Looks as if you've used the lids from Fillmore, too. Did those prices include the lids?

The color in your jars is beautiful. I bet they just look like jewels with the sun shining through the jars.

Were you confident about using the one piece lids? I'd be afraid of not being able to see any bits of fruit that are hanging over the rim of the jar, connecting the outside world to the in-jar environment and therefore posing a contamination hazard....Not to say I won't some day use a one piece lid.

I'm on the Fillmore email list and do look at their offerings.

I actually used ball two-piece lids that I had. I purchased the jars without lids and seven boxes of orchard road lids which were under two dollars. Have you ever used those?

The only one-piece lids I have used are the Quattro Stagioni. They worked fine, but I like being able to reuse the rings and I also use the rings to attach a pretty tissue paper skirt to the jars that are gifts.

I have never done plums before, they are very pretty with the light shining on them. I have been making all different jams with plums and other fruits, but I had so many that I thought I would try doing the halved plums. I hope they taste as good as they look.

Your plums are beautiful! Do you have a tree, or did you purchase in the store? I would love to do some. So pretty, and I bet delicious, too.

Hi Donna, thank you! They are from a local farm. We do have two young plum trees and this would have been their first year producing fruit, but we had a hard freeze that killed all of the flowers. I am hoping for next year! We did not get any apples this year and only about twenty peaches. The raspberries and blueberries did well, though!

Jay

I checked them out. I'm not sure the economy mason jars are OK for pressure canning?

I too wonder if they could be safely used for pressure canning. Plus the 12 oz size, while good for gifts and maybe for jellies and jams, isn't large enough for most of the things I can. Much prefer pint size or even the pint and 1/2 jars when not using quarts.

Dave

Hi Dave and Lucille,

I have more ball quarts than I ever use, but I am canning more every year so I think I will start doing more quarts in the future....especially because the younger fruit trees will start producing soon! I got the 12 oz jars primarily for gifts and for items that we do not go through quickly like chutney. I do all my jams in 8 oz with a few 4 oz if I can't fill another 8 oz. I make my jams with a lot less sugar than the standard recipes and they tend to mold in the fridge if I do pints. Using only the smaller jars, we have not had problems. We also make sure we only have one (or two) open at the same time.

Although I started with PCing before BWB, these days I am primarily making pickles, chutneys, and jams. I am PCing my tomatoes. I love the crushed tomatoes. This is my first year making them. Last year I only made what the book calls 'tomato juice.' I used it as a base for sauce, soups, and stews. I am mainly using quarts and pint and a half for the tomatoes. I realized after the fact that I had used the pint and a half jars that came from commercial food products for PCing tomatoes in them. Fortunately, I had no breakage or other issues.

The issue I am concerned about is the Orchard Road lids. Have you used them? I used the for the first time today with my jams and some of them look like they bent up while processing. All the Ball lids look fine. See photo below. It is more noticeable on the jar on the left. Have you seen this happen before? Do you think they will be ok? Are there any tips for working with them?

Whew, I share your concern. That does not look good. Has it been long enough to remove the rings yet? I would send this photo to the seller, telling them what proportion of the Orchard Road lids did this. A canning lid that cannot be relied upon is not really a canning lid at all--- if you ask me.

I am interested to hear if there is anything we cooks could do to cause that to happen. With my level of knowledge I'm afraid I blame the lids.

A couple years ago, people were reporting that off brand (might have been "MainStays" ) lids from Walmart were buckling like that. I returned that lids & jars (Jars were also breaking, plus I could see flaws in them when I opened the box.) I had just bought, not willing to waste my food, gas stove energy, and personal effort to a poor product. If that is a problem with Orchard Road lids, I will not buy them in the future. I've never had a lid buckle like that and don't ever want to see it.

I think those lids are scary. Why? It isn't the ones that are obviously defective that bother me. It's the ones that look fine but are not. Enough are defective that in my opinion, all are suspect. I would not use any of those lids, I'd get a refund, and buy Ball/Kerr lids.

BTW, I'm as enthusiastic as anyone about saving money. But I do not have a lot of canning experience, and if all that is standing between me and botulism is the recipes I use and the quality of my canning stuff, I'm going to use the NCHFP, and spring for the Ball/Kerr jars and follow those recipes to the letter.

Interestingly, all the lids popped down and look completely normal now. They all sealed. I took the photo I posted when all of GE ball lies had popped, but none of the orchard road lids had. Earlier, I had been hearing louder than normal pings and could not figure out what the sound was. I realized that it was the orchard road life popping back to normal. Soon after they popped down and sealed.

What do you think?

I have never used that brand of lids - never even heard of them before. But lid buckling happens even with Ball/Kerr lids when the ring band is screwed on too tightly. The issue comes up often on various canning forums.

And when it does happen it isn't a good firm seal even if it appears to be. They are really prone to releasing within a few days after the rings are removed for storing the jars.

Dave

Dave, I think I did screw the on more tightly than usual. I did lift them by the lids and they feel tight. What do you recommend? Can I leave them on the shelf and check daily/use first? Or should I reprocess? It happened to three of the five lids of that brand, but I am not sure which ones because they all look fine now. Also, they are on two different batches of jam.

I'd reprocess with new lids since there is still time to do it. That way you won't have to worry about them later.

Dave

Hi Dave, thank you so much for the suggestion! When I removed the lids, they came off so easily. The seal was very weak like you had mentioned. I reprocessed (back into pot and all). This time I did not tighten the lids as much. I just took them out of the bwb and none were bent up and they all have already popped! I think the issue with the Orchard Road lids is that they are more likely to respond poorly to being tightened too much.

With this reprocess, I used half ball lids and half orchard road as a test. I am so glad it worked out.

Dave, I really appreciate that you share your experiences on this forum. Thank you again!

I'm late to the game, but I also have had that buckling with Ball lids when I tighten them too tightly. I always figure that between my 61 year old fingers and my carpal tunnel I CAN'T tighten them too much, but sometimes I do...

Peppi picked me up some "Empire" brand lids, I haven't tried them yet, but I've never heard of them.

I have used the one piece lids, I canned a bunch of salsa for my daughter's wedding favors and used the tiny fancy jars with the one piece gold lids. They all sealed fine and kept well, although it's harder for me to tell when they are sealed as they don't have that "button" in the middle of the lids.

Annie

I had not heard of Empire lids, and curious as to a new source, I did some poking around. Those lids and their jars are made in China. That does make a difference to me.

Ah, and that would be why they were on special for $1 a dozen. I've never seen them here, so they must have gone to Chicago's Menards, but not ours. No jars, just lids...

Annie

I had bought a box of Main Stay quart jars with lids/rings and had no problem with them. I also bought a box of jelly jars at a Walmart in ME when we were there, not Main Stay but I can't think of the name of them, but again no problems. A friend of mine recently bought some Main Stay pints with lids/rims and NOTHING sealed. She brought over a few jars and the lids were really round on the top, domed. She said they were like that to begin with but didn't think too much about it. Lori

Yeah Mainstays get mixed reviews. I have tried a couple boxes and had no problems but others report many seal failures. Since so many factors can cause seal failures and most of them are methodology, I'm hesitant to lay it all off on the Mainstay brand.

The most common cause I see in classes is too many people way over-tightening the bands. That makes the lids bulge/dome up and fail to seal. In pressure canning classes the common mistake is repeatedly playing with the heat during processing. Quit trying to keep that gauge needle pegged on 11 or the weight rocking only x # times per minute. It ain't possible to do! Slap your hand! ;-)

You can slowly creep up on pressure (add more if needed) but you cannot drop back down to it (reduce it) as that only causes siphoning and contaminated rims so no seal.

Dave