crown canning jars

Okay, so I was sitting in my back room last night trying to (unsuccessfully) wait out a migraine, and the late afternoon sunlight coming into the room hit a bunch of old canning jars sitting on a table waiting to be repurposed as display jars for my sewing notions.

I picked up these jars - which are so old that the glass is all warped and uneven - at a church rummage sale several years ago. Until recently they held dried beans and grains in my pantry, but I wanted food jars that were easier to clean, and switched them out for new wide mouth litre jars.

I changed the camera settings for the photo below...






















Added Thursday, March 24: I just looked up Crown canning jars online, and found this information:

Canadian Crown fruit jars can be quite common, and were made by several different Canadian manufacturers. A few rare variations do exist, however. If any have ground lips they would be worth more. Sometimes Crown jars have variations in the shape of the crown itself or extra embossing that makes them more valuable. Most of the clear ones from the 40s and 50s are worth about $1 to $3 each.

savon de marseille l'occitane

I bought this L'Occitane soap on Bloor Street and wanted a special dish to put it in. I repurposed a saucer from one of my teacups.

washbasin veggie bowl

I found this enamelled washbasin in a pile of garbage outside a home that was being renovated in my Toronto neighbourhood. The bowl was filthy, but after I got it home and cleaned it up, I loved its beat-up patina - a perfect container for late summer tomatoes.

delftware

I found this lovely little plate at a church rummage sale several years ago. I don't often use it for everyday, but on this particular occasion I wanted something that would complement the golden colour of the roti skins I was using as a flatbread with a meal of curry.

canning jars

I love jars. I avoid plastic food containers like the plague (the phyto-estrogens they off-gas upset my hormone balance), and years ago I started using glass canning jars to store food instead. They can even be frozen, although once in a blue moon a jar will crack in the freezer if the contents expand too much while freezing. (To avoid this if you're going to try freezing food in glass yourself, don't fill the jars right to the top - leave about an inch of space for the food to expand.)

Lately I've been running out of jars everytime I cook something (usually soup) to put in the freezer; on Friday night I went to WalMart (I know, I know, but they have the best selection of canning jars) and bought three sizes: 250mL, 500mL and 1L, all wide-mouth.

Above is a picture of them put away in my pantry cupboard. Yay. Jars. I feel looked-after now.