stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

2 years ago, i embarked on a test. i kept regular food jars and stored some preps in them along with
oxyge absorbers to pull a seal. i sealed:

2 used pasta sauce jars: tortellini

1 pace picante sauce jar: apple chips

1 walmart salsa jar: dehydrated vegetables

2 old jelly jars: dehydrated apple slices

all of these jars "sealed" with an oxygen absorber. this week, i pulled them out and tested all of the food.

perfect, all of it.

i guess there's really no need to keep buying expensive mason jars when i've been recycling these all of this time. from now on, i'm using all of my old food jars.

you'll only be able to use them for dehydrated food, beans, pasta, etc. (since you obviously can't can with them), but still, it should cut down on some people's prep costs.

fwiw.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2zdpta1.jpg
some of the jars that i used in this experiment

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

Did the lids pop?

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

that the 750 absorber? looks big. Did the same thing with about 30# green coffee beans, have not checked seal yet. Put most in mylar for longterm, wanted some for next year or two, so tried the old mason jar ( mostly spagetti sauce) Only put either 1 0r 2 100cc absorbers in them. Question, when you opened, did it make the pshhhhet sound?

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

yes. for the record, i used 2 or 3 absorbers in each one. you could hear the "woosh" when i opened them.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

don't know the size of the absorbers, they're the ones you can buy off the LDS website.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

I just started saving Spag. sauce jars for this. Do you put jars and lids in the dishwasher or hand wash. So far I have only been putting the jars in the DW, but since the lids don't have rubber, I think they would be safe, and would get even cleaner.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

i ran the jars through the dishwasher twice and did all of the lids by hand. i wanted to make sure the old food got out of the lids little crevices.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

can oxy absorbers be bought local and how do you kow what size to use? thanks for sharing by the way. I have always thought keeping glass jars was a good idea with everyone going to plastic.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

never seen 'em local. they're pretty cheap from lds, $12 for 100:

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs...3%26sortOr%3D1

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

what do you do w/ the OAs that you are not ready to use yet once you get an order of 100? the sight says you can store them in a canning jar, is that what eveyone does when they can't use all of them at once?

that is a good price but I can't tell what size they are

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

yeah, i stick all of them in a mason jar. works good.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

awesome, I have been wanting to move the dry goods to something other than th cardboard box hey came in. thanks for th idea, or rather the motivation. I had thought about it but just not confident it would work so I thank you for the encouragement to try it.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

anyone know the shelf life once OAs are added to dry foods?

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

Chad, thanks for the update, it looks like commercial food jar's lid seal material can hold up for at least 2 years.
Your sanitation precautions were important.. nice work.
Good luck

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

Chad, is that the LDS link you order from? I was trying to find other items to order but can't find the store/dist center link. I looked thru a number of the links on the left but not list of items for sale

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

AgAuGal, try this:

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs...etURLtext=Back to%20'absorbers'%20Search&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. ldscatalog.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2 FCatalogSearchResultView%3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp %3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26beginIndex%3D0%26pageSize%3D200%26searchTerm%3 Dabsorbers%26searchType%3DALL%26sType%3DSimple%26p ageId%3D1%26pageCt%3D15%26sortId%3D3%26sortOr%3D1

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

yes that is the link Chad provided for the OAs, what I am looking for is a link to other items for sale that I can add to the order. I have added my OAs to the cart but want to look for other items.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

found it, it is under the welfare services link. not a lot but some other items to consider. for some reaon I thought they had an extensive list of items for sale. Do they contact you about joining after you register and order from thm?

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

Sorry about the dup. link.

I've ordered a few times from them and never been contacted. I think they assume users to the site are LDS, so they don't bother.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

this looks like a good price for a starter kit

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs...etURLtext=Back to 'Home Storage'&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2F webapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCategoryDisplay% 3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp% 3BcategoryId%3D10002%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26amp%3Bcg1%3D14087%26amp%3Bcg2%3D%26amp%3Bcg3%3 D%26amp%3Bcg4%3D%26amp%3Bcg5%3D%26pageId%3D1%26pag eCt%3D15%26sortId%3D1%26sortOr%3D1

anyone use the water bottle and filters. also looks like a good price for a BOB addition

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs...etURLtext=Back to 'Home Storage'&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2F webapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCategoryDisplay% 3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp% 3BcategoryId%3D10002%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26amp%3Bcg1%3D14087%26amp%3Bcg2%3D%26amp%3Bcg3%3 D%26amp%3Bcg4%3D%26amp%3Bcg5%3D%26pageId%3D1%26pag eCt%3D15%26sortId%3D1%26sortOr%3D1

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

i've ordered from them probably about 20 times, never anything other than that my order shows up. i've bought about 20 of those starter kits and some cases of the red winter wheat. it is all AWESOME.

i'm a huge buyer of those starter kits.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

are you making bread w/ the wheat? I see they also send a recipe booklet so I'm sure it is how to cook w/ the food that comes in the starter kit. thanks for the reco going to order one.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

bought this grain mill off ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Victorio-HAND-GR...ht_2695wt_1165

we make homemade bread with the wheat. it's also good as hot cereal. :emotions16:

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

Everything on your list ( and a whole lot more ) we make at home, so there are no jars of stuff bought....I just looked in the fridge and the only commercial jars were a small one of sweet pickles my wife likes and we've not been able to duplicate, and some small jars of mustard/horseradish/etc....we use virtually nothing from the store that comes in glass.

As for mason jars, got probably 100 cases of various sizes from 1/2 pint to 1/2 gallon, with most being wide mouth quart. ( I plan to get a 5x7 room in the new garage addition JUST for empty jar storage, and get a closer handle on exactly how many we do have....)

Figuring they last about forever, the cost of the jar itself is quite low.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

i hope to be in your shoes soon. have an offer in on a house with 40 acres!

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

Maybe not smart, but I have been canning in those jars for years. Figured that they were "canning" jars to begin with. Started with dog food and that is still primarilly what I use them for. Lids pop nicely, get a nice seal.

The plastic that the lids are lined with stays in place and is nice and soft for re-canning and the lids have a center dome that lets you know if you don't have a good seal. Don't call PETA on me.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

you can buy replacement lids for most of those jars. That should mean that you could easily use the jars for canning anything. I've been collecting them too and the mouths are standard sizes. I only have 2 different sizes so far and I think there are only 3 sizes anyway.

Re: stop throwing away old food jars!!!!
 

I don't go through a lot of stuff in jars, but I've been buying a case of mason jars every payday. I haven't had much time to dehydrate veggies or meats in a few weeks, so at the moment I have four dozen jars waiting to be filled. I'm getting ready to crank up a couple dehydrators in a few minutes to dry a bunch of fish I just cooked.