Monday, March 19, 2007

Choosing Canning Jars for Your Canning Project

When you undergo a canning project, the jars are one of the most important aspects. You want to take everything in consideration in order to allow yourself to do the canning as quickly as possible, as well as store the jars easily. You also want to save money, but you don’t want to purchase cheap jars that will break easily or take forever to can your produce in. If you get stuck with a bunch of sub-standard jars, you will have to deal with it for a while to come, and you won’t be able to reuse them for future canning purposes. So when shopping for jars, you should think about the following factors, and consider these jars as possibilities.

If you have a huge amount of fruit that needs canned, you should look into buying cans that can be quickly sealed. Being able to pop a seal on is extremely helpful when dealing with huge amounts of fruit. These jars might cost a few cents more per piece, but when you are dealing with hundreds at a time you will find that the time saved makes it worth every penny. If you plan to be canning for years to come, you should purchase them in bulk. The more you buy, the cheaper they will be per can. You have to choose a good balance between saving money and overbuying, though.

You can also choose to stick with more traditional jar choices, and get a better deal for the money you pay. The sealing process is usually the same on these standard jars, and takes a bit longer. However, the jars are usually of a high quality, and will keep your fruit fresh and edible for a very long time. If you have a few days that you can set aside for pure canning labor, then these jars are a good choice. But if you have a job that you need to get back to, and too much fruit to handle, then these might prove slightly too tedious.

Once you are an experienced canner, you will be able to know which jars you need immediately. Until then, you will just have to try out a few different brands and begin to experiment with which ones you are most comfortable with. Eventually you will find one that you wouldn’t mind sticking with.

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