Whether you plan on freezing leftovers or following a “freezer style” recipe, there are some questions that usually come to mind.

Which jars can I freeze in?
Jars that do not have shoulders (ones that are straight sided or “tapered”) are the easiest because the contents can expand upward in the jar during freezing, especially if you’re freezing liquids (jams, jelly, soup, broth, etc). You can use other food grade jars, as long as the expansion of the food isn’t a problem. We often freeze single serving sizes of grilled chicken, beef BBQ, or meatballs in other jars since the straight sides really aren’t a requirement.

Jars with necks (sauce & woozy bottles etc.) are not recommended, as the contents will expand upward into the part of the glass with a smaller diameter causing breakage. If the description of the jar doesn’t mention that it is safe for freezing, double check with your supplier.

Which lids should I use for freezing?
You’ll want to use a lid with a plastisol liner or a foam liner to create a good airtight seal. This is a great time to re-use your already spent flat canning lids or single piece lids because all you need is a good seal to keep flavors in and air out! The single piece lids are nice for jams and products that you will be getting into often. You may also use the plastic lids with a foam liner or the plastic lids by Ball.

How much can I put in a jar?
Allow enough headspace for the expansion of your product. Some, but not all of the Ball jars have a “FOR FREEZING——FILL HERE” line embossed on the glass. A general rule of thumb for any jar is to only fill to a little below the collar of the jar.

What’s the best way to thaw a jar and its contents?
Remember most food grade glass exhibits a 90-degree thermal shock differential! When canning, you can’t pour hot contents into a cold (or sometimes even room temperature) jar. For the same reason, you shouldn’t expose your jarred frozen items to sudden heat.   Set them on a dish towel or paper towel on a plate or tray (to hold/absorb the melting condensate) and allow thawing in the refrigerator overnight, or on your counter if you are able to monitor them. If you need to speed up the process, you may set them in a few inches of lukewarm water. Do NOT try to microwave a frozen jar.

If you’re not comfortable freezing in glass try Ball’s Plastic Freezer Jars – available in 16 oz & 8 oz sizes.

What are you freezing?

Whether you are a veteran canner, or you’re new to the canning world, there is always something to learn.  We’ve put together a few resources that we thought would inspire you to advance your canning know how.

For the beginner:

• Take a class: If you are brand new to canning, we suggest you take a class to get a good grasp on canning basics.  Check our Facebook page or contact your local Cooperative Extension office to learn about classes near you.
• Attend a swap: Maybe you’re only going to can one or two things this year, that’s okay.  Attend a food swap and you’ll be introduced to wide assortment of jams and preserves. Your pantry will be stocked with a variety of goods and you’ll come home with inspiration for what to can next year.

For the pro:

• Try one-piece lids: If you’ve only canned with the traditional two-piece lids, give one-piece lids a try this year. Here’s a ‘how to’ from Food in Jars.
• Host a canning party: Share the magic of preserving with a dozen friends. Let’s face it, pitting 40 pounds of peaches will be a lot more fun with 10 of your friends! Here are some tips on how to host a canning party.

For both:

• Buy a book: A little inspiration from some fellow canners can help you learn, grow and expand your canning knowledge. Here are a few of our favorites:
  Blue Book Guide to Preserving
  Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year Round
  Preserving: Putting up the Season’s Bounty
  The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves
  The Joy of Pickling

*SPECIAL PRICING

• The Joy cookbooks – $11.95 each for a limited time! (original price – $15.95)
• Food in Jars – Order a case of jars and a copy of Food in Jars, and receive $5 off your order. Enter “FIJ” in the comment field at checkout (the adjustment will be made when order ships).

• Join the canning network: There are so many great canners out there and many of them share their knowledge through their blogs. Here’s a few we follow:
  Food in Jars
  Learn to Preserve
  Canning Across America
  Punk Domestics
  I’m Still Workin

• Label it: Be creative with your labeling. Check out our Label It Pinterest board for ideas on how to personalize or stylize your labels and for links to free downloads.
• Consult the experts: The National Center for Home Food Preservation is an abundant resource for recommendations about home food preservation methods.
• Make a plan: If you haven’t decided what to can this year, check out our Pinterest boards for ideas.

What’s your best canning tip?

Be sure to check out Linda’s blog – we are giving away a case of half-pint tapered canning jars and single piece lids, along with a copy of her book – The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves.

Frozen Blueberries Love Fresh Rhubarb

In jams, pies, cobblers, and other sweet treats, rhubarb routinely gets paired with strawberries, for good reasons: Rhubarb and strawberries tend to reach the peak of their seasons together, and strawberries disguise the often lackluster color of rhubarb.

But what if your rhubarb provides stems ready for harvest long before the first strawberries ripen? In this case you can make lovely jam with rhubarb alone, even if the stems are grass-green (green rhubarb jam).

Here’s another idea: Check whether bags of last year’s blueberries are lurking among the pork chops and pesto in your freezer. If so, it’s time to put those berries to use.

In the jam pot, blueberries from the freezer pair well with first of the season’s rhubarb. The rhubarb takes on the deep-blue color of the berries, lends an interesting texture, and balances the berries’ high pectin content so you can use minimal sugar and yet avoid a tough jell.

To eliminate the unpleasant fibrousness of cooked blueberries, heat the berries separately and then press them through a food mill. The result will be a lusciously soft, dark jam that seems the essence of blueberry until you notice the tart yet subtle background note of rhubarb.

Supposing no blueberries turn up in your freezer, wait a few weeks. With adequate watering, your rhubarb will still be going strong when the first blueberries ripen.

The Recipe

Photo Credit: Linda Ziedrich

Blueberry-Rhubarb Jam

• 1 1/2 pounds blueberries
• 1 pound trimmed rhubarb (leaves and tough bases cut off), cut into small pieces
• 3 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

If the berries are frozen, let them thaw.

In a broad, heavy-bottomed pan, simmer the blueberries, covered, for about 5 minutes. Press them though the fine disk of a food mill.

Combine the berry puree in the pan with the rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat to medium-high, and boil the mixture, while still stirring frequently, until the rhubarb breaks down and a bit of the jam mounds in a chilled bowl, or until the temperature of the mixture reaches 221 degrees F. This should take no more than 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.

Skim the foam from the jam, and ladle the jam into six sterilized half-pint mason jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Close the jars, and process them for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Remove the jars to a rack or pad, and let them stand undisturbed for 24 hours, after which time the jam should be well set. Store the jars in a cool, dry, dark place.

Here are a few more recipes to keep your jam pot busy year round: (none of these recipes require added pectin.)

Mixed Berry Jam from the Freezer

Triple Crown Blackberry Jam

Pommé (Breton Apple Butter)

Paradise Jelly

Don’t forget to head over to Linda’s blog for your chance to win a case of half-pint tapered canning jars and single piece lids, along with a copy of her book – The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves.

Her creation brought a little bit of spring into her kitchen. Check out how she made these lovely flower vases and enter yourself to win a case of the lovely blue jars – or you can get your own jars here.

The Welcome Home Boxes will include everything from flour, sugar, herbs and spices to olive oil, oatmeal, breadcrumbs, peanut butter and jelly, black beans, rice, pasta and condiments. These everyday items are especially expensive to replace when literally everything needs replacing.

Family-to-Family is working with Peapod, the online grocery delivery service, to pack and deliver the boxes. Peapod is also generously matching the first 200 purchased boxes.

Join us in support of Family-to-Family and the victims of Hurricane Sandy by considering to sponsor a ‘Comfort of Home’ Welcome Home Box that will help put the “comforts of home” back in the lives of the families in need. Learn how you can help here.

Fillmore Container was featured in Lancaster Newspapers recent story about Mason jar meals. The article explores recipes and tips for make-ahead meals in jars.

While some trends can be just that, this one may have more to it and may prove to become more of a lifestyle change as part of healthy eating, sustainability and being more environmentally friendly! Here are just a few of the key benefits to packing meals in jars.

• Portion control: different jar sizes and gradation (fluid ounce volume) markings on most canning jars allow you to decide portion sizes before you start eating. This is also handy when packing meals ahead-whether for storage in the refrigerator or the freezer.
• Microwaveable: no leaching from plastic containers; Dishwasher-safe (no staining or warping of plastic).
• See what’s inside! People rave that when you can open up your refrigerator and see your fresh healthy food you are more likely to eat it!
• Bake, refrigerate, microwave, freeze (freezer-safe tapered jars only) – all in the same container!
• Re-Useable! Cost effective and earth-friendly with less waste…no paper, plastic, saran wrap etc.

Here are a few of our favorite Mason jar meals.

Chicken Fajita Meal in a Jar

Jar 1: Cooked meat & veggies
Jar 2: Tortilla – lay your tortilla in a large paper towel, fold it in half and roll it up, place in the jar.
Jar 3: Guacamole
Jar 4: Shredded cheese – Use any toppings you like. Only mix those that won’t get soggy or compromise the texture.
Jar 5: Strawberry Shortcake in a widemouth jar

Salad in a Jar

Jar 1 & 2: Greens
(If adding dressing, be sure that you’re OK
that it will be soaking in it until lunch time.)
Jar 2: Meat
Jar 3: Hardboiled eggs
Jar 4: Shredded cheese
Jar 5: Snap peas
Jar 6: Chunky bleu cheese

Snacks/Sides in a Jar

Jar 1: Mixed fruit in a widemouth jar
Jar 2: Oriental slaw salad in widemouth jar
Jar 3: Lancaster’s own Linden Dale Farm Goat Chevre Sandwiches in widemouth jar

A few of our Lancaster friends, who are also Mason jar meal fans were featured in the Lancaster Newspaper article.

• Eat Me Lancaster a blog about Lancaster’s culinary scene.
• Lettuce Toss Salad a stand at Lancaster Central Market.

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t give a shout out to the queen of Mason jar meals at Big Red Kitchen. You’ll find Mason jar meal ideas, tips and recipes to get you packing meals in glass in no time.

Check out our Facebook page for more ideas.

Or follow our Meals in Mason Jars board on Pinterest.

Tell us about your favorite Mason jar meals.

The JarBOX is a specially designed plastic container to help you preserve your preserves. A JarBOX set consists of two trays. It can be used as two one-piece trays, or snap the two trays together to make a JarBOX. This clever tool provides a safe method of storage and transport for your canning creations, candles or other fragile items.

Head over to Food in Jars for your chance to win! Or get your own now.

The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves
This comprehensive guide to sweet preserves will help you put summer in a jar. You’ll enjoy the sweet taste of the season’s fruit all year round with 225 recipes for jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves, conserves, syrups, pastes, and more. Organized alphabetically by type of fruit, the book presents an introduction to each, including its history, cultivars, and growing and harvesting requirements.

The Joy of Pickling
Sour, spicy, salty, or sweet you’ll discover the joy of pickling with this thorough guide that covers fermented, fresh, quick, and freezer pickles; relishes, salsas, and chutneys; and even pickled fish, meat, and eggs. The Joy of Pickling boasts 250 flavor-packed recipes and includes history, science, and lore about pickles.

Linda Ziedrich, the author of both books, is a Master Gardener and a Master Food Preserver.  You can read more about the fruits and vegetables that she grows, cooks, and preserves on her blog A Gardener’s Table. She also teaches classes in cooking and food preservation – here’s her summer class schedule.

You can purchase the Joy Jam & Pickling books here.

Here’s a few of our favorite ideas!

Centerpieces

Let the beauty of jars showcase your centerpieces.

There’s more ideas on our  Wedding & Shower Centerpieces Pinterest board.

Dessert in Jars

Serve dessert in jars or lid them and send something sweet home with your guests. Here’s the recipe for egg custard and pies in jars.

Take a look at our Pinterest board Dessert in Jars for more ideas on how to make your guests sweet tooth sing.

Display Food in Jars

Utilize  jars in your food display. Glass will showcase your colorful entrees, such as a copper penny salad. Add a pretty lid for a fancy drink, or use jars to organize the silverware for your guests.

Find more ideas like these, look at our Summer Celebration Pinterest board.

Favors

Put your soul into the favors by packaging something you’ve made. Chocolate covered coffee beans, almond butter crunch, blackberry jam. Or pamper your guests with some homemade bath & body products.

There’s so many great ideas for favors that we have two boards on Pinterest – Favors Food in Jars & Glass and Gifts and Favors Mason Jar Style.

We hope these ideas help you bring a little glass to your celebrations!

Ball’s vintage Mason jars are stunning! They are tinted with the antique blue of the original Perfect Mason jar. The Ball logo is embossed on the front with the 100-year anniversary dates embossed on the back of the glass jar. The pint jars are packaged in a vintage style tray carton, which holds 6 regular mouth jars with bands and lids.

It is important to note that while Ball intentionally created these new jars to be blue, the original Perfect Mason jars had a blue hue due to impurities in the glass. So, although these new blue jars were created with the vintage blue coloring the hue is a bit different from the original Perfect Mason jars. Here’s a closer look at the color of the new Ball jars compared to true vintage Ball jars.

Antique Vintage Blue jars by Ball vs. New Vintage Blue jars by Ball.

New Vintage Ball Jars

Ball tell us that the pint jars are the first in the American Heritage Collection line of limited edition jars, perfect for home canning, or as a coveted collector’s item. We are excited to see what Ball introduces next in the collection.

The limited edition Heritage Collection blue pint jars are available for purchase here.  Or you can search our website by product name Heritage Collection Blue Regular Mouth Ball Pint Jars, J69000  or by the search term Vintage. 

Remember there’s a limited amount of these jars, so place your order soon.