It’s canning season! To get in the spirit, Margaret of A Way to Garden and I are hosting a canning extravaganza and giveaway thanks to our newest sponsor, Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply. Giveaway details can be found at the bottom of this post.
Canning is joyful, fun, and creative activity, but make no mistake, it is work. I’m not sure if it is the creative impulse or the fact of the hard work, but all canners inevitably seem to follow a trajectory that begins in hesitation and fear (OMG will I accidentally kill my friends and family!?), and ends in crazed jar hoarding and pimping. Many of you have followed along on this website or social media where I have mentioned the lengths I have gone to to acquire and schlep home pretty jars that I can’t buy here in Canada. For practical and budgetary reasons I still put up the bulk of my wares in the cheapest jars I can find wither thrifted or new, but the fact remains that I want the aesthetics of my handiwork to reflect the quality of the work I put into filling them. I gotta have nice jars!
I’ve tried all manner of jars over the years, and so far the jars that I love and covet most are simply crafted, glass and rubber works of art made by a German company called Weck. I bought my first set of fancy pants Weck canning jars 4 years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. Several boxes later and I have managed to assemble a collection that includes at least one of very nearly every size and shape in their catalogue. The first jars I bought back in 2008 were the larger deco and tulip designs. They are absolutely gorgeous jars to be sure, but I immediately discovered that their awkward sizing and shape makes them difficult to can. I fumbled around over the course of two years, sustaining several minor burns, before giving up and deciding that they would be better used elsewhere.
When it comes to practical applications as well as canning ease my favourites are the Mini Tulips and the straight-sided Mold Jars. They’re great for canning condiments, jellies, and jams, and they are easy to can using standard canning tools.
Fortunately, the jars that are not best suited to canning with standard tools have all sorts of practical applications. I use the very tiniest jars for storing herb infused salts, spices, and seeds. The largest jars are great for making herb or fruit infused vinegars and alcohol as they do not have parts that can be corroded by acid. They also make perfect, stackable fridge storage containers. My favourite use for them is for storing edible flowers and herbs in the fridge longterm. Zucchini flowers only last a day in a normal plastic container, and they will wilt quickly in a typical, metal-topped Mason jar. However, they last for ages in the all-glass Weck jars as do roses, nasturtiums, and even day lilies. They’re genius!
Since our sponsor Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply is offering up cases of six mini-tulip Weck canning jars as prizes, I thought it would be fun to include a beginner level, seasonal jam recipe that would be perfect for this particular jar size. If jam is not your thing, I suggest my Old-Fashioned Tomato Catsup recipe. I do batches of this up every year and the tulip jars are the perfect size. I also do up several of the Mini Mold and Mini Deco jars as they pack just enough for a single-meal serving portion that you can take on a picnic or camping without worrying about leftovers to refrigerate.
RECIPE: Golden Plum and Vanilla Jam
Last year I lucked into Green Gages at the farmers market. This greenish, sweet plum variety is rich and flavourful like honey — the best I have ever had. Unfortunately, they are not easy to come by around here and it had been years since I had them last. It could be years until I find them again. I had a few fresh vanilla pods on hand at the time and while I was hesitant to alter these perfect plums in any way, I took the plunge and added the vanilla. It turned out to be the best plum jam I had made to date.
This summer, a basket of sweet golden plums begged for the same treatment. Having tested this recipe a few times now, I’ve come to the conclusion that their light sweetness is even better suited to the subtle vanilla flavouring.
Please note that this recipe uses less sugar than a typical jam and will turn out softer as a result. Add more sugar if you prefer a firmer set.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 lbs golden plums
- 2 cups sugar
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 vanilla pod, split in half
Prepare the vanilla pod ahead of time by cutting it in half lengthwise and scraping out the seeds with a knife.
Cut the plums in half and remove the pit. You can skip this step if you are using small, Mirabelle plums, but it will demand that you strain or pick out the plums before jarring.
Gently cook the plums and sugar on med-low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla (seeds and pod), increase the heat to medium, and simmer for 10 minutes until the plums are cooked through and mushy.
Pick out the pieces of vanilla pod (leave the seeds) as well as the plum pits if you left the plums intact before cooking.
Turn the heat up to high and bring to a rapid boil to reach set point (220°F), about 10-15 minutes. Remember to keep stirring!! My second batch was much darker than the first because the bottom burned caramelized. I was paying too much attention to the thermometer and did not stir often enough.
Pour into sterilized jars leaving 1/4″ headspace and heat-process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.
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THE GIVEAWAY
THERE ARE 3 WAYS TO WIN, and each of the six winners chosen at random will win a set of six mini-tulip Weck canning jars from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply; a signed copy of “And I Shall Have Some Peace There” from Margaret Roach, and Gayla Trail’s newest book (as a digital bundle): the recipe-filled “Drinking the Summer Garden.” Two winners will be chosen on each of our three websites.
Triple your chances by clicking over to Peaceful Valley’s blog and also to A Way to Garden and do the same there (fine to cut and paste your answers). After commenting below, click over to the Peaceful Valley giveaway, and to the giveaway on A Way to Garden.
All you have to do to enter is answer the question in each of our comments:
Besides for putting up food, what do you use canning jars for? (If your answer is “nothing,” tell us what you can in them, or go ahead and just say “Count me in” if you’re feeling shy. We’re easy!)
Winners will be drawn randomly after entries close at midnight on Tuesday, September 4, and informed by email. Good luck to all, and I hope we’ve inspired you to spend some of your holiday weekend ahead putting up the harvest.
Thanks again to Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply, in the business of providing supplies for organic gardening since 1976, for their support of A Way to Garden and You Grow Girl.
I use canning jars for pickling, for storing dry beans and grains, for juice glasses, for flower vases, for fly traps- seriously I use them all over the place. I am looking forward to taking up canning this season for the first time.
As I’m a New Yorker with a small space, it’s rare that I have any empty jars hanging around. (Picture me carrying 50 pounds of tomatoes across Midtown for canning..) But, I’ve found they come in handy for drinks, pencils, even a stand-in for tupperware. Even a wish jar.
I use canning jars for storing veggies seeds and organizing my desk supplies, since I don’t have a desk drawer.
What don’t I use jars for? Seeds, vases, serving dishes, make-up/cosmetic tool containers and my boyfriend uses them for nails/nuts/bolts etc… in the shop.
We use mason jars for drinking. In summer I fill one with iced tea, put a lid on it, and bring it to work to drink in the afternoon.
I put a cute jar on the table to propagate a beautiful&small plant, so I can check the roots growing during every meal.
I use them to store scrapbooking supplies..like buttons & riboon pieces.
Canning of course… Plus storing stuff in fridge and pantry, taking drinks (iced coffee, tea, etc) on the road. And so much more. Thanks for the giveaway!
Previously, I always used jars to store my grains – because I liked the look on my countertop. But now I’m ready to leave the freezer bags behind and use glass jars for my excess CSA produce.
I like to bring cereal or snacks in mine to work. I drink out of them too. Do those cool recipes like cake or “pizza” in a jar. My son uses them to examine bugs and what not. There’s a kit to turn them into speakers that I want to give a shot too. Versatile lol!
I use them for storing nuts, grains, and spices.
After many years canning, I still have never bought Weck jars because I can’t find them locally. I use jars fro all sorts of things- bouquets, drinks, pantry storage, making liqueurs, candle holders, etc.
Besides using canning jars for preserving (mainly jams!), I use them for everything basically! I use them for storing herbs in my spice cupboard (that way I can buy them cheap from the bulk store), I use them to store my homemade beer nuts or granola (the big ones, of course!), and I use them to make salad dressing. Salad dressing is super easy to make in a jam jar, no whisking, just lots of shaking. I even use the grungy-looking ones in my garage to hold all sorts of knick knacks that would otherwise be loitering on the floor.
Everything imaginable but most of all for canning and seed saving. I love to open a cupboard of the season’s harvest looking like jewels. Beautiful colours all in neat rows. My life can get quite hectic and it calms me to see the fruits of our labours just waiting paintiently for our enjoyment.
I use them as vessels for my lunch, store dry goods, and sourdough starters.
I use them to store dehydrated stuff like squash, eggplant, and hot peppers (not risk of the hot peppers smelling up everything else in the pantry when stored in glass!). They’re also great as spice jars since I buy in bulk.
I use jars for storage, gifts, sweet little portable dessert containers for picnics. They work well for many uses besides all the canning I do. Thanks!
Make and store salad dressing and cooking sauces. Like the ice tea idea.
I use mine for lots and lots. Right now my desk pencils are in 1, dog treats in a blue quart with zinc lid, and 1/2 gallon jar used to fertilize potted Meyer lemon, fig and olive trees (winter indoors). LOVE the look of these Weck jars. Thanks!
As well as a ton of canning and keeping dried herbs, I put salad dressing in the bottom of the large ones and then layer salad in them to take to work for lunch. The salad stays crisp until I eat it and all I have to do is give it a quick shake to mix it up and dump on to my plate.
Please count me in. See you at Copake on the 8th!
I use older style jars for storage and decorating. But since my friend turned me on to Weck, the skies the limti.Veggies, soups, butter. Love that I can put it right on the table and it looks just fine.
We can tons of tomatoes and strawberry jam every year. These jars are so stinking cute.
I also use jar to hold spices and flower seeds.
count me in~ I really want to start canning!
I store everything in them. Keep chopped onions in the refrigerator, store nuts and grains , store birdfood, buttons, extra nails and screws, loose change. . .
I use wide mouth quarts to store my thread…I have about 25 color coded.
holding fabric scraps, buttons and beads. drinking glasses. flower vases. lunch containers. forcing spring bulbs. candle holders. rooting herbs in water. dog treat storage vessels. spice mix containers……
Wow! I would have never thought to store squash flowers… sometimes I’m dissapointed when I come home from work and all I want to make is stuffed zuke flowers… but they’re all wilted for the day! I’m definitely keeping that tip in mind.
[I forgot about lily and rose flowers to be edible! must remember to save a few next time!]
And I didn’t realize that they’re 100% glass… that means I can widen my horizon for storing!!! ?
Currently all I use my ‘canning’ jars for are to store cleaning products, make vinegars, and store my dog shampoo… Oh yeah! Art supplies – the jelly ones are perfect for art brushes! Hee hee. :D
At the tail end of one vacation I inadvertently bought a too-gorgeous to wear pair of black felt slippers each w a huge red poppy on them and when I got them home instead of having buyers remorse immediately put them on display – one each in big separate wreck bell jars (I couldn’t stop myself).
… Did I say wreck (I meant weck) it was auto uncorrected
count me in! i use jars for storing EVERYTHING
What don’t I use canning jars for? They are all over my house: Holding homemade bath salts, keeping craft supplies organized, housing dry goods, and, yea, canning.
Haven’t done any canning, but use the jars for storage of anything the size suits it for. Mason jars are great for bugs, replacing the flat piece with plastic or wax paper punched with holes.
I love making pickles, and when we belonged to a CSA I’d can and preserve extra tomatoes. One of my favorite Christmas treats is making orange marmalade and preserved lemons as presents for friends and co-workers. We also use canning jars to store herbs and dry goods that we buy in bulk from the market like grains, sugars etc.
Oh goodness, I use them for everything! Pastas, rice, oatmeal, dehydrated mushrooms, and homemade laundry detergent in big half gallon jars, homemade taco seasoning, and other spices/mixes in little 4 oz. jelly jars. Pop some frozen fruits, greens, and milk into half pints jars, hook it up to the blender and have a quick, to-go smoothie!
I use canning jars for various things. The latest is to sort out my buttons, wooden cotton reels, safety pins, beads and sewing notions. I have them arranged on the top shelf in my crafting room and they look lovely and it makes it very easy to find what I’m looking for.
I mostly use mine for food but occasionally one will become a vase!
Besides canning? Storing dry food (like pickling salt and dehydrated strawberries and flax seeds, etc.) and storing food in the freezer.
And also drinking out of :)
Water tastes so much better when served in a quart jar, with freshly picked mint, when you’ve been working in the garden all day!
i love to use them as candle holders when we have dinner parties at the large outdoor dining table in our backyard. they look absolutely beautiful and keep the candles from blowing out.
I use canning jars for all sorts of things. I’m an artist so I use them to hold ‘treasures’ found on my walks, paint brush holder, buttons, clips — oh and I use them for canning too!
I know it’s not the most creative answer, but we drink from small ones and put flour/sugar/etc. in large ones–the lids keep out any unwanted intruders! Thanks for the giveaway!
I use them to store spices, especially indian ones like cumin and coriander seeds that come in large bags from the east asian grocer.
I’ve been coveting Weck jars for ages now, but haven’t taken the plunge. I use them for canning tomatoes and apple sauce, storing spices, instead of tupperware in the fridge, to take drinks on the road, and to store dry beans, oatmeal, and all my other bulk purchases in the pantry. Thanks for the giveaway!
I use canning jars on my kitchen counter to hold wooden spoons and things like that! I’ve also used them for a vase!
I use canning jars to store my homemade toothpaste or small crafting supplies.
I use a bunch of older blue ball jars to store dry goods. I also freeze in my jars, but mostly I can food with them. I love to give jam as gifts. This year I’m thinking of doing some face scrubs, these would be perfect!
I use canning jars to store my dry beans and grains, and my beautiful blue glass mason jars make perfect flower vases!
I use them for juices, spices, tomato sauce, and hand cream.
Every year in August I buy a box of canning jars to use as birthday party supplies for my daughter’s birthday parties (best kids drink cups). And then the following year I use them for canning, give them away with jam, and need to buy even MORE jars. The nice thing about Weck is that they are so darned adorable that I won’t give them away, and thus can at least reuse them. :)
Other than putting by food, I use jars to drink out of, to store nuts and grains, to store office supplies, and I make tinctures. Ooh, and I store my homemade deodorant in a small one!
I use them to store dry herbs for now, but next year I want to try canning! Count me in!
Yay, Weck jars! :-)
No need for me to enter the competition for a giveaway! Naturally there are EVERYWHERE in the shops around here – which is Hamburg, Germany – and it’s almost as easy and certainly cheaper to order them online in bulk (though the Weck webshop admittedly is a nuisance).
Thanks nevertheless for pointing out the fridge storage possibilities for flowers and herbs! I never thought about that.
Apart from that, the tulips and molds can be used as outdoor tea light holders. And are fancy for serving desserts like trifles.
I love using them to whip up a quick salad dressing or to bring my yogurt into work!
Drinking glasses – normal glasses don’t stand a chance in our house when compared to the indestructible mason jars. Also, catching small things that we’re collecting, organizing countertops. Even as book-ends when filled with heavy things. As for canning, I’ve yet to convince my hubby we won’t all die of it.
I do make a lot of soft-set preserves. I also use jars for my spices. I usually get the Golden Harvest ones from Canadian Tire, but the Weck tulips look unspeakably gorgeous.
Just used some this morning to make a batch of “Zetta’s Polish Pickles”. My antique ones I use to display things like my marble and button collections or dried goods like beans and pasta. Some I use for dehydrated veggies or foods from the bulk store like raisins and candied ginger. Others I use to display flowers. I LOVE canning jars.
I put everything in my jars. Leftovers, drinks, and flowers (as a vase) for example.
I can never have enough!
I use them as flower vases, to store loose change, and to store specialty flours and grains.
I store all my beans & grains in the big jars, and I use the teeniest jars for freezing my homemade pizza sauce in. They hold just enough for saucing up two pizzas. I also buy my spices in bulk, so tend to have loads of jars filled with various spices. I clip the label from the bag and just tuck it inside the jar so I know what’s what. Would LOVE me some Weck Jars, so please count me in. Thanks!
I’ve never canned a thing in my life, but I’ve never had a garden before this year either. Its something I’ve always wanted to try (barring any complications lol), I think I could be just as successful as I have been with the garden.
You definitely can! I always suggest that new canners start with vinegar pickles because the high acid content feels safest.
This is going to be my first year canning, so I’m really just excited to use the jars for canning at this point!
I use pints for drinking hot tea with my lil girl who is two ;) They are also my to-go cup for juice and ice water, no-spill lids! I like to use to half pints for propagating herbs or storing seeds..and I even use the old baby food jars for putting up ‘refridgerator samples’ of any canning extras that I have made, like apple tomatoe chutney and boysenberry BBQ sauce!
Flower vases. Oatmeal. Extra salad dressing. Spice mixes. Dry ingredient prep before huge bake-a-thons. The list goes on…
I use them to store all my dry goods in my pantry. I also use them in decorating and as vases, I love them!
I only use canning jars to store food, may it be dry or jam. My favorite jam: apple and lemon jam.
I’ve never heard of weck jars before but they do look beautiful and seems to work well since you use them all the time.
Why drinking glasses of course!
Well, I use canning jars for a drinking vessel, vases, storing loose candy like M & M’s, I use one for pouring water into my coffee pot, I put pictures in them for decor. Ideas are endless.
I use my canning jars for dried goods such as raisins and nuts!
I use canning jars for practically everything including canning; drinking glasses, storage for dry goods, taking microwavable food to work, keeping makeup supplies and other things like pens in, a votive holder in my backyard… they’re awesome! And I love picking up the vintage ones from thrift stores.
I like to put my yogurt parfaits together and bring them to work in jars.
flower vases
I use my canning jars for flowers, drinks (have you seen this lid – http://cuppow.com), salad dressing – so many possibilities!
Other than canning, I use them for storing my girls honey, flavored salts and one even holds buttons.
I brew sun tea and exclusively drink it out of my set of old Ball jars, a hand-me-down from my grandma. I also use canning jars for fresh cut flowers from my garden. Love this giveaway and so happy to learn of the other sites. Thanks!
I use em for my coffee! Flower vases! Storing craft supplies!
I like to gift homemade sugar scrubs and other all natural body products to my friends in them.
We store things like nuts, beans, and oatmeal in our jars!
I use my jars as drink glasses, for sprouting house plant cuttings, for growing herbs in the kitchen window, as a pencil jar, for some random marbles that were lying around, storing dried beans and pasta, taking food to a potluck or as a hostess gift, and of course for my multitude of pickles and jams
I use canning jars to keep dishwasher soap on the countertop, refilling it from the larger container under the sink as needed. Handy, and much prettier to look at. That plum jam sounds plumb heavenly.
I’m a little obsessed with canning jars…I use them for storing granola, homemade laundry detergent, dehydrated fruit. And I use them for storing pre-made salads. And for whatever else I have lying around. :-)
Craft items, spices and other small pretties. I like small jars, which limit what I put in them.
My favorite use for canning jars is to fill them with homemade pesto. I wait until I have a beautiful abundance of fresh homegrown basil, then nake the pesto, cover it in the canning jars with olive oil to prevent browning, then freeze. Supposedly the way this works is then, in the winter, I have homemade pesto from my own garden. The way it really works: I eat it in a couple of weeks and have to make more! :-)
I use them for everything around the house. From canning, office supplies, leftovers and hair & makeup brushes.
Mostly food, but also homemade condiments, homemade bath salts, homemade deodorant, fresh flowers, and sometimes candles for decorations.
Canning tomatoes and will be canning pickles and dilly beans also. Love that I have a bumper crop of produce!!
beads, seeds and drinks!
I use them for everything! Pens and pencils, flowers, dry and preserved foods, leftovers, dressings, toiletries, you name it!
I use my grandmothers blue ball jars for decoration in the bathroom. The color is so serene!
Love canning jars! We use them for airtight storage…herbs, dried fruit, grains…my daughter uses her as drinking glasses!
I use canning jars for making sun tea, vases, and food storage in the fridge. They are a great alternative to plastic and handy in so many sizes. Thanks for doing the giveaway!
I use canning jars for nearly everything – canning, of course, but also for pencil holders, containers for organizing cupboards, freezing produce and leftovers, refrigerating and re-heating soup and other leftovers, etc. I also used old blue canning jars (from my grandmother) to hold lilac bouquets at my wedding a couple years ago. I’d never even seen those jars before we started collecting stuff to hold the bouquets, and my mom produced a couple gorgeous boxes of them from a random corner of the basement!
For tea!
I use canning jars for fermenting things and freezing broth, for the most part. I used to use them for storing beans and grains and whatnot, but then when canning season comes around I need the jars for canning, so I use non-canning jars for those items.
Everything … loose change, lunch, as vases, and for general storage.
I have just started dabbling with canning and really enjoy it. Until now I’ve used canning jars for storage. Mostly grains and other bulk foods. Now they’ll be emptied for canning!
colored water on the windowsill … you can make a spectrum using food coloring and different dilutions, and the light that comes in is beautiful
Coffee beans, dried foods, flowers, leftovers…..
Jars to too precious of a commodity for me to use for anything other than food. I use them for cold storage, processed items like tomatoes and dry items like nuts and flours.
Odds and ends of sewing supplies, such as buttons, zippers, thread. I also use my jars as vases for flowers I cut from the garden. Right now, I have seed packages in a large jar.
rubberbands
Excellent
Drinking glasses.
I am new to canning so lots of food going in the jars. I also use them for dry storage, and decorations with dried beans, buttons, marbles, candles and flowers.
Whenever I do canning, I always can tomatoes, tomato sauces, sun dried tomatoes, pickles, soups, jams, green beans, squash.. so many things have the potential of being canned. :-) I also use jars for my crafty beads as well as my sewing needles! Always Super handy to have!
Salad dressing, pickles, flower vases
Like many others, I love glass jars for storing dry goods like beans, oatmeal, specialty flours, etc!
Canning, culturing, storage, drinking from…
I use them for everything! Since buying a set of those plastic re-useable lids I’m addicted. Change, cold coffee, pasta, granola, facial cleaners, dog treats…all is fair game!
i use them for dry food storage, vases, our drinking glasses, canning, freezing, pickling, etc, etc, etc.
I’m a waitress …uh server! and use a large mason jar to collect all my coins waiting to be rolled!
i love canning jars. i have a collection of crown jars that i use for dry food storage. i use regular canning jars for fridge storage, leak proof lunch containers, making flavoured liquor and liqueurs… so many things.
I use them for canning pretty much anything that I can grow in my garden, but they’re great for my knick-knacks too in my bathroom or kitchen!
count me in!
Dried hot peppers!
Drinking glasses, pantry storage of dry goods and in place of yucky plastic containers to take my food to work in ;)
I keep a wide-mouthed quart jar full of washed, torn lettuce (or spinach or other greens) in the fridge. My husband eats so many sandwiches, but won’t use lettuce unless it’s visible and ready to use (no unwashed, whole leaves for him.)
I’m a novice at canning, and I’d love to start out right with these gorgeous jars.
Some friends and I just started canning this year! Great fun. So far we’ve done strawberry-rhubarb jam, solar pickles, and tomato-basil jam. Next we’re going to put up some peaches. I use my Ball jars for all sorts of food storage and fermenting, as well. But the Weck jars . . . those are too special for anything but canning. :)
I use mason jars a lot in the kitchen. A set of small jars for spices fits well in a shallow drawer with the name written on the top. They are great for making salad dressing in, drinking coffee out of, and storing leftover sauce in the fridge. A set of the large ones can also be used for dry goods like pasta, sugar, etc. These jars are beautiful…would love to win them.
I use mine for storing leftovers in the fridge, dry goods in my small pantry. I also use them to bring things to my sisters and mom!
Jam for sure, but spices too maybe.
There are always Weck’s in the fridge, with maybe tomato confit, leftover jam, pickles, macerating fruit. I like to freeze in them as well: I’m always running out. I’m building my collection slowly over time – one day soon, no more plastic in the house!
I use them for canning but also for vases for summer flowers. I have some blue ones that look great with sunflowers.
Not only do I can lots of jams and jellies, but also Asian Plum Sauce and Dutch Spiced Cabbage, to name a few others. I have a deal with several non-canning friends that I will process their excess fruit in exchange for a few jars to keep. I also use canning jars for 1) sprouting chicken treats, 2) counter cannisters, 3) garden lumieres, 4) homemade snowglobes, 5) seed keeping, and 6) tons more uses! The Weck tulips are the prettiest for non-canning uses.
I grow sprouts in big jars, and store buttons in small jars.
I use them for everything they can be used for! Mostly to take lunch to school and work, and storage of all sorts of things, food and non-food. I have a giant quart-and-a-half jar full of buttons, for one thing…
tea and yogurt, storing beans and grains and my son’s potions projects
I love to use them for flower vases, for Saldana dressing, and for storing things all over the house!
Miscellaneous hardware (screws, nails, nuts…)
I like to LOOK at them and I also make StrawRhuPle Jam for Christmas Gifts! (Strawberry Rhubarb Apple)
I use them for salad dressing — ingredients in, shake to mix, store any extra in the fridge!
I use canning jars for everything. Water glass, candle holder, seed saver, soup jar, button jar, spice jar, flower jar, lentle/bean jar the list is endless of what you can do with them. Favorite thing ever.
We use mason jars for drinking. i store my kefir grains and raw milk in canning jars. i also use them for dried herbs from the garden.
We use them for everything. We threw out all of our plastic containers, so know we put everything in glass canning jars. That includes left over food for the refrigerator, plus any flour, sugar, spices, etc for the cupboards. And to help identify what is in each, I just cut a circle out of the box or bag with what it is, or important cooking instructions, and slip it in between the lid and ring. :)
I also use them as flower vases and coin jars. Thanks for the wonderful giveaway :)
Renee
fattybumpkins at yahoo dot com
I use canning jars for storing flour, grains and legumes. I also use them to storing the next mornings breakfast like museli. They are also great for drinking smoothies on the go!
I have been using them to can our harvest of figs and tomatoes. Additionally, I made pesto this year and found that this was a perfect way to store it!
I also love to use canning or any other kind of jars for propagating herbs and flower arrangements.
My husband is a home brewer and he stores his yeast that he saves from one batch and reuses in the next batch in my canning jars.
Seed storing and flower vases
i use jars for storing bulk grains/beans/spices/etc. and i bring a jar of homemade juice to work in the mornings!
I am just getting back into canning (after many years in a school room), so my jars have been used for a variety of things- storing school supplies, drinking from, storing other “stuff” both food and otherwise, and for giving away as gifts (filled with ingredients and recipes).
Don’t currently can, but I do store nails and screws and drip irrigation supplies in a few that I have floating around. Canning does seem like it would be fun though.
I use the small size for saving home-made salad dressings, the large ones for drinking vessels. I made pear jam last year, my first adventure in canning! This year I wanted to make a jalapeno jelly with all the peppers I grew… but the squirrels got to so many of them I didn’t have extras for canning.
Everything from flowers to tea-flour-sugar to detergant. There’s nothing like ice cold lemon aide out of a mason jar.
I put candles in mine
I store dried spices in my extra canning jars, so much prettier and easier to see what’s inside them all.
I put away everything I can (haha!) in the mason jars I have. I’m still a novice canner, though. Last night I finally canned rhubarb for the first time–8 quarts! I also made fireweed jelly this year for the first time since I made it as a child with my grandmother.
As for what else I use mason jars for, the list is too long!
I have actually found that my canning jar is the perfect size jar for sprouting for one!
And I’m really excited to share my collection of canning jars with my best friend to use as centerpieces for her wedding next month!
I buy the small mini mold jars and use them for storing herbs in a drawer. I’ve used washi tape and a sharpie to make labels for them as well – I love them! I also use the bigger jars to store teas in my tea cupboard (I love tea so much there is a dedicated cupboard).
My fridge is full of jars — while there’s still some plastic in my kitchen (I won’t give up ziploc bags), all jars are fair game for food storage. And I used small ones for spices long before I started using them for preserving food. Somehow they haven’t found their way to other parts of the house for non-food storage…
Everything! Drink glasses, paint cups, leftovers jars, paint-brush washers, toy storage, gift containers, pencil holders… :)
I make my morning oatmeal in it and take it to go!
Everything! Right now I have leftover purslane soup, homemade mustard, and chicken broth in my fridge, a shelf full of dried beans, dried fruits and various nuts, and a handful of pens I unearthed from my purse on my desk, all in canning jars.
Dried herbs, homemade soups to be refrigerated, coins, utensil cups, decorations, candle votive…
Transporting my lunch; storing grains & dried beans; serving drinks; packaging gifts; corralling buttons, ribbons, hair beads, art supplies, coins, q-tips, pens, pins….
As I look around my kitchen right now, this is what I see in Ball jars of various sizes:
a “vase” full of basil and thyme and zinnias from garden
fresh batch of iced tea
yogurt
flour/grains/beans/rice/lentils/sugars
mini jar of cumin butter I made
Love the canning jars! (don’t have any of the pretty Weck jars though)
Next year will be my first foray into canning in many years, so I am currently rebuilding my stock of jars and other supplies. In the meantime, I have jars which hold homemade play dough, bubble paints and other craft supplies for my daughter. I also have some jars with various spice blends that I use large quantities of, as well as dried herbs from the garden.
My favorite thing to use canning jars for is making sun tea. Also, the jars make great vases for fresh flowers.
Back when my friends and I went to college we had no cups or mugs in the cupboards. Instead they were filled with mason jars to drink from. Now that I’m older and grow my own organic food, my wife and I use them to make salsa, apple jelly, various jams, and chow (just to name a few).
I just froze salsa in canning jars yesterday.
I have used canning jars to display my collection of seashells; also to store the leftover pieces of handmade soaps that I buy (leave the lid off and they release their scent, great in the bathroom or kitchen).
We use jars around here for everything..from storing food, to change, candy, vases, sprouting seeds. They have also become a collection, starting with blue Ball jars.
I can lots but I also love and big tall glass of ice water in a jar.
I love canning jars for storage too. Quinoa, couscous, homemade sauces to store in the fridge. Heck, even pencil holders for the desk!
i am new to local eating and to canning. so far i have received canning jars as gifts, and then used them to make homemade yogurt cups, and as glasses. i am very excited to begin my new canning adventures this season!!
I store dry goods in them to help prevent weevils. Flour, nuts, beans, rice, I love the way they look in my cupboard, so much neater and easier to find things than with various bags and boxes stuffed on the shelves. I am also looking at using french canning jars instead of the Ball brand type jars when I put up my tomato sauce this fall.
We use them for storing leftovers in the fridge, making no-cook summer porridge, and storing homemade barbeque sauce.
Leftovers from dinner, stored in the frig.
I use a canning jar to corral the coins and buttons I find in the washer after doing the laundry. It fills up really quickly!
bulk storage, button storage, i have one that is all screwdriver drill bits…chalk and crayons…flower vases….making salad dressings…the options are endless.
I use canning jars to brew herbal infusions and to make yogurt.
I grew up using jelly jars as drinking glasses, wondered why others thought it strange. Now I use them mostly for seed storage.
I don’t do any canning but use the jars to hold all kinds of food in pantry, refrigerator, and freezer.
I use them as vases for wildflowers, to store herbs, storing dried beans or lentils. I’m drinking some sun tea out of one right now.
I just made my first batches of strawberry freezer jam and tomato sauce this past summer!
Wine glasses and seed storage, and I currently have one saving Box Tops for Education for a teacher friend.
I use them for pantry storage and for packing my lunch!
I love and collect old/ vintage canning jars and use them to store just about anything. Right now in my fridge I have a quart mason jar of homemade tomato sauce, 2 quart mason jars of kosher dills, 2 quart mason jars of concord grape concentrate, i small recycled glass jam jar of basil pesto, one french cannning jar of pickled beet and baby turnips, 1 recycled planters peanut glass jar with leftover baked beans, I not going to list all the jars in the pantry but nearly all perishable foods are stored in some kind of a glass jar.
I use canning jars for rooting plant cuttings, drinking, storing bulk beans and grains, storing craft supplies. I love them!
tomato sauce, concord grape jam, marmalade, preserved lemons
I love canning jars. I use them to store office supplies and to store snack foods in the pantry (large cans) and as lunch box containers (small jars).
My kitchen is overflowing with jars of all sizes. I can, store dry beans, freeze stock, and send my organizationally-challenged friends home with them. I also like to store oily leftovers in them, since they clean up better than Tupperware-style containers.
I use the jars for many things me and my roommate drink out of them, i can soup, I make salsa and tomato sauce and I use them for seed harvesting in the fall. Actualy i primarly use them for seed harvesting becase i harvest such a quantitiy and its nice to have them air tight
I love canning jar for mini flower arrangements.
I don’t do much canning but do save jam jars and use them to start plants (root) plants. I have some on my window ledge that I stuck red tissue paper on and lined them up to make them uniform. I do like to give wine vinegar as hostess gifts.
Ann
It’s amazing how many things we use them for around the house that I never gave much thought to until faced with this question! Aside from their intended purpose, we’ve used them for moss terrariums (they love the humidity!), pen/pencil holders, storing foraged mushrooms after dehydrating, drinking vessels, seed storing, preparing tomato seeds, as cloches for smaller plants, vases, candle & votive holders…they’re so versatile!
Herbal infusions tea and garlic honey.
Besides pickling, I use canning jars to over winter annuals such as potato vine and coleus.
We use canning jars for holding things in the bathroom like toothbrushes and tubes of stuff. We often use them as vases. Last winter mybdaughter’s 3rd grade class made winter snow globes out of them by gluing little things like miniature snowmen or trees to the inside of the lid then putting glitter or fake snow in the jar (no water) and screwing the lid on and flipping it over.
What don’t I use canning jars for! They make a great storage for leftovers in both the fridge and freezer. I pack trail mix in them and throw them in my purse. I pour my coffee in them to take to work when I forgot my travel mug somewhere. Being a recent college grad, not so well equipped kitchen person, I have even been known to drink a glass of wine out of one. If they have ounce or cup mark lines I use them to measure liquids for cooking. Can’t wait to learn to can more so I can use them for their original purpose.
Everything – I use them for canning and storage…
I love them for things like salad dressings where you want to give them a good shake, or bringing potentially messy foods to work on my bike. Also nice for leftovers, particularly soups.
I use canning jars for taking leftovers to work for lunch, transporting smoothies, soup and tea, storing dried beans, popcorn, rice, lentils etc, storing herbs and spices. I love a good canning jar!
I use my jars to store leftovers, pack a lunch, or drink from. My boyfriend thinks my jar drinks are hilarious, but I think things taste better in glass.
Oh gee- I use them as a portable drink carrier, vase, grain/sugar storage, sourdough starter storage, homemade yogurt storage, and they are also good for mixing stuff in since you can just pop the lid on and shake: salad dressings, mixed drinks, whipped cream and butter all come to mind as past uses!
I love canning jars! I collect old jars and have a beautiful olive green pint jar that was given to me yrs ago. I use the round embossed 1/2 pt jars for wine glasses and pints for water glasses. I use larger wide mouth jars for utensil holders and 1/2 gal jars for sun tea. I use the old jars with gaskets for storing items in the kitchen. Small ones for spices and larger ones for all sorts of things. The window ledges in my kitchen are lined with lots of jars from my collection.
My daughters hairbows and ponytail holders. q-tips and cotton balls. paper clips and office supplies. flowers and maybe an ice cold beverage or 8!
:) the possibilites are endless! and there are some great ideas above! and the jars are just really pretty.
Hi! We use jars for leftovers, lunches for work, water/juice glasses, standing up spaghetti in the cupboard (big excitement when I did that one!), etc. They are constantly popping up all over the place!
I mostly use canning jars for pickles & jam, but occasionally to store dried beans & peas.
What a wonderful give-away!! I use canning jars to store all my beans and grains…as well as for plopping fresh flowers in. One cool, old-looking pint has stones I found when visiting a lake in Michigan long ago. It’s on my kitchen windowsill that I look at several times a day…and remember.
I love using Weck jars when giving food gifts to special people in my life. They always love the food; now, when they get it in a beautiful jar they are just awed! I have hoarded canning jars for the past 25 years and I use the best ones for canning. Chipped jars come into service for storing grains in the pantry, screws in the cellar, powdered detergent in the laundry room, beads in the craft room – they are literally everywhere in my house.
The jars are so pretty and great quality
I use jars for anything and everything, but mostly for storing leftovers in the fridge.
Pretty jars and Herat quality
I use canning jars to store dry food in at the cottage – it keeps the food fresh and the critters out.
I use them for spices, for leftovers in the fridge, for flower vases, for organizing school supplies… all sorts of things!
flower vases, candle holders, dried teas, craft supplies…the list goes on. I love them!
I use them for all my pantry items. When I get home from the grocery store everything gets unpackaged and put in a jar or a larger glass canister—a habit from living with a mouse problem.
Storing pantry items, drinking beer, capturing indoor spiders/bees, tupperware substitute for my lunches at work, mixing salad dressings,…oh and canning. :) Also soon I’ll be making cocktails with my Mason Jar Cocktail Shaker when it arrives within the month!
I use them for storing dried beans. Can’t get enough of them!
I use them for storing dried goods in my pantry.
I use them for dry goods & my grandmother’s heirloom jars are on display in my kitchen.
The question is, what *don’t* I use canning jars for! Storing spices, as bud vases (I love painting them different colors), storing bathroom supplies. I love the many sizes they come in and how affordable they are!
I use them for storing Q-tips and bobby pins in the bathroom.
I store dry beans and grains in jars. :-)
I like to store dry rice in them. Also layered salad for lunch at work .
I use them for dry goods storage including flours, beans, cereal, spices, candies, and pretty much anything that fits.
Wek jars make my jams so much more a present when I give them away. They are truly the gift that keeps on giving.
This week-end, I made a blueberry-rhubarb jam, hot pepper in oil (fridge preserve!) and tomatoes are on the way for next week.
Other than that, I use them to store dried beans, rice, pasta and the such. I find them so nice in the cupboards!
I would use them for storage and for making soy candles. Would love to win them!
I use canning jars to store things I gather and collect: shells, bird feathers, seaglasa, quartz pebbles.
I use canning jars to hold dry goods in the pantry, leftovers in the fridge, seeds, dry herbs, and sometimes iced coffee! Canning jars are the most versatile storage containers out there (and the Weck jars are soooo beautiful!)
I use canning jars to fill with seashells and sand for decoration, as well as putting up food.
Storing leftovers, taking salad to work with my lunch, candles, storage, drinks, dessert dishes, reheating up porridge in.
I use the jars to store flours, seeds, special rice, etc… I like how pretty they are and I love looking at my pantry shelves stocked with jars. Thank you for the giveaway!
My husband uses quart jars to drink his iced tea in the summertime and we use 1/2 gallon jars to brew the sun tea.
I get a warm homey feeling to see jars filled with canned, frozen, or dried foods as we wind towards autumn.
Decoration, comb honey is beautiful to look at.
I don’t have any jars! I gardened with my grandma when I was small, but this year was our first year with a wee garden. We don’t have enough of anything to bother canning it, but we do pick a few gallons of blackberries every summer. There are also two different plum trees in the park (we currently have four pounds of plums) and two different yellow plum trees elsewhere. I’d love to be able to make some jam or plum sauce.
Flowers!
When my beekeeping friend has excess amounts of honey, they suddenly turn into honey pots for me!
Hair conditioner, tea, homemade salad dressing!
I use jars mainly for canning the veggies in my garden…pickled beets, zuchinni relish, tomatoes, pizza sauce and green beans. I use canning jars for growing sprouts too.
My 5 year old uses them for housing insects! We recently watched a green inchworm transform into a butterfly.
I use my jars for lots of things… To store all kinds of homemade concentrates like chai latte and raspberry lemonade. We’ve also used them to make butter with the kids (let the kids shake whole cream until the fat clumps together and seperates from the buttermilk)and I store all kinds of homemade body sugars and scrubs.
I work in a low-income neighborhood,a food desert (in the hood)where I’m advocating for fresh, affordable and accessible produce. I also work to “teach” the residents how to cook – old fashioned cooking and I would use these jars for a canning class.
I used my jars to store my green smoothies and to shake up protein shakes.
I use vintage jars with glass tops and zinc rings for dry goods storage, and also regular mason jars for making yoghurt. Thanks!
I don’t have any jars yet, but my mom just got a canner, so I’d love to take advantage of it.
I can everything but just realized how great weck (and other rubber ringed) jars are recently. No BPA and can be used over and over. Which is good. Cuz I put up a lot every year.
I use old mason jars for drinking glasses, flower vases or pencil holders.
I’ve never canned anything that wasn’t food. I can sweet and dill pickles, tomatoes in various states, pickled okra, pickled peppers, squash relish, fruit preserves, jams and jellies, different salsas/sauces, and chow chow.
canning jars are great for everything. drinking glasses, random assorted container for the random junk i seem to amass, pantry goods…. what aren’t canning jars good for?
Canning jars are all over my kitchen, storing flour, beans, nuts, seeds, pasta, last night’s leftovers, stew, soup, stock, etc. Love them!
No BPA, Yea!
I am using these jars for canning and also for jar pies.
Love them!
I used canning jars to store my gluten free bread mixes in the refrigerator before I’m ready to use them. Thank you for this great give away.
Like so many others here, I use canning jars all over my home. Dried herbs, flavored vinegars and oils, pens and pencils-they all have a home in canning jars. I’m trying to get rid of all the plastic storage containers in my home and canning jars are the perfect replacement.
I use them all over the place – in the cabinet for dried beans and rice, in the frige for leftovers, and even to carry my tea out and about.
Count me in – I need to start canning like my Mom used to do.
other than using them to can fruits and vegetables i use them for vases, my dry beans, flour, sugar etc…. i have a huge two qt jar from my grandmother that i stash loose chance in… oh and another one with marbles…i love canning jars and would love to have some of the weck jars to add to my collection… i love your site… thanks for ALL the info….
I used them to make my candles!
I use them for steel cut oats (prepare a batch on Sunday and then just heat portions throughout the week in the microwave). But I’ve also always wanted to try canning tomato sauce!
Planning, sowing, planting, growing,
Weeding, staking, pinching, pruning,
Harvest time, snacking in the garden,
Fresh to the table or prepped to preserve,
The beauty of Weck is what we deserve.
I love this!
Iced coffee transport!
Yes!
Count me in. I use them for everything, even drink out of them!
I enjoy the havest all year long, these jars are so cute, it makes giving away part of the havest a little extra special.
I use my jars for so many things, but a personal favorite is storing bunny and kitty treats. The bags they come in just don’t hold up and the critters have all learned that treat on glass sound!
we use canning jars for so many things – storing dehydrated food in the kitchen, drinking glasses, carrying lunch to work. but my favorite was as table decorations holding blue hyacinth and white roses on every table at my daughter’s wedding
I freeze more than I can in them. I freeze: freezer jam, herbs in olive oil, nuts and homemade bouillon.
I use big jars in the kitchen to store rice, pasta, grains and flour. Medium ones for pickling vegetables, fruits, storing sourdough starter, honey, homemade yoghurt, butter, goats cheese. Little ones for herbs, salt, spices, and plant seeds.
In the bedroom, I use them to display dried flowers, store old keys, nails, pins, needles and thread.
In the living room the old ones that lost their lids are used for plants, paint brushes, painting, knitting needles, catching flies and spiders.
In the bathroom for toothbrush or candleholders. Mini ones are great for travel, filling them with a few days of shampoo, soap, and creams.
At work, I make my breakfast of muesli and yoghurt in them, store tea bags, biscuits, and stationery.
I love all kinds of jars because of their versatility and sturdy functional look. A great invention! The Wecks ones are in particular very unique in design.
Wow! Is it Christmas? This is a great combo of fun items.
I use canning jars for almost anything; I think that’s why I love them so. I drink out of them, store almost anything (pantry and garage) and catch insects.
I love to give gifts in canning jars. They are so pretty with a beautiful ribbon and instructions for use of the contents. But truth is I use most of mine in food storage and jam and tomato sauce canning. Nothing like sauce made from tomatoes and basil in mid winter – and no additives!!!
I’m just in the planning stages of putting things up so I don’t have any canning jars yet. But everyone here has great ideas. Thanks for the giveaway.
I use canning jars to freeze purees. After cooling, the jars go into the freezer without lids. After freezing, the lids go on.
I use jars to store dried beans, spices and other staples. I use large wide mouth jars for food storage in the fridge and making iced tea. My husband takes his yogurt mixed with fruit or homemade jam in a wide mouth pint jar. I drink water out of a tall narrow jelly jar.
I’m making green tomato chutney today but it’s mostly going in old pickle and salsa jars.
Love jars for fresh flowers, leftovers…and would love to try these jars for canning..which you have inspired me to do! Very nice.
Some times I use jars for vases. I placed sliced lemon in the water and tie raffia around the jar. Looks real pretty with yellow mums.
Love jars for fresh flowers and leftovers…and would love to try canning. Thanks for the inspiration!
I store food and non food items in them measure things with them and drink out of them. I also ferment with them.
The perfect wrapping for a gift from the garden.
For things I don’t want the cats to eat (like paperclips), for drinks on the porch, for flowers, for anything I need to be able to see so I can find it.
I use canning jars for EVERYTHING! Obviously for food storage but I also use them to store spices, dried herbs, coffee beans, rice, etc. I use larger ones for drinking glasses and smaller ones to store jewlery and craft supplies. The options are endless!!!
Everything! So much better than plastic.
I use the small 125ml canning jars to hold my crafting supplies. Beads, pins, buttons and more.
I use jars for sorting out my bead collection, they are so convenient and easy to see what you have. also attractive. mostly i use them for foods on the go. couldnt do without my jars. thank you.
I use jars to store tons of things — beads, knitting needles (a lid-less jar, of course). and for little boquets of zinnias.
Homemade salad dressing!
I use the half gallon size to measure water when making hummingbird feed.
Smart!
I bought these beautiful jars to can my jam and jellies for Christmas gifts!
I can’t imagine life without canning jars!!! I use them for everything! Besides canning & freezing, I use them with my FoodSaver for preserving dry items. I love looking at my pantry with food-filled jars all lined up – reminds me of my mother’s stash of jars in the root celler many years ago. What a treasure! We felt safe & secure knowing that we would be eating from those jewel-toned jars all winter.
I store dried fruit in canning jars.
I use canning jars for everything from nails to pepper jelly. These would be perfect for honey.
Pencils!!
Jars, glass jars, are my preferred method of storing everything; dried herbs, oats and rice and dried beans, sun tea in the fridge and for canning all manner of freshly gathered produce for delicious food all winter and spring until the next summer’s gardens are ready once again. What a thrill it would be to win a collection of these fabulous canning jars.
Kristin
The small jars are great for storing seeds and particularly well-suited for canning hot pepper jelly and chutney for gift giving.
… use the jars , when not using them for canning, as dessert and salad bowls.
I use them for any odd left overs, which get eaten, if I need the jar for canning.
My best memory of an alternative use of a jam jar is when my mother gave my sister and I each a Valentines gift. She cross stitched “Red Hot Lover” on fabric that was put over a bit of old rags and the ring holding the beautiful top. And the jars were filled with red hots. I still have mine with buttons in it, I think.
I store as much as possible in glass. Dried beans, rice, nuts, leftovers, etc. I even made cantaloupe sorbet for the freezer and stored it in glass. I have gotten rid of all the plastic in my kitchen. I am so grateful for the companies that continue to make these jars for our use, especially the ones without harmful BPA in the lids! Thank you!
I use them for homemade salad dressings and then I have some in the fridge whenever I’m in a hurry.
I’ve started using them for a leak-proof way of taking smaller portions of yogurt to work, and they work wonderfully!
for just about everything…pickles, jams, dry goods, rose petals, herbs, nuts and seeds, votive holders…and on occasion when it seems just right, for a glass of wine in the garden
I use jars for storage, that way I can see what is in them and they looks so pretty!
Everything! Dried herbs, flower vases, tea light candles, buttons, crayons, salad dressings, refrigerator sauces & jams, catepillars, rooting cuttings, iced tea . . .
I store grains and beans in larger canning jars. I have some small Weck jars that I use for spices and ground flax seeds.
Wish I could join you and Margaret. Love using jars around the house, they are great for storing just about everything and look good in the process.
I use them for lots of things! I have cough syrup in one, “coffee creamer” in one, and one has recently been drafted to hold the surprises I find while doing laundry. I am getting low on jars though with more stuff to can!
I use canning jars to store everything. I’ve never seen these jars before but they are beautiful and so practical!!!!
I use them for everything, esp. for candles and flowers when not filled with food!
I’m going green, so I plan to use these jars from every thing from serving soup and desserts and use them for storage for all staples and leftovers in the fridge and freezer.
I like to use canning jars to wrap presents – especially pretty nuts and things like that.
I use them constantly! I put craft supplies, beauty supplies, dried foods, macaroni, rice and leftovers in them, use them as vases, candle holders…you name it!
Sometime i use the jars to put citronella candles for the picnic table
Ribbons, as it keeps them from unraveling in my sewing area and looks good on the shelf where I can be reminded to use them. I also use them for feathers, as it keeps them from deterioration, and I like to look at them.
I can in them, store dry goods & leftovers.
I use mine for drinking cups, dried seeds, smoothies, candle holders and my home made body scrub
I’ve never canned anything in my life. But I am a beginning gardener and I remember various canned goodies that various women in my family gifted us with over the years. My favorites by far include the classics: blackberry jam & pickle relish. Obviously, I’m intrigued!
love them use canning jars for everything, they are your everyday wonders
my home is filled with canning jars. I use them as vases, drinking glasses, q-tip cotton ball holders, one holds all my straight knitting needles, creating a quite beautiful bouquet,. button holder, stitch holders for knitting.
I love the look of them, so why not surround myself with them!
Pantry items…dried beans, lentils, split peas…and in the Weck jars they look so lovely. Tomato chutney, homemade ketchup. Leftover smoothies…for afternoon snacks. My button collection. Herbs and spices. I come up with a new uses almost daily.
Rustic drinking glasses!
I use them for so many things (storage, leftover food, my iced coffee base, bath salts) that I went to grab some for fridge oatmeal a couple of days ago and realized — after I canned a few things over the weekend — every single jar is in use. I need to buy more! I wouldn’t have thought it possible.
Besides using these jars for food I use them to store stray buttons that have fallen off. Whenever I need to saw them back on the garment, they are there for me. Also have a handsome jar filled w paperclips on my home desk.
Your jam recipe looks lovely.
I used jars for leftovers, especially soups, and for dry goods storage.
food storage in fridge, no more plastic for us
I’m blessed to leave fairly close to Peaceful Valley and I’m driving up there in 2 weeks. If I don’t win (please let me win) I can maybe get some when I go. Candles and little lanterns are 2 of the things I have used canning jars for.
Everything! Drinking glasses, dry storage, vases, terrariums, spice jars, leftovers, dying…
I have always used jars for holding spices, dried herbs (the bigger the jar, the better!) and for canning. My favorite “canning exercise in art” is making a vinegar jello with layered sweet onions and colorful bell peppers. So yummy and beautiful to look at!
I use canning jars for craft room storage, for holding cotton balls in the bathroom and just for general loveliness!
I store craft supplies in them :)
Other than canning, I use them for storage of dry goods, for storing wet goods in the fridge, as vases, as wine glasses, as just about anything. I love the way they look, and the functionality can’t be beat.
We use them as drinking glasses!
In addition to canning, I use jars for everything from birthday gifts to holding ink pens. I love jars!
Over the years I have used various and sundry sizes of ‘canning jars’ to keep dried pasta, rice, beans, herbs, spices, buttons and other sewing odds-and-ends, stones, shells from the beaches I have walked on. I like to ‘see’ what is in the container so I have a lot of different sizes: some of the larger glass jars hold my knitting yarn ‘leftovers’ just so I can enjoy their colors and textures. When I put together herbals blends as gifts I always put them into a pretty jar. I don’t can [yet] because I have had very little experience, and the times I’ve tried to blanch the beans didn’t turn out so well, but doing them up in tomato sauce … hmmmm, sounds good [and pretty to look at too!] Thanks for the idea, Margaret.
I use canning jars to hold beans and pasta in the pantry. I also like jelly jars to pack yogurt for lunches.
I use them for a multitude of things – from storage to extra glasses when we have guests over, to flower vases. We keep some in almost every room of our (small) apartment – a jar keeps the overflow of pencils, pens and paintbrushes in the living room, one on the dining room table right now with a bunch of forget-me-nots, and one in the bathrooom for our toothbrushes. Plus about 10 in the pantry with this season’s tomato sauce…
Never saw these before. Love the shape. Would use across the front of my desk to organize the clutter. Thanks
grain, bean and spice storage
drinking glasses
flower vase
storing leftovers in the fridge
homemade skin care stuff
the list is endless!
I use canning jars for home ferments (got green beans going now), and for lemonade and iced tea!
Like many people, I use my caning jars for almost everything but canning..because I don’t have the patience to can. :)
My favorite use is for flower arrangements that I give away. Nothin’ says lovin’ like a homemade fresh-from-the-garden flower arrangement (flowers, herbs, leaves, stems, whatever I can find) in a canning jar. However, if I win these Weck jars, they will NOT be used for flower arrangements. I plan to use them to freeze the heck outta some homemade gazpacho!
I used canning jars for many things: storing leftovers in the freezer (masking tape with date & contents on lid), storing dry beans, peas, pasta once the store packaging has been opened, and of course for canning my garden/orchard abundance, tomatoes, salsa, pears, jellies, so far!
I love using my canning jars to store leftover soup in the freezer. It’s an easy way to always have portion size meals ready to defrost and already in a convenient container to bring in to work (and no spills!). More favorite ways are as drinking glasses (especially with a fun label at a party), individual size yogurt parfaits or other desserts, making homemade dressing inside of, seed storage, vases, as a “beaker” when performing experiments with kids, the list goes on and on!
At our house, we use canning jars for drinking out of, canning, storing sauces, and as general tupperware.
Thanks for the opportunity. Nice web site.
I’m relatively new to gardening and haven’t yet reaped such bounty that merits canning, so it isn’t something I’ve been forced to figure out yet. I’m hoping my cucumbers and tomatoes produce enough that I have to research and begin to learn to can and procure myself some canning jars! Thanks for the post. Since I’m hoping to have to purchase canning jars, information on them is a nice thing to read. BTW Your Hams Gelbe are doing well! My husband likes the flavor. I have some more green tomatoes on them growing so if all goes well I could maybe try to save you some of the seeds. I searched everywhere for the variety and only found it with you. I put my pots next to some Sprite tomatoes so I’m not sure the seeds will come true to type. Thanks again!
Looking around my house I see jars holding barley, rice, sugar, makeup, pens and pencils, buttons, scissors, knitting needles. Jars are so versatile!
I would love to try there jars!
I have used some of my jars for vases for my garden flowers, as decoration and storage to house buttons and pretty bits of string. I’ve also used the larger ones as a gift box, holding bags of candy or homemade treats.
Iced offer..yummy!!!!
Susan says:
August 30, 2012 at 7:44 pm
I use them for leftovers in the fridge. I prefer glass to plastic.
Sewing notions
kids’ pencils, pens, rubber bands, scissors!
I use jam jars to keep all of my bulk spices in. I also use large antique canning jars to hold shells/rocks/various bits of nature from each vacation we take. And my most favorite coffee cup is a mason jar with a handle!
We keep our emergency candles in them.
Salsa, chutneys, all sorts of leftovers, coins, flowers, pens, pencils, herbs
For years I’ve used canning jars for random storage but this year I made golden plum vanilla jam, oddly enough last week before I read your recipe! Kismet? :)
I mostly use canning jars for canning (pickles, jams, tomatoes, salsas, relish, etc.) and other food storage (herbed salt/sugar – thanks to Gayla’s books now a mainstay in my pantry, dried herbs, and leftovers). Since I’m nearly self-sufficient in condiments I almost always have an empty canning or two jar hanging around the kitchen waiting to be stored in the basement; they sometimes get pressed into service as flower vases.
I suppose I could use them for drinking (since they’re both functional and adorable containers) and for storing snacks for the car or office. They might even work for button storage (something I sorely lack right now).
Canning jars are my favourite watercolour brush-swishing jars. I once used ordinary tumblers until I inadvertently drank the grinchy-green paint water. Belch.
I use them for dried beans, herbs, and dyes for rug hooking.
I use multitudes of different size mason jars for flower arrangements
I use canning jars to create fairy terrariums with my students.
I use them for all sorts of storage, for sturdy drinking glasses, to keep herbs from wilting in the fridge, for holding utensils, you name it.
I think the better question is what *don’t* we use canning jars for. Never tried Weck so would love a chance at their cute little minis.
I too have become a jar hoarder! I use them for storage of grains, raisins, baking supplies (anything that comes in a plastic bag really), as flower vases, as water bottles at yoga, and occasionally as containers to carry snacks to work (a glass container full of cherry tomatoes from my garden? mmmmm.)
I can sour cherries and peaches, all from trees in the backyard!
Besides for putting up food, what do you use canning jars for?
I like to store my squash seeds for the next years planting in my canning jars, then I hide them in a dark closet. They also make great storage for little glass trinkets, then set them in a sunny window – takes the bite out of the cold winter sun.
paint brushes!
Leftovers!
And honey from my 2 hives.
Salves, infused oils, spices, dehydrated items, tinctures, fermented goodies, weird science experiments, beads, rocks, beans, sprouting legumes, daily drink cups, sheesh the list won’t end! I hope I win!
For dry goods in my pantry and around the house.
I basically use them for everything. I love my jars!
Storage: nuts, seeds, rice, pasta, sugar, beans, flours, left-overs, lunch, hardware. I also use them to tincture herbs and make fruit brandy.
Aside from canning I use my jars to help me budget. I label them and withdraw an appropriate amount of cash each week to put in each jar and that’s all there is to spend!
I use my jars for storing everything from hibiscus flowers to cotton swabs and I never seem to have enough!
I’ve never seen those jars – they are beautiful! I collect the antique ones – my counters are lined with them (one even houses a collection of cicada skins from the last 17 year outbreak!). Extras are used for bringing friends a bouquet for whatever reason!
I use canning jars to store all my craft supplies such as buttons, stickers, yarn, garden packets seeds, twine, glitter and stamps
I use them for storing all kinds of things in the kitchen, from dulce de leche to bay leaves to lentils. Sometimes I drink out of them, too.
I have never heard of these jars before now. I really love the way they look.
I use canning jars for freezing my tomato sauce & jams, and storing dried herbs from the garden.
Besides putting up food in them, I use some for craft supplies – buttons, clothing labels (I love the ones that say “wash me in cold water, don’t agitate me”) – and storing seeds for the garden. The littlest seeds go in paper packets, but bigger, rounder seeds like peas and edamame go in glass jars. I also use them for making flavored alcohols. A quarter cup of dehydrated ginger chips into a quart of good-quality vodka, for instance, makes a nicely dry ginger alcohol for drinking or cooking. This month’s experiment is with vodka over almonds – one jar of roughly chopped raw almonds, another with roughly chopped toasted almonds. I’m looking forward to the results!
I love canning jars, I use them in the office to hold pencils and craft supplies, in the kitchen as tumblers or candle holders. I love to watch for pretty ones in the jam isle and often buy the jam for the jar.
My canning jars store everything from my leftover seeds, to grains, flour, sugar, spices, as well as pickles and jam.
I drink outta my mason jars! Juice, iced coffee, moonshine..whatever. They are my to-go glasses.
My list would be too long —-use them
to store something in every room in the
house! Love these Weck jars!
I use a half-pint jelly jar for a drinking glass (convenient screw top to keep dirt out when in the garden). I also use them for the herbs I dry from my garden. Quart size canning jars are great for homemade yogurt.
I use them for gifts of trail mix and custom baking mixes, flower vases, and for seed storage.
I love to can fruit jams, pickles and marinara sauce! Hope to win :)
I’m keen on using them as little containers for my lunch/snacks! Yogurt + berries fits in just right.
i tend to use canning jars only for putting up food–like jam or umeboshi, or for making yogurt.
I’ve used the jars to store nuts, seeds and the like. Also to drink from as well as for flower vases.
I store all my spices in them, use them to transport smoothies & oatmeal to work, and use the large ones as vases.
Candles! Don’t throw away any jars that have nicks in the top – make candles out of them. The jars are perfect for this because the glass can hold up to the heat!
I store my sugar and spices in them. Easy to see what is in them and easily accessible.
Fermenting! I have cucumbers, daikon radishes, and kombucha fermenting in jars right now!
In addition to using them for hommade jams, I use canning jars in my sewing room to store ribbons, buttons, zippers, etc., and use small ones for use at my chair for hand sewing (made pincushion for the top). Hoping to eventually use them for more canning. Thanks for the giveaway..
I use them to freeze produce and store leftovers. I love their shape.
I use them for my daily green smoothies, but my favorite use of them is for garden-fresh canned salsa. =) I also like to use them for spices and herbs. Thanks for hosting the giveaway! These jars are so pretty.
love the smaller jars for herbs, seasoning mixes I make and experimental recipes
First time canner, long time admirer. I currently love how canning jars make my pantry look organized and pretty.
I store spices in my 1/2 pint and pint canning jars. Also, make my own cat food and freeze portions in 1/2 pint jars.
I’m changing over from plastic to glass so I’d use them for leftovers and also for freezing. And these jars are beautiful!
I use them mostly for leftovers. Also for storing nuts and grains. Count me in!
I use my canning jars not just for canning vegetables from the garden but as drinking glasses and see through containers for my sewing notions.
I put my coffee and cream in a canning jar and it makes the perfect travel mug to take to work with me.
Canning tomatoes, peaches, jams and curds. Making and storing lotions and other homemade sundries. Storing all dried goods, making yogurt in and drinking my coffee from. I don’t know how I ever lived without canning jars!
I keep one in the guest bath with Q-tips + cotton balls.
I canned zucchini relish for the first time this year.
I use them as candleholders.
Sweet basil jam
im in the middle of canning tomatoey things and cucumbers, beets, and hotsauce. Also, if you have any suggestions for recipes to can that have eggplant that would be great! When not canning I use the jars for drinks, flowers, and my knitting and sewing supplies.
I use them for storing bulk pantry items like grains and beans, use them as vases for flowers, store leftovers in them, make kimchi in them, and a hundred other uses. I also test soil for suitability for earthen plasters and cob/adobe (the shake test). In this test, the sand lands on the bottom, the silt is the layer above that, and the clay forms a layer on top or remains in suspension in the water for a long time. It helps give me a picture of what my soil composition is in terms of building. Go to http://www.MudStrawLove.com for more info.
I use them to make individual portions of yogurt oatmeal during the summer months for refreshing on the go breakfast.
I also use them to stores small bolts,nails, etc..
I start cuttings in them; like sweet potatoe slips, we use them as glasses to drink from, I can in them, store leftovers in them, and mix up our goats’ herbal drenches, and I store dehydrated vegetables and fruit in them. They make wonderful vases for cut flowers. We milk our goats into them as the openings are small and less chance of anything falling into them as you are milking. We also store our milk in the larger ones after it has been filtered. They also make good shaker containers for powder, likle Diatomaceous Earth, if you are using the lids that you can punch holes in with a nail. My kids used to use them as a temporary home for fireflies! I guess I didn’t realize how many ways we do use them.
Besides preserves and canning, they are perfect for storing coffee beans, grains, beans and beautiful little things that need a safe place to live.
Home-made yogurt… Dried herbs… Little bouquets from the garden… Leftover sauce… Salad dressings… Eggplant appetizers… Nuts and other snacks we keep on the countertop… To contain drinks… Canning jars rock!
I use them for all sorts of things. Storage of grains, feed jar for my chickens, as well as canning.
We use jars for storing dry staples – beans, flours…… The old blue bail top make wonderful vases….
Canned sun gold cherry tomatoes, sweet 100’s and basil leaves are delicious on pasta, fish, chicken!!
I like to use them to hold my workday lunches in, and to replace plastic food storage containers. These are also quite attractive, too.
I use canning jars for old buttons, pretty shells, and seed packets.
Count me in
Besides canning, I use jars for homemade ghee, small items like buttons, etc., storing seeds, science projects like growing crystals and eggs experiments, and my husband has stolen some for his garage to keep gas-like products and screws.
I use them for everything. Grains, dried beans, pasta, flours and even raw milk.
I use them to take lunch to work, leftovers in the fridge, storing dried herbs, “brewing tinctures”, in the freezer, for beverages on the go and for freshly picked or dried wild flowers on the kitchen counter.
I store grains and other items in canning jars, put flowers in the, drink out of them, use them to mix vinaigrette, to name a few!
I drink out of them but I’ll bet I could also use them for nails, screws, etc. I’d give the Weck jars to my wife.
Besides for putting up food, I use canning jars for storing seeds for the garden, as vases for organic flowers from our local farmer’s market, for slips of paper with words for poetry ideas, for fortune cookie fortunes, for puzzle pieces, for beeswax candles (a number of jars together looks beautiful with sand or water in the bottom of the jars for extra weight and easy clean-up), for sewing notions, for knitting supplies, for laundry soap, as a container for gifts, for buttons, for my dry paintbrushes (with tips upright) and as the water source for my watercolors, for storing cooking spoons and serving utensils in the kitchen, for anything I want to be able to sort and see easily that also looks pretty like sea glass or tiny shells from our vacation. Thank you!
I love to use canning jars as a vase for rustic wildflowers. They are effortless and beautiful. I also use them for food storage, of course, or to keep buttons or other small trinkets.
I have not yet used these particular jars for canning but would love to try them for freezing chives, herbs, as has been suggested. On the other hand, they also appear to be the perfect size for clean water jars for when I paint with watercolors.
i love the jars for canning, drinking from, using as vases. Received my first set as a gift last year and love them. Wanting more shapes and sizes so I can can more. Need to do the tomatoes now and the applesauce.
I use the really tall jars (2 quarts, maybe?) for storing dried beans and rice. The great seal keeps out the bugs! My husband uses a jar and a ring, replaces the lid with cheesecloth, and sprouts beans in the jar.
I like to use canning jars as shaker jars, freezer containers, vases, containers to hold things like cotton swabs, cotton balls, etc. I would LOVE to win these jars.
storing dry food, making yogurt, carrying lunch.
Absolutely everything. Looking around my kitchen right now I am using one for my drinking water, there are several full of dill pickles, my tea shelf has them full of dried herbs, a few hold bottle and pumping supplies for my little guy, a huge one serves as our countertop compost container, and there is a small one of bacon grease. That’s just the kitchen…
Love to make little sewing kits in them for shower gifts.
I use canning jars to hold all kinds of things. Lately, they’ve been holding a lot of fresh-cut flowers.
Tea! I drink several litres of tea a day and I just throw a teabag in a 1L mason jar and good to go. I’m used to holding the boiling hot jar, and once in awhile knit or crotchet myself a new cozy for them. Most people find it odd, but I rarely use anything but mason jars for drinking… wine, water, everything! I even bring an empty jar with me on planes or trains and fill them up with water once on board.
I also use them to transport my leftover lunch to work (microwaveable!), storing dry goods in my kitchen, brewing small batches of komucha or water kefir, and my epsom salts in my bathroom. In the garden I use the very large jars to store my soil amendments (especially stuff like blood meal which the dogs love to eat), certain seeds, and put tea lights in the bottom for an instant candle lantern.
I use them to make others smile ;))
I think these jars would be terrific for gifts from the kitchen…fig jam, coffee sugar scrub, dilly beans. Wish they weren’t so expensive.
I take my dinner leftovers in canning jars to work the next day, so I can just pop the jar in the microwave. Also have some old, blue canning jars that I use for vases, pencil holders, and miscellany holders.
I’ve just caught the mason jar fever and my plans are to use them to make a hand soap pump, drink jar, canning and even to store my homemade dog food for my very fussy lemon beagle. I have frozen soups in them too but have suffered a few shattered jars :(. I just love that you don’t need to worry about BPA etc!
These are the prettiest canning jars I have ever seen. I will order a supply to fill with honey from my hives, salsa from my garden, and dried herbs from my herb patch. And I envision gathering up a mountain of clutter and organizing it in these lovely jars.
I use my canning jars for storing my cold brewed iced coffee, which I make in quart batches, in the fridge.
Besides canned goods I use them for dried foods, herbs, etc. I also use them for hardware, screws, nails, bolts, washers. I make tinctures and oils in them as well.
I use quart sized jars to store homemade croutons.
My husband and I are expanding our garden and looking forward to increasing the amount of food we can. I appreciate the reusable lid on the Weck jars. I use canning jars to store other dry goods and leftovers. I trust glass over plastic to put my lovingly cooked and grown food. :)
Leftover storage!
I love the jars and would use them to give as holiday gifts filled with my yummy pear chutney. I would also fill them with my dried lavender as a potpourri.
I also use canning jars to store homemade cat food in the freezer and also to make sprouts! All I need is clean pantyhose for sprouts and I’m good! The cat food takes a bit more equipment :)
I used them to store [home] roasted and seasoned nuts, seasonings, simple syrups, and leftovers!
Beyond canning and dry storage, I also use canning jars for vases and drinking glasses.
I give canning jars of organic facial mask as gifts during the holidays!
We use canning jars for canning fruit and veggies, storing dry cereals and grains, bringing juice and fruits to work or school, and for storing or collecting everything my 4 year old can find to put in them! She uses them to sort and count her coins and her little rock collection as well.
I often use them for storing left over soup or other hot foods that might break a regular jar. You can also put directly into the microwave with no reservations. I use older jars to put plant cuttings in water to grow roots.
I use canning jars in the fridge to store homemade mayonnaise, leftover tomato paste, and chocolate sauce. I use them to freeze homemade stock and I use them in the pantry for dried herbs I grow and dried things like lentils, nuts, seeds, peppercorns, rice…..
I mostly use canning jars for preserves, pickles, apple/pear butter, etc. I also store any number of things in the pantry, and today I made cheesecake in 1/2 pints in the slow cooker.
I store all of my dry goods in canning jars. My favorite storage though was the caterpillar my 7 year old son found on a leaf. He placed it carefully inside, we poked a hole or two in the lid and over the next few weeks watched its metamorphosis!
Love to preserve anything I grow n pick. Also making berried kefir.
Like the way the berries give it a second fermentation on the kitchen
Counter n tInting it beautiful colors of reds n blues.
Though I use them for canning, pickling, storing rice and dry goods, and homemade spice mixes, there are plenty other ways to use canning jars. Storing craft supplies, stitch markers, and makeup pencils comes to mind. But my favorite non-food use is as feed and water containers for newly hatched chicks!
I use jars to serve this caramel budino. It’s delicious and cute. http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/09/caramel-budino-with-salted-caramel-sauce
Where do I begin with other uses for canning jars…as button jars, storage for pastas, coffee beans and dry bean (the beans are so lovely and it helps inspire me to cook with them), filling them with gifts, holding extra change, to make sun tea in, as votive candle holders, temporary bug cages (for those bees that find their way into the house from time to time…and to store dried herbs in. They are probably one of the best multipurpose items in my home come to think of it.
Love puttin dried fruit & nuts in jars so many good uses I learned more from comments above :-)
I use canning jars to hold baking soda for face exfoilant in the shower, pack dogfood on our trips. I layered a few different sizes with rocks and peatmoss planted small underwater plants and filled with water- these look great on my kitchen table. Also, I have seeds in them from our garden to keep for next year!
I put up my raspberries as jam in antique glass lidded Atlas jars. I’d love some Weck jars to replace the jam jars I’ve given as gifts. They’re beautiful!
I use canning jars to store beans, grains, and sauces.
I use them for display when I find the turquoise and grey coloured ones, vases for flowers and grasses and craft storage – buttons, scraps, quilting pins. For our wedding, we used them as hurricanes with a punched paper sleeve. I have a few large ones tucked away that will eventually be terrariums.
My non-canned uses for jars included storing our homemade chili powders, spice rubs, and dried spices, herbs and seeds. We use them for leftovers in the fridge (I prefer glass over plastic for storage), and as vases for my garden flowers. And be a southerner, we kinda like to drink out of them!
We store anything that will fit. I’ve used them for dry goods in our pantry, to hold silverware at a party, and small hardware in our garage.
besides for food Ive recently started using the jars to make candles
I use my canning jars as vases, to brew tea in the sun and to store all kinds of odds and ends.
My soon to be cooked first batch of pluot jam that’s waiting in the freezer for a spare moment between the horses and dogs (and orchard).
Can’t spare them for anything besides canning. So far this year I have used my jars to can dilly beans, pickled okra, tomato-basil jam, watermellon jam, watermellon rind pickles (they look like jewels to me), pickled rosemary-garlic cherry tomatoes, fig preserves, strawberry fig jam, and bread and butter cucumber, eggplant and squash mix so I could really use some more jars.
Use canning jars for all kinds of things – dry storage, drinking glass, to go cup, vase, outdoor lantern, and of course canning!
We use canning jars for all of our dry goods in our pantry.
I use canning jars for homamade basil pesto and then freeze. It is also great for storing nuts and left over cheese!
Count me in too for the give away I love jars for all uses . Reheating ,storage, mixing salad dressing, seed storage etc., I like these jars no plastic to worry about Love this site.
I have been lusting after these Weck jars ever since I saw them in a small farm store a couple years ago. They are so beautifully shaped. I would use them to make quick pickles (also Chinese pickles, which I love), to keep compotes, preserves, all the standard stuff. Great for salad dressings – put everything in there, shake it up, and go! Or I would use them to steam custards. These little guys would also look lovely as planters for small succulents, or to keep beads or other small crafting supplies. In sum – I LOVE THESE!
So cool! I use my cans to store dry beans and lentils and sometimes to take salads to work. :)
Drinking, soaking seeds and catching japanese beetles and hornworms. Cut flower arrangements
Count me in
craft supplies: beads, buttons, stray ribbon, washi tape :)
We use canning jars for packing lunches into, drinking out of, and storing left overs in the fridge.
I use canning jars for storing homemade bread crumbs in the freezer.
Looking around my kitchen at the moment, I’m using canning jars to store lentils, white beans, wheat berries, freshly ground wheat flour, baking soda (I buy it in bulk), rapadura, rice, oats, and for making sauerkraut, yogurt and kombucha.
Besides canning, I use them for drinking, as a flower vase, and storing buttons and spices.
I use them for so much around my house…
-drinking vessels
-storage for dry foods/goods
-art supply storage
-vases
-leftovers
-easy take-along salads!
What an awesome giveaway! My favorite way to use a canning jar is as a coffee cup, topped with one of these babies: a Cuppow! A re-useable lid that acts just like those plastic lids you get at the coffee shop. I use a teeny 6 oz. canning jar, but if you need more of a kick, go on up to quart size! Here’s the site: http://cuppow.com/
I use my old jars for keeping water when painting pictures with acrylic also to hold paint brushes. When at the coast we add sand and tea lights to our jars to light walk way and steps. Occasionly use for drinking tea or lemonade. Have a few old Ball blue jars with zinc lids to display Parachute seed and other woodland findings!
I give them as presents to get people hooked to caning!!
I give them as presents to get people hooked on caning!!
Besides putting up jams, jellies, pickles, salsa and such in jars, I use them for storing all kinds of things, such as seeds, dried fruit, grains, and buttons. I make mayonnaise and salad dressing and yogurt in them too. I never seem to have enough, especially at this time of year, so I would really love to win some of those beautiful Weck jars.
I use them as drinking glasses and older ones I paint and use for vases around the house!
We use storage jars for dried goods and leftovers and as glasses and to store spices and all sorts of things. I have yet to use them for canning. Maybe next year.
I think the better question is what DON’T I use canning jars for. :) My favorite other use is cold drinks in the summer!
I use canning jars for blackberry jam! My hubby is
the best berry picker ever & i love to make jam
with the fruits of his labours! Lol
I also use canning jars for zucchini salsa & beens
I love putting tea lights in the canning jars that
have fruit& vegi pictures on the glass- looks lovely
on the patio table during warm summer nights
I use them for drinking, as vases, for rooting plants in water, as canisters, holding rubber bands, holding marbles, holding buttons, and oh for canning.
A better question might be what don’t I use them for. I love sipping homemade Montmorency Cherry brandy from the 1/2 pints. Grappa is better in a pint jar and I love filling all the rest with green beans, pumpkin, beets, tomatoes, tomato paste and sauce, salsa, green tomato relish and my hot, spicy barbecue sauce. Count me in on this contest. Would love to add Weck jars to my heirloom collection.
count me in!
I use for storing seeds and then spices. How pretty!!
Besides all of the regular canning, I use canning jars on my counter to keep quinoa, couscous and brown rice handy for cooking. I also use them to keep spices and grains safe from pesky visitors (both winged and four-footed) who like to hang around country kitchens…. I could really use some more good canning jars!
Weck jars are a staple in our kitchen. After spending our first year in the country amazed by the industrious of the sugar ants, we learned that if it’s in a Weck it’s safe! So our cereal, flours, sugars, grains, beans and all manner of dry goods, snack foods and baking supplies are neatly packed into Wecks. And, whenever we are invited to someone’s house, we fill a Weck with our homemade granola and tie it up with a baker’s twine bow. The Weck jar makes it a special gift!
Count me in! I use jars to store most of our dry goods, (old pickled onion jars from the cafe where I used to work are massive and great for storing large quantities of lentils!)
One full shelf holds 18 canning jars of dry goods….beautifully displayed I am more likely to reach for the couscous, barley, wild rice, etc than if they were tucked away where I couldn’t see them.
Pesto as gifts!
I use them for storing dry bulk food (flour, beans, pasta), for drinking glasses, flower vases. Anything!
I use caning jars as mini-vases, plus to hold spare change and pens on my desk.
I use them for gifts of sugar scrubs and for candles on the deck.
Is use my canning jars to store dry ingredients (rice, pasta), keep fast food freebie packets (salt, pepper, mustard,ketchup, salsa),to root cuttings, to store leftovers in fridge, as candle holders. Also, keep jar filled with powdered detergent in RV. Oh, and, of course, for making strawberry preserves for Christmas gifts!
Count me in! I use canning jars to store dry goods – keeps the pantry moths out of my oatmeal, rice, etc. and they look better than boxes or plastic. Also to make salad dressing – shake it in the jar and store it in the fridge. I love to can! I’ll turn out little batches of preserves to give as gifts through the holidays.
When not holding actual preserves, my canning jars still play a large role in my home. Some hold buttons on the craft shelf, some sequester catnip from prying eyes (paws), and (my summertime favorite) some are drafted into holding freshly-squeezed juices and homemade simple syrups. Iced coffee, iced tea, and ‘festive beverages’ just wouldn’t be the same without the ever-useful canning jars!
I make my own spice and herb blands and store them in jars.
Storing anything and everything, bud vases, drinking glasses, you name it!
A jar this beautiful I would have to give as a gift. Place inside the ingredients for a great treat, decorate with a bow, and there you are. Happiness in a Jar.
I use canning jars for everything. Drinking glasses, dry good storage, candle holders, travel containers. They are the most used items in my kitchen.
Just finished canning yellow peppers but freezing mostly. I freeze my peaches in the liquid from my cobbler recipe (water, sugar & margarine). On a cold winter’s night I make up the dough, spread it in my dish and pour the thawed peach mix on top. Quick, easy and delicious. Also use canning jars for leftovers in the fridge, flowers and the old blue ones on my window sill for decoration.
I store soup in the half gallon jugs. Put in the freezer with the lid a bit loose to give room for expansion and then tighten the lid when it is frozen so as not to break the glass. I can later take out the soup, thaw it in the sink, and enjoy it long after harvest/cooking time.
I’m also making fermented green tomato pickles on my counter top. The flavor is unbelievable! It is a flavor explosion in your mouth!!
I use my canning jars for EVERYTHING! Storing leftovers, organizing sewing supplies, flower vases, coin catchers wherever pockets are emptied, sharing food mixes, storage for dry pantry items, and of course canning my tomatoes, jams, pickles, relish, chili sauce, etc. I have a special jar to collect the little rocks I pick up on my walks…
Besides using canning jars for jelly from our native mustang grapes, I also use them for storing raisins, nuts, and other dried foods.
I use them for butons and sewing notions
Besides using canning jars for what they were intended, I use them for hanging garden tea lights, vases for wildflowers and for beverage glasses!
I use them for everything — storing grains, spices, homemade granola and yogurt and pickles. They are the best.
I only use canning jars for food & beverages. Besides canned goods, leftovers, homemade lemonade, making kefir, and storing dried fruit for quick salad toppings.
My number one use is making jams and jelly with strawberry, rhubarb, apricot, peaches, plums, grapes, etc. But also like to use them as glassware for drinking tea, etc.
Besides using canning jars for my homemade pickles, I use them as table decorations with fresh cut flowers, shells, colorful stones and old buttons. I also put candles in them to burn outdoors. Hanging them from trees in assorted lengths as pretty lanterns is another favorite use.
We use them to store finished Kombucha and soups.
I use canning jars for leftover soup. I make a large batch of soup and while still hot fill quart or pint jars, and close. It creates enough of a seal to store safely in the fridge for a week or two.
My favorite old blue Mason jar usually holds flowers or interesting weeds. I root cuttings in them too. I bake mini pies and cakes to give away – homemade salsa as well. They store leftovers, paperclips, ribbon pieces…
I’ve never had Weck jars, but would oh, so love a set! I use canning jars with a Cuppow lid for my iced coffee, fill canning jars 1/3 full with sand and top with a tea light for lighting my back porch, plant small cuttings of herbs, store my shell collection, flower arrangements, and for growing sprouts.
Love the Weck jars and use them to store seeds – fennel, fenugreek, mustard, etc. Homemade 5-spice and other mixes are so nice with freshly ground seeds!
Besides canning and freezing, I use them for dry goods and Maple syrup once the can is opened.
I have just started canning this year in hopes of having some of that peak summer harvest in the middle of winter. I like the idea of reusable jars, rings, and lids. Thanks for the opportunity to win some “healthier” to help with the environment and with keeping us healthy!
Count me in, I’d like to get started!
First, I want to comment that a much easier question to respond to is “What *don’t* you use canning jars for?” So versatile, and these mini-tulip Weck jars are gorgeous! I would use these for gifting – I am sure we have all seen the wonderful ideas for these around the internet and love reading all of the comments!
I have been meaning to try the lovely party sangria starters idea!
For these mini jars I am thinking that I would love to make a centerpiece of individual floating candles for the holiday season… post-holiday clean up (New Year’s Eave party) – guests can take a jar from the centerpiece home. I saw a floating cranberries floating candle jar on the internet that inspired me… I am looking forward to trying that this season!
I love to use canning jars for flowers, especially wildflowers
Wow, I gained a bunch of ideas from the posts! I will add that I use canning jars to store honey from my bees.
I use them for storing anything that will go in them – craft supplies, dry goods, marble and button collection, sun tea brewing and for layering dry ingredients in them for gifts (cookie and muffin mixes).
Right now I have two quart jars on my table, one with a monarch chrysalis and the other a monarch caterpillar munching happily on milkweed.
I use canning jars for MANY things, from keeping buttons, small spools of thread, bobbins, knitting stitch markers, seeds, lavender (for soap making)and home made spice mixes the the large half gallon size I have for interesting finds at my 150+ yr old farmhouse.
Bacon grease!
What a fabulous giveaway! I ADORE Weck canning jars and for years have been pining to have one. Canning jars are useful for a multitude of purposes: canning (dill beans, carrots, and fiddleheads!), storage (homemade yogurt, dry foods, craft and household supplies), and alternatives to plastic lunch containers…
I have used canning jars for refrigerator, freezer, and shelf storage for 40+ years…before it was the ‘thing to do’ and no thought of BPA/ Also have used the antique one for storage in my sewing and craft room! Still collect the antique ones!
I use jars to store all of my dry goods…beans, grains, flours, everything!
I found a bunch of old crown canning jars at a thrift store that have chips and old sealer residue around the tops so these are perfect for all of my dry ingredients!
Haven’t canned in years, and this may be the kick-start I need.
Canning jars also work well for organizing and for using as drinking glasses, or even a vase for flowers.
I use canning jars for dry storage as well as leftovers in the fridge. I use the plastic Bernardin lids for this. I also store home made lotions in them. I have a serious covet for the Wecks!
I think Weck has their own canning tools for their jars so that may solve your canning problem.
I use canning jars for lots of things from canning fruits and veggies, freezing them and storing my herbs from the garden. Would love to try Weck’s jars. Deb
I use the jars for jellies and jams and then give them away to
friends and family. In addition, I sometimes fill them with different colored dried beans and enclose a recipe for “Calico Bean Soup” and take it as a hostess gift when invited to a friend’s home for dinner.
I’d love to win the Weck jars.
I store my spice mixtures, seeds for next year’s garden, and trail mix. We drink from jars. My son is always asking for “milk from a jelly jar”. I use them as treasure jars for my son’s collections of small rocks, acorn caps and shells. We also collect items from a special trip, such as camping, and put them in a jar with a picture from the trip.
Putting up food, drinking glasses, vases, storage (for food and art supplies. There is no better place to keep spare buttons than in a mason jar!), I’ve even baked cupcakes in them!
I use my larger canning jars to store everything! All grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, coffee, tea.. ect. and I drink out of them too.
I use canning jars for canning, storing dried fruits, nuts, flour, sugar, pasta, grains etc. I use the big ones to store cold water, milk and iced tea in my fridge. Sometimes I use jars as vases or candle holders. I even keep my open cannned cat food in one! Keeps it so much fresher than other containers. I’d love to try some Weck jars.
I store dried herbs in the tiniest mason jars
my favorite vase is an old bluish canning jar!
Sugared pecans at the holidays, pesto, pesto, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, organic jelly beans for my grandchildren and garlic cloves. : ) Love them!
I don’t can… yet. i want to make my own sauce!
love to fill my mason jars with delicate little flowers I’ve picked and place them in the center of my kitchen table. It’s so country and makes my house a home. Count me in!!
I use them for storing seed packets,, rooting cuttings, fermenting tomato seeds to save, storing home made dry rubs, and of course, the occasional flower vase :)
I use my jars for my own dried herbs and peppers, sweets and treats from the bulk food store, dried beans, lentils, grains, pastas, and my homemade skin care concoctions.
I use canning jars and other glass or ceramic jars for much of my food storage in an attempt not to buy food or other household items in virgin, one-use plastic. I shop from produce departments and bulk bins for much of my groceries,and I schlep my jars there with me, or use little bags to bring food home and dump the contents into jars when I get there. I provide much of the content for this webpage: http://www.facebook.com/TheBallJarCollective.
Anything and everything! Dry foods and herbs and spices and wet foods for the fridge or freezer. Soups, stocks galore. Teabags, coffee. And instead of a plastic cup for my car I put my coffee & tea to go in a skinny jar with a reusable piece of foil folded over the top with a space to allow for sipping. Vases for flowers! The hinged ones are pretty with the top down. Out of the kitchen and into the bathroom: cotton balls, Q-tips, epsom salts…
I use the jars for kefir, flowers, stock, whey, leftovers, nuts, seeds, sauces…so many things !
I use mine for dye for yarn, when I’ve emptied them and am in between seasons!
All of my dry good are stored in jars, they also make the best travel mug.
My son used them to make a snow/glitter globe at christmas time as a craft project. He filled a canning jar with water and glitter… and mounted a little christmas scene inside the jar. Then turned it upside down to display. Shaking it up… meant glitter falling inside the jar… like snow.. or glitter globe.
I use mine for leftovers and dry goods, and as drinking glasses and vases.
I use jars for all my storage – trying to get away from plastics all together. I do not own a set of this particular jar brand. Would love to try! Thank you.
I use them for grains and legumes. I love using them for buttons too, like my grandmother and mother did. I’d love to win a set and the cookbooks!
Besides canning, I use them for drinking. Especially a big tall milkshake during a heatwave.
Layer cookie mix ingredients in them for gifts.
I cook a lot of Indian food, including the condiments so the morning before a dinner party I like to make my chutneys and raita right in the jar. The nice thing about the Weck jars is that they’re both pretty enough to bring right to the table AND I can can the acidic ones like tomato chutney.
I love old bailing jars for dry goods storage.
I use them for pantry storage of my dried beans,rice, grains etc.
I use them for everything you can think of – but most recently I used my Grandmothers beautiful old Crown jars as centerpieces at my wedding!
I don’t can yet, but I have been getting excited to start once I get back home from grad school in less than a week! Count me in!
I use tiny canning jars for making salad dressing, and large ones for storing dried beans in. They make my cupboards look pretty.
We use mason jars to store almost everything in the pantry, fridge and freezer. I love the look of a votive candle flickering inside a squat jelly jar on my bedside table, or in a blue quart jar suspended in a tree by a simple wire. Last Christmas I gave homemade granola in half-gallon Ball jars, all decked out in pretty red, green and gold plaid ribbons. Orange, lemon or lime zest steeping in grain alcohol, on its way to becoming limoncello or citrus oil, is pretty in a glass jar. Canning jars are also great for homemade bath salts and laundry soap.
Besides canning and pickling I use the largest jars for dry storage of things like coffee and pasta. They get used for rooting plants, drinking glasses, and cheap vases as well.
Everything!!! I make and freeze individual desserts in them. We put personalized “to go” or picnic meals in them. We have even made a mason jar separator for our lunch baskets. I have them in my studio to hold various bobbles and bits that I want to be able to see. I’ve made rechargeable solar lamps out of them. Och! I could go on but needless to say I use a lot of jars.
I love canning jars. I use mine for my water bottle. I don’t go anywhere without a canning jar filled with water. I also use them for candles, dry food storage and making my homemade yogurt in my dehydrator.
Buttons,snaps,hooks and all the little sewing items. Fabric snippets to see all the pretty colors.
I use canning jars for Christmas gifts, filled with ingredients to bake cookies and such. I put up all kinds of veggies from my garden every year too, and they make great gifts too.
Oh canning jars – I’ve been collecting and using vintage ones since I was 19 to store my dry goods and this summer, started using ones missing lids as teallight holders too – wonderful for outside since the flame doesn’t blow out!
I use jars for everything. I put leftovers in them, dry food storage in the pantry to keep out the moths, dry herb storage, in the sewing room to hold scissors etc, in the bathroom for homemade bath salts, canning of course, and my sons think they are the only drinking glasses in the house.
I like the granola as Christmas gift idea. In the past I’ve given spice rubs as Christmas gifts in a small jar. I also like the water bottle idea. This brainstorming list is so much fun – I’m going to review the rest when I have more time.
In the spirit of bachelordom / butchelordom and down right practicality, canning jars make one dandy collection of drinking glasses if ever I did see one!
I have two old blue glass canning jars and I keep beach glass in the bottom. It’s very twee but also calming.
WE use them to keep dry goods like baking chips, coconut, and oatmeal safe – and easy to find in the cupboards.
We use canning jars all around the house–in the pantry, as containers for dry goods; in the fridge, to hold our homemade yogurt and sauerkraut; at the table, as drinking glasses; and of course for canning salsa and tomato paste. I’d love to try the Weck jars–they look great, and I love the BPA free ring!
I love salsa and with my first year of CSA pickup, I find the canning jars really useful.
I use them to store leftover small ammounts of dried beans, legumes and grains.
I use them for anything and everything that requires a jar, including and not limited to making salad dressings!
I also use some for dry storage such as rice, pasta or other grains and beans. Also, never thought to put them in the freezer. Learn something new every day! Cliche but true. Most recently did refrigerator dill pickles for the first time. Am so hoping that they turn out to be delicious.
I drink out of the big ones – my glasses are never big enough for lots of ice water. Also, having just read An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler, I am now storing all sorts of odds and ends that will not be unearthed for months in my little ones. This weekend, though, I took your advice and froze the remaining chives for winter scrambled eggs – they are in a jar in the freezer.
I use them for everything! Drinking out of, storing goodies and school supplies and bathroom supplies. I even have one I use to keep matches dry with a striker on it!
I use them for drinking glasses, leftover sauces, and I root avocado and other cuttings of herbs and such. I also have used for candles & candies in the back yard for parties and for vases at my wedding. God’s grace, peace, light, and love Doreen
I mostly use mine for canning (pickles, sauces, jams, etc.) but I love all the new ideas I’m getting from reading the comments. Love the weck jars! Thanks for the info and the chance to win a few of them!
Beside being used for putting up food, canning jars are the most functional and basic organizing element in my home. A brilliant way to reuse old lids is by painting them with chalkboard paint and using the jars to store dry goods and bathroom items. I am also fond of using them to make items for my greenhouse and garden like garden lanterns and solar jars, planters, mini herb gardens and terrariums.
I have a huge wadrobe and sew. As I haven’t canned in a while, I use the jars to store all the various colored buttons.
I’ve baked individual cobblers in the cute little ones. It worked wonderfully!
I’ve only seen Weck jars in magazines. Don’t know if they are offered for sale here in New England. Would love to add them to my collection. Can’t really ever have to many jars!!
I love using jars to store everything from dried herbs to cereals. It’s so nice to have them displayed on the shelves. Sure makes it easy to find what you need. I’ve also been trying my hand at canning, hope someday to be good at it.
I love using jars to store everything from dried herbs to cereals. It’s so nice to have them displayed on the shelves. Sure makes it easy to find what you need. I’ve also been trying my hand at canning, hope someday to be good at it.
I use jars not just for my canned tomato sauce and jams, but to fridge-store my cooking intermediates–things that I’ve cooked but am too lazy to properly can, and things like syrups that I’ll use a little at a time but within the same season. They keep things more fresh than the rest of my tupperware.
I use them for everything! Storage in the kitchen for dried beans, rice, herbs. Vases and drinking glasses, storage for loose change, etc!
besides canning, here in Kentucky I use canning jars for drinking mint julips with a fresh sprig of mint
I use glass jars to steep aromatic blossoming tea flowers, for home made foot scrub in my shower, for glitzy broken costume jewelry on display, for small terrariums (esp. w/ moss), tilted and somewhat dug in for toad swimming holes in my garden (only in deep shade), and most recently for “fly scram” – fill several jars with water and 3 pennies each, and set around an outdoor luncheon or dinner party.
My wife and I use them for out drinking glasses, sometimes wine glasses too. Plus we ferment in them
Peach jam and stewed tomatoes in the dead of winter is why I can!
I use canning jars for my homemade granola and to store all my nuts and seeds, beans, etc. They look so pretty on my shelf. Can’t wait to try these!
I am going to use some jars for holiday gifts and to store loose leaf tea.
I use canning jars for preserving the veggies I grow (tomatoes, pickles, peppers). I also love making kimchi, saurkraut, tapenade, chutney, etc. I also find the jars handy for storing dried herbs.
I use canning jars for storage of: dry foods, small items, dry items etc. I also make a “gardener’s soap to keep at my sink to wash off hard to get off grime. I organize my bathroom with several sized jars that hold my small items, my toothpaste, my hairbrushes, and my hair curler. I have used them for candles and as vases. I am sure to find other things to use them for also. I believe you cannot have enough canning jars.
I store cough drops and candied ginger in them.
I love my jars! We use them as drinking glasses and for homemade spice mixes, beans, rice, homemade salad dressings, lemon juice face toner, sugar body scrub, leftover sauce and soup, iced coffee concentrate, loose change jar, pencil holder, and oh yeah, canning – jams, pickles, peppers, chutney.
I don’t have any jars yet, but I would love to put some tomatoes, salsa, sauce, and canned pumpkin in them! I need to get me a supply real soon. Thanks for yet another great post!!
(ps count me in please!!)
I bottle my own jam and pickles but I also use Jars to store flower, herb, and vegetable seeds, almonds, sugar, sea salt, vintage buttons, sand and sea shells. Plus many more things! You can never have enough jars!
We’re definitely still in the “will we accidentally kill everyone??” canning phase, but we try to set up some strawberry jam and elderberry jelly every year, as well as some “compost” jelly with the orange and apple peels we accumulate in the freezer. We also use our jars for dry goods and spices – our apartment is too small for a proper pantry, so using the jars for storage makes an attractive display.
Pickling… sofrito…
As well as for canning I use my jars to store coffee beans, and to take my morning coffee out of the house with me. I often take a jar with me to a coffee shop and get them to put my coffee to go in a jar. Also have lots of jars in the cupboard full of dry goods…
Salad dressing! Found some inexpensive and simple recipes I want to try with my children.
They are great for storing seeds and drying herbs!
I use canning jars instead of plastic for leftovers.
Please do not use this email except to let me know I have won.
I use canning jars almost exclusively for backyard produced honey. I’ve always been too hesitant to try canning but this year I have such a huge surplus of a couple of vegetables and herbs that I will be canning my homemade marinara sauce and pesto (*fingers crossed* I don’t poison anyone I love).
There are many uses that I use jars for. Canning, freezing, rooting, catch all, the list goes on and on.
I cold brew coffee in a blue quart jar.
I use canning jars for storing food that I’ve dehydrated. Fruits & veggies waiting to be added to soups, stews, and casseroles… looks so much nicer than ziplock baggies, and less wasteful too, since they are reused!
I will use them for some amazing salt combos and all the great tips you gave us Saturday. Thanks so much for a wonderful workshop and a great day.
Tricia
Love tham I want to get to jamming up my neighbors’ fruits!
I’ve never used them before. I am a pretty new gardener and expect I will need to start canning soon. This will help get me started.
I have used canning jars for years. Canned fruits, vegetables, jams, pickles, drinking glasses, storing bottle caps and other collectables, etc. This year I used them as centerpiece vases for my daughters wedding reception as there was a vintage theme. This Christmas gift giving, I will use them for homemade body scrubs and lotions. I don’t like to use plastic with harmful BPA. Thank you for your informative blog.
One of my favorite displays in a quart-sized jar is my button collection this is both functional and a lovely decoration. I also store spices, seeds and do dads not to mention various preserves to store and give as gifts. I have also been known to use a mason jar as a vase and my kids have been seen using them as glasses.
In addition to putting up food with canning jars I use them as decor accents by filling them with dried seed pods, conifer cones, pretty rocks, etc. from my garden and from walks with my dogs. I add attractive ribbon,copper wire or beads around the neck for an added splash of color. It’s an inexpensive way to brighten up a kitchen window or table.