Where to get canning jars

[rikkrack]

So after reading Cedar looks to have 1200 jars for canning in the next year I feel I need to stock up. Where does everyone get their jars on the cheap? We currently have about 3-400 but want way more.

I have gotten jars at Goodwill usually 0.50 per jar qt (no lids or rings) and sometimes get the 1/2 off color of the day. Sometimes Craigslist will have a good deal.

Sales at Rural King or Tractor supply when the first come out. Sometimes when the mark them down.

Every year for the last 3 years I have cashed in by getting rings and lids at Rural King and Tractor supply at the end of the season (October-November). I buy ALL on the shelf when a good deal.

Tattler sells in bulk, but having never used them hate to put the $ out for them until I try.

Can you order bulk (read as pallet) from Ball or Kerr? I may try and do a group buy.

Just looking for other options if anyone knows of any.

I would like to double or triple my canning efforts for next year.

[Morning Sunshine]

When I see them on sale it is in August, and it may be 25% off.  Most of mine are from my mom, my older neighbors who are downsizing to pints, or from Freecycle.  I would guess that a bulk order would not be too useful because of the shipping charges for glass (heavy, fragile, bulky).
maybe if you have a locally owned grocery store, you could talk to the manager and see if he will do a large special order for you, and try to get a bit of a discount that way.

now I am curious about the number of jars I have.  I bottle meats and fruits.  Veggies I dry.

[rikkrack]

we do a bit of everything. We haven't started canning meat yet. I do make my own broths and can. Bumper crop of apples this year, and we have apple sauce for a while, as well as pie filling, apple sin light syrup.

We reuse opened jars and lids for refrigerator storage for a short time rather than plastic. 

[Cedar]

now I am curious about the number of jars I have. 

Me too. I might have to take a count sooner than later as rikkrack made me question myself.

Cedar

[rikkrack]

I saw the post stating 2-3000 jars. I would have to get a second garage. Maybe just a storage unit.

"What do you plan in storing in here?"
"The 2-3000 jars of food I canned. I ran out of room in my house."

All the jars we found in grandparents barn (400 or so), unfortunately was 70% unusable. Glass jars and lids from commercial canning, peanut butter, jelly, pickles etc. Couldn't use the majority. Trying to find another use, before taking to recycling center. They saved EVERYTHING.

[Fixit]

If you are going to order bulk you will need to use a broker or at less I did. Ball , Kerr and Golden Harvest are all owned by Jarden corp. I ended up using Shetlers's Wholesale Co. P.o. Box 8, 630 high st., Geneva , In. 46740 . They are plain folk so no phone no website. If your order is over $2850 no freight  charges. Have been buying from them of and on for years and always got go service.
 Current drop ship pricing.
Reg. Dome lids and rings (24dz) $71.75
Reg. Dome lids (36 dz ) $51.51
Wide mouth dome lids and rings (12dz) $49.64
Wide mouth dome lids (36 dz) $74.65
Regular dome lids plain not printed 3132 a case $344.52
Wide mouth dome lins plain not printed 1728 a case $231.73
           Golden harvest  jars
Reg pints $6.72 a case
Reg. Qt $7.72 a case
        Ball jars
1/2 pint reg. $6.50 a case
Pint reg. 6.95 a case
Qt. Reg. $8.05 a case
Pint wide mouth $7.80 a case
1 1/2 pint wide mouth  $7.95 a case of 9
Qt. Wide mouth  $8.96 a case
1/2 gal. Wide mouth $7.90 a case of 6
4 oz. quilted jelly jars $6.70 a case
8 oz. quilted jelly jars $7.45 a case
12oz. Quilted jelly jars $8.61 a case
 And yes they will sale you the 16 oz drinking mugs and little 4 oz shakers also.
Hope this helps.

[rikkrack]

AWSOME!

I live in Indiana so this is a plus! Maybe I can pick up. A guy who came to a few of my classes I teach said he worked in a glass jar factory before h retired. He had all kinds of tips and advice for inspection and selecting used jars and what to look for as far as imperfections and defects to ensure proper sealing. I imagine he worked there.

If no phone, and no website how do you order?

[Fixit]

That's Shetler's address that I gave and you mail them a request for catalog. I am not sure where Ball's warehouse or warehouses are that the drop shipment will come from is.

[Cedar]

You can always get together with a bunch of other canners and make a bulk drop shipment too. That is what I did with my Tattler lids.

I had to leave all my canning jars up in Canada as for room in moving back to the US and also that Canadian lids/jars are a smidgen smaller than US lids, so I get alot of seal fails with them. So 3 years ago I had to start at square one with canning jars and a pantry. On $400 a month income, I bought canning jars when I could, bartered for them, found them on FreeCycle, asked for them on FreeCycle and pretty much anywhere I could find them. I honestly don't know how many I have and now you have twisted my arm to have me figure out how many I really do have. I was almost not wanting to say how many I do have, but I suspect I have at least 700, as 2 years ago I put up 600 jars and I know I have acculumated more since. My goal is not to have a single empty jar next year. My goal after 1,200 is 1,800, then 2,000.

Cedar

[rikkrack]

No need for an exact amount Cedar. But I never thought about doing the math of 3-4 jars a day. We have a family of 6 so may need to figure on the high side. Looking down the road, I need WAY more than we currently have.

Knowing that, I now need to find way more space to store them all. Looks like another year of no cars in the garage...again.

I remember growing up as a kid and going to my grandparents house. It really sucked because there was no places left for hide and seek. Under bed...filled with either craned goods or jars. Every closet filled. Behind couch filled. Didn't understand it until a  few years ago. I am slowly becoming them. My kids complain because all the "good hiding places are full of stuff".

[Cedar]

No need for an exact amount Cedar. But I never thought about doing the math of 3-4 jars a day. We have a family of 6 so may need to figure on the high side. Looking down the road, I need WAY more than we currently have.

No.. there is bulk foods in buckets and dehydrated too. Fresh, root cellar, on the hoof, frozen, commercial canned, not just canned.

Cedar

[rikkrack]

Yup, doing all that doo. Have been dehydrating apples every day for the last 3 weeks. Can always rehydrate for apple sauce, pies, baking etc. Same with other stuff. We have 3 freezers. I would like more canned items in our inventory.

[Fixit]

No.. there is bulk foods in buckets and dehydrated too. Fresh, root cellar, on the hoof, frozen, commercial canned, not just canned.
 So true canning is just one part of a system of food storage and is not as renewable as fresh and on the hoof. It is generally better than commercially canned stuff. Some of my jars are tied up with dehydrated food stores. Rather than vacume sealing in bags I use canning jars so that I can reuse them over and over.
 As for canning meat it just takes longer to can but is not that hard to do. Keep in mind that to get to my place went you turn of the county road you still have 5 miles of what the topo maps call a jeep trail to get to my place . So spring boxes and root cellars are in use . No grid to tie too and if you use a signal booster you can get to bars on a cellphone . I have been there 18 years.

[PorcupineKate]

I have found canning supplies all over the place. 

Lowes tends to clear out their canning supplies in early October.  Last year I found regular sized lids marked down to .17 a box.  The jars tend to go really fast but I have managed to pick up boxes of them for $5.00 a 12 pack.   

Tractor Supply and some local hardware stores will put supplies on sale of clearance them in the early fall.  I do believe Lowes and Tractor Supply  have both run clearance on their canning stuff.  Keep an eye out a Target.  I once found canning tools marked 75% off there.

Craigslist tends to have OK deals on used jars and canners in my area.   I have found better deals at church sales, flea markets, and yard sales.  I usually pick up jars for .25 each. 

Let friends and family know you are looking for jars.   I have had friends grab jars at yard sales and they have brought me boxes of them that they rescued from the trash. 

We had several supermarket stores close in my area this year.  I found canning supplies 40%-50% off. 

Sometimes Ball/Kerr put out coupons in the spring.  They have had by 2 boxes of lids and get 1 free or $3.00 off 2 cases of jars.  These are great to pare  with a store sale.   

[Jack Crabb]

I use Keepa.com (there is also camelcamelcamel.com and some other ones) to monitor prices on Amazon.com and alert me when my price point is hit.

I wanted some quart jars. I looked over the price history for the past year or so and found what was about the lowest point and created an alert. A few months later, the alert hit.

Prime membership got me free shipping on two cases cheap.

[JLMissouri]

 The Dollar General store has the best prices in my area for Golden Harvest canning jars. I am not sure of the current price, as I stocked up a long time ago, but it was cheaper than walmart or anywhere else I could find. I have not had any luck buying used jars as I like to keep mine uniform, and when I do find some of my style they are asking almost new price for them. If I am buying an item used I want it at half the new price or less. I bought new quart jars for $.66, and the used ones are always priced at $.75 with the cheap ones priced at .50.

I think every farmer used commercial recycled jars in the past. A lot of the stuff had the same size lid as canning jars and many were for all purposes the same thing. Books and "experts" say not to use them but everyone did back then. I like uniform jars, so I don't use the recycled jars for canning, and the new glass jars have had the lid size changed to prevent the reuse of the jar for canning. I think it would be a good sales pitch to sell your item in reusable mason jars, but no one does. Here is a good use for the old jars of you still have them:





They make awesome doodad holders. I keep all kinds of parts in them and every size of bolt the local farm store carries.

[The New Mike]

Glass jars and lids from commercial canning, peanut butter, jelly, pickles etc. Couldn't use the majority. Trying to find another use, before taking to recycling center. They saved EVERYTHING.

People will tell you you can't, but you can most definitely use those.  My wife's dad uses every single jar he gets for pressure canning. But I'd say thats a personal choice. You're definitely going way beyond what we're doing with pressure canning. You also live in kind of a different climate than we do, so it doesn't make too much sense to do a ton of pressure canning (lots of energy involved for the output). 3 Freezers... phew... no friggin thanks. We bought a half a cow recently which packed it up between deer from last year and meat we normally keep on stock. I don't know how in the heck you can feel good about having 3 freezers. I already don't like the idea of leaving the house without somebody here (for like a week) because if that freezer goes down and nobody is here to keep it powered... uh oh....

This is one reason why we're looking to get much more into cured and dehydrated meats (i'm sure of which you're already well on your way to). Ben Falk's book talks a good bit about the needs for preservation. His big thing is fermentation, and i'm definitely digging getting into that. Everything during hte growing season he uses fresh, but he grows alot of stuff specifically to store for winter/early spring (in vermont) so he does fermentation and root cellar. He goes on a "rant" against canning, but I think he's mostly getting at not seeing the need to do it in massive amounts, which is why he keeps talking about using it for "treats" (such as hot sauce) rather than bulk caloric intake.

@JLMissouri
Cool! For a moment I had to stop and go... what am I looking at... how on earth are these things suspended in the air..... Oh.... you have the top screwed in... Doooohhh

[Frugal Upstate]

The official opinion I was given on the store jars was that "they are packers jars and only intended for one use--they aren't as thick etc".  I personally feel comfortable using the old mayo jars etc for bwb, but not for canning--just because I hate to lose anything in processing if one actually goes bad.

I haven't really checked prices recently--but I've pinned several companies that sell all sorts of bottles and jars, including canning jars (and some other cool stuff like the little brown bottles for homemade tinctures, ketchup bottles, etc etc etc).  I haven't ordered, but here are the links:

SKS Bottles
and
Fillmore Containers

[rikkrack]

trjg we rarely loose power where we are at. When we move to the country we are getting a walk in freezer and refrigerator on generator back up. We will be selling meats we raise. We have also added additional insulation to the freezers here in the city. We used the freezers before getting and using the canners. We have been throwing in 2L bottles of water when we remove food items to take up the space. We dehydrate a lot as well. we haven't been dehydrating meats though. We have a family of 6 so we try to keep well stocked just in case we need to skip a grocery run. We only go once every 2-3 months.

[TexasGirl]

At last count, I had 900+ with about 20% empties of various sizes.  Where to get deals?  Wherever you find them!  I have never paid full price that I can remember.

Deals:

Our country extension agent routinely has coupons for $2 off each carton of jars.

There once was a local guy selling used jars @ $3/ doz.  Not a great deal because they were filthy.  He had a pile of them.  I went over with a guy friend who asked what he'd take for the pile "as is."  So, for $40 we hauled off two pickup truck loads!  I got half of those.

Tractor supply had wide mouth quarts last year for $5/dozen at the end of the season.

HEB grocery store does a sale each spring for $2 off all jars.  Last spring for a small town grand opening, they ran 50% off all jars for two weeks.  Manager said they sold 7-9 pallets each day.

It's easier to find jars in rural areas than big cities.

~TG

[Morning Sunshine]

I went down and organized my storage room- it needed done badly! - and decided to do a count while I was there.

28dz quarts
12dz pints
10 dz half-pints (which begs the point: is not a CUP = a half-pint?  so why do call the jar a "half-pint"?)
1 dz 2-quarts

So, in all, about 500 jars.  For me, that is enough for now.  Except maybe half-pints, but I have a feeling I will be moving away from those as my family is getting bigger!

[Black November]

We probably have around 300 jars. I recomend only buying wide mouth or regular jars, but not both. We only use wide mouth and never have to worry about lid size or correct vaccuum attachment. Tattler lids are also the way to go. 1/2 pints and pints are the sizes we use the most often. A vacuum sealed pint of rice is the perfect amount for 2 people, and is much easier to rotate that a 5 gallon bucket.

[nelson96]

I recomend only buying wide mouth or regular jars, but not both. We only use wide mouth and never have to worry about lid size or correct vaccuum attachment. Tattler lids are also the way to go. 1/2 pints and pints are the sizes we use the most often. A vacuum sealed pint of rice is the perfect amount for 2 people, and is much easier to rotate that a 5 gallon bucket.

I have to second the wide mouth suggestion. 

[The New Mike]

@Black November
The wife would agree on all accounts. Even  just putting any old stuff in those jars not even for canning purposes. Its just much easier to put stuff like dried fruits in there. She also really likes the tattler lids.

[CraftyGirl]

Tattler lids are also the way to go.

Who else has used Tattle. Every now & then I feel I should jump in and purchase some of these but online reviews have been iffy. I'd hate to go to the expense when the "standard" lids & caps I have do the job BUT that worry of "what if I can't get anymore for a while/ever" creeps into my thinking. Thoughts on Tattler lids anyone?

[LizardGurl]

Who else has used Tattle. Every now & then I feel I should jump in and purchase some of these but online reviews have been iffy. I'd hate to go to the expense when the "standard" lids & caps I have do the job BUT that worry of "what if I can't get anymore for a while/ever" creeps into my thinking. Thoughts on Tattler lids anyone?

I've been using them for about 8 months.  So far, so good.  They've all sealed and continue to hold the seal.  I like the sustainability of them (not needing to buy new lids every time I can).

LG

[AvenueQ]

Who else has used Tattle. Every now & then I feel I should jump in and purchase some of these but online reviews have been iffy. I'd hate to go to the expense when the "standard" lids & caps I have do the job BUT that worry of "what if I can't get anymore for a while/ever" creeps into my thinking. Thoughts on Tattler lids anyone?

From what I have heard, there is a trick to using them. There was another thread around here somewhere with some info about this...let me see if I can find it.

EDIT: Found it. There is a link to this blog post in this thread. Both have some good info about the Tattlers.

[nelson96]

Who else has used Tattle. Every now & then I feel I should jump in and purchase some of these but online reviews have been iffy. I'd hate to go to the expense when the "standard" lids & caps I have do the job BUT that worry of "what if I can't get anymore for a while/ever" creeps into my thinking. Thoughts on Tattler lids anyone?

I just started using them this year.  I have raw packed both tuna and venison.  Not a single one had failed to seal and all I did was follow the 10 easy instructions on the box.

[CraftyGirl]

I've been using them for about 8 months.  So far, so good.  They've all sealed and continue to hold the seal.  I like the sustainability of them (not needing to buy new lids every time I can).

Thank you LG!

From what I have heard, there is a trick to using them. There was another thread around here somewhere with some info about this...let me see if I can find it.

EDIT: Found it. There is a link to this blog post in this thread. Both have some good info about the Tattlers.

OHHHH thank you VERY much Avenue Q. Will pop over there & read....

I just started using them this year.  I have raw packed both tuna and venison.  Not a single one had failed to seal and all I did was follow the 10 easy instructions on the box.

Thank you nelson96. I love that you had no fails!

[never_retreat]

I can usually get them for 10-11 bucks a dozen from the food store.
Can't say I can usually find for much cheaper though.
Never anything on freecycle.
But I'm not as addicted as some others on here I only have a 100 some I guess.