Dear Kitchen,
Do you know any place to get wholesale canning jars and lids? I would love to find plain lids.
I love the Ball brand jars, but I abhor those goofy lids with the cartoon fruit baskets on the top.
Thanks,
Margaret
Margaret,
Thanks for your question. I agree with you . . . having a brand name or a cartoon-type image could distract from the perfection of homemade canned foods. I've been hunting for a canning jar source that sold plain lids for a while.
I found Gold Harvest mason jars available, in your choice of plain, bronze or tin lids, at Rural Root. I suggest you also ask at your local kitchen store or hardware store.
If you're here in New York City, The Brooklyn Kitchen should be able to help you. They have a canning section and if they don't have plain jars in stock, they should be able to order them for you.
You can also use the retailer locator on Ball's labels you make on your printer at home. Stick the label right over the offending art.
I wonder if any of our readers might have a template to print these labels?
Happy canning and preserving, Margaret. When you get everything into the jars, let us know and we can do a follow up post about your canning project.
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Try Freund Containers
http://www.freundcontainer.com
Good luck
In NYC, Fish's Eddy has canning jars and lids -- of varying sizes sometimes seasonally (as in sometimes they have them and sometimes they don't -- and I'm not quite sure of the pattern).
Tops grocery in Williamsburg has canning jars.
And the wide mouth jars are far easier to clean and fill than the regular -- I recommend them highly.
How about the 1/2 gallon size jars in LA?
Here in LA, our neighborhood hardware store (Baller Hardware in Silver Lake) carries plain mason jars. Amazon.com also has a number of mason jars and lids.
Bells brand mason jars (as well as other types, I think) seem to be available at all the national big-box craft shops such as AC Moore and Michael's. They are for sale individually or by the case, for about a dollar per jar.
I have purchased canning jars at Albertsons and at Orchard Supply in LA. Neighborhood hardware stores are the best though.
What I would like to find is a canning jar that is not embossed with that "pretty" whatever it is on the side. I want to be able to put a label on the jar itself, this prohibits it.
YOu should be able to find plain old canning jars at any super market or hardware store (you know, the regular kind, not home depot) with plain ol' lids. This is coming from the wife of a pickler, so I should know... ;)
If there is a Container Store near you, the sheer variety of canning jars will astonish you. If not, then there is always their website. I've found French jars, German jars and class American jars there. They are terrific.
Why are they called "mason" jars anyway?
Thanks for all the postings! Especially for fruend and rural root: those were exactly what I was looking for. The problem with the Ball jars that you get at the supermarket is that they have printed cartoony lids! But Freund sells plain lids, which is awesome!
Ball also has a new platinum line....no fruit, new shape http://www.homecanning.com/usa/ALProducts.asp?CAT=498&P=2629
You can also buy them on amazon
I found a place online....www.Fillmorecontainers.com, located in Lancaster, PA which has great prices. They will ship to you.
How about Goodwill or another Thrift store? As the "canning generation" is aging, this seems to be a good place to find "grandma's" canning jars. It's not like the technology behind these has changed a whole lot in 50 years.