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| Has anyone else noticed this? A few years ago I got a lot of canning jars at resale shops (yes, I know not to get chipped ones). Now that I've started preserving food seriously, I have gone to about 6 resale shops and have found a total of 5 jars - 3 pints and 2 Weck 100 ml jars, which were a real deal at 99 cents each, perfect jars with the gaskets! I just have to get the clips, and they're cheap from Weck's website.
But I'm surprised that canning jars have become a rarity in the resale shops. I'm not seeing cast iron cookware, and used to see it all the time. A sign of the times? And, at the store where I'm buying boxes of jars, they tell me they sell a lot of them. There is another grocery store across the street from this one, and they have discontinued all canning products. Their loss. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I have a note on my jam jars to return for reuse/recycling and some customers have proudly told me they faithfully put the empties in the recycling bins at the curb for trash pickup (their idea of recycling and yet have no clue what reuse means). Nancy |
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| That's sad, Nancy. But I'm in Houston, and we don't recycle glass here, that was discontinued several years ago, and I'm not sure why. Glass jars are so useful, it's a shame to take them out of circulation. |
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| I've noticed it too, but it's not a 'sign of the times' if you're interpreting it that nobody cans anymore. Just the opposite is true. People watch those outlets for the jars to appear and scoop them up. The prices for new jars are prohibitive and amounts to gouging. Ditto cast iron. It's making a comeback. People have just realised that it's the original 'nonstick' cookware. I cook almost entirely using cast iron and stone ware. |
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| Calliope, what I mean by "sign of the times" is that more people are canning these days and are scooping them up. That's what I suspect is going on, and since the store near me that sells canning jars sells a lot of them, I'm sure more people are canning these days. Ditto with cast iron - it never shows up in resale shops any more, and is hard to find at garage sales, too, which is where I got all of mine. |
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| I live in an area where canning has always been popular, and I've never seen canning supplies cheap at any of the used goods stores. I almost never even see them at auctions or yard sales, I expect family has already grabbed them up. At least they are very easy to come by new - in a town of 14,000 population, there are 5 stores that carry canning supplies year round, and a 6th that carries them seasonally. |
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| My local thrift stores (Goodwill & Salvation Army) price them so high, that I don't bother looking! I am able to buy them locally at Ace Harware stores, Walmart and my grocery store, but I really lucked out when I put a request on my local freecycle. I received 180 quart and pint jars! I had to discard a few chipped ones, but almost all of them were in excellent, if very dirty, condition. The gentleman who gave them to me said he had "collected" them for over 15 years, but had never canned. They had obviously been stored in a shed because of the dirt and spider webs. He told me he'd even tried using some of them for target practice, but they were too sturdy to even break after being hit! On top of that, when he delivered them to me, he had them in the back of his pickup truck, piled up loose! Can you believe they were still good and unbroken? I've dated a few of the older ones to the late 30's and 40's, but nothing valuable and no colors. But I only wanted them to use for my canning anyway. Jill |
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| Jill, what a story! Freecycle is a good idea. I looked at cases of canning jars on amazon.com, and was surprised to find that they are quite a bit more expensive there than at the local grocery stores. |
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| I have inherited my parents old canning jars. I haven't counted them but there are at least 400! A note on the cast iron pots and pans, a lot of people are selling them at scrap yards. The prices on scrap metal have skyrocketed over the last few years. I sell my scrap aluminum and copper, and I have saw piles of cast iron pots and pans at the scrap yard when I take my stuff to sell. Personally, I wouldn't want to buy used cast iron cookware, unless I knew the person that I was buying it from. You never know what may be imbedded in it! I'm speaking from a personal experience. My X-wife took my very old, high $, hand hammered, best in the world, wok to my step sons house to cook some stir fry. She left it at his house, bad mistake! When she went back to get it, it was sitting in his garage, full of motorcycle parts and toluene! |
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- Posted by fusion_power 7b (My Page) on Sat, Feb 4, 12 at 13:19
| Wertach, cast iron skillets are easily cleaned with oven cleaner. Spray the pan with oven cleaner and then place it in a plastic bag overnight. The next morning you should be able to rinse most of the gunk off. If you want to get a bit more technical, build an electrolytic bath. I made mine with a battery charger, a plastic 55 gallon drum, and a sheet of stainless steel. I can clean a cast iron skillet down to the iron surface in about 6 hours for most pans. Once completely clean, I re-season the pan using canola oil. DarJones |
Here is a link that might be useful: electrolytic rust removal
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- Posted by jeanwedding 6 ky (My Page) on Sun, Feb 5, 12 at 15:58
| Yes, so very sad to see that canned baby food is slowly but surely going to******** plastics.........I feel so sad for the innocent babies.... .course-we-all-know-fresh-homemade-is-prob-best... I-try-to-tell-others-about-dangers-of-plastics--they-just-look-at-you-and-say-REA"LLY????" THERE-are-too-many-sheeple-out-there---- Oh,well....... Plus-mfg-are-putting-more="foods"in-plastics...... I-need-to-write-them-and-complain,,,, ,,vinegar-for-example.....I try-to-buy-that-in-glass.....except-for-the-white-vinegar-used-for-household-tasks..... I-bought -some-salvage baby foods jars just to get the jars for some dried food -storage.....like-10cents,and-25cents each... .I-asked on freecycle,etc but others ask-for-them,too... well-found 4 jars last 1/2pints week-at-thrift-store..... Got-a-few-from-elderly-neighbors........bought-some-used-ones-from-CL I bought-quite-a-few-at-end-of-season...... Several-big-box-stores-reduced-what-was-left-in-those-cardboard-big-floor-displays----cause-it-was-prob-too-much-to-fit-on-the-regular-shelves....wide-mouths-lids-were-50cents....a-box Course-it-depends-on-locatioms-and-getting-there-at-the-right-time,too... Now-I-will-jump-off-my-soapbox.....LOL Jean(-who-expensive-keyboard--spacebar-not-working-properly....) |
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| (Jean(-who-expensive-keyboard--spacebar-not-working-properly....)) LOL too funny--Jean, you should have put that first! I was wondering what was up with all the hyphens! Carla in Sac |
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