Friday, August 27, 2010

Wide-mouth Pint and a Half Jars for Canning


Last jar of Crunchy Dilly Beans
It is almost 7 inches tall and 3-1/4 inches in diameter
Jar on left is a Classico Mason Jar for comparison

The Ball wide-mouth pint and a half jars hold 24 oz. with about a 1/4-inch of headspace. The markings on the jars are not very distinct. It looks like it shows 2 c. and 500 ml markings and a fill-to line for freezing (just below where the band rests when it is screwed in).

Last summer I put up some green beans using a recipe from Sunset Magazine
and the result was crunchy, garlicky, dilly beans.

I used some lovely Ball jars from my jar stash that are 1-1/2 pint capacity. They were perfect for green beans and would have been great for asparagus. Of course, they made wonderful spontaneous hostess gifts. Soon I had only a couple of these jars left. I went to my local Ace Hardware stores (and my True Value, OSH, etc) searching for replacements. All winter long I kept checking at likely sources -- hoping to get a jump on the first jars to hit the shelves for canning season. Guess what? These jars are no longer being made. I think I learned this first from the Garden Web Harvest Forum, a great source of information about what to do with the bounty of your garden.

I wrote several letters to people at Ball Corp. and Jarden, the current manufacturer of Ball jars, telling them what a great size this is for beans, asparagus, etc., and what a great gift home preserved food is, especially in their lovely jars. I reminded them that home preserving is experiencing a surge of interest. I told them how much I loved the cute, squat jars in the Elite Collection.

I received this note:

"We appreciate your interest in Jarden Home Brands products. The 1-1/2 pint size jar was discontinued several years ago and our inventory has been depleted. We received several inquires from consumers regarding this size jar. If enough interest is generated, our marketing team would consider bringing this jar back.


Please send them an email at

JHBFreshPreservingInfo@jardenhomebrands.com

It's too late for canning season in North America but who knows, maybe they will surprise us for next year?