or maybe in Germany in general) we use any kind of jar to make marmelade for example. When you buy:
Or anything in a jar you put it in the dishwasher and use it again to make marmelade or whatever you wan’t to put in a jar.
Because jars that commercial food comes in are cost-optimized to the point that they’re too fragile to reliably reuse for canning. (That’s why, for example, the Classico pasta sauce manufacturer says not to reuse those jars, even though they appear to be normal Mason-style continuous-thread jars.)
Also, they usually use lug-style lids that a home canner can’t easily deal with. Canning isn’t just “put food in jars,” you know. It’s about creating an airtight seal in a sterile environment so that the food can be stored long-term without refrigeration. There are actual steps you have to follow to do it right.
I don’t can foods so I’m not familiar with the process but it seems like a waste to throw away the one jars to buy new ones. To tell someone what to do without knowing about the topic isn’t something I wanted to do. I just wanted to bring up the idea that came to my mind.
It definitely is a waste, but companies have spent millions of euros in packaging design to make it that way so you buy more.
It depends on the jar quite a bit. I’ve reused jam jars without issue (for jam). Many of them are quite thick and the lids sturdy. I wouldn’t be using pasta ones though. I agree they’re flimsy.