There's just two of us so I prefer the half pints for a lot of things. Pizza sauce in a half pint is good size. I tend to use pints for tomato sauce, tomatoes, and some pickles. If you are planning gifts, half pints for pickles and jellies is nice. Also for small batches, I bought a small canning rack to use in my stock pot. Works great with half pints.

I used half pint jars exclusively for my jam business. Since I made a wide variety of flavors people could buy 2 or 3 kinds and not have them go bad before they were all eaten or were tired of them. With pint jars, unless you use a lot of jam, you end up scraping the bottom that may get moldy before it is gone from opening the jars several times, even refrigerated. The little 4 oz jars are good for "just a little leftover" from the jam pot. They got stored in the pantry and pulled out when I needed a little for sandwiching cookies or spreading between cake layers.

I use them for jellies and jams too plus any flavored special sauces, canning mushrooms, canning celery for soups, salsa gifts, etc. Depending on what you can, some instructions are for 1/2 pints only.

Dave

Annie, was that Ebay?

eBay is a website for on-line auction and selling. Craigslist is another popular buy/sell site but it's usually local to your state unless you use different parameters. The advantage of Craigslist is usually dealing with people within driving distance so you can avoid shipping charges.

So, am I the last person to learn that I don't need to buy Ball plastic jar lids for storing opened narrow mouth jars in the fridge because the plastic lids from mayonnaise jars fit?

"So, am I the last person to learn that I don't need to buy Ball plastic jar lids for storing opened narrow mouth jars in the fridge because the plastic lids from mayonnaise jars fit?"

Nope, not the last. I didn't know that. ;-) What brand of mayo?

Dave

Thats funny- I had to buy the plastic Ball lids for our mayo since we make our own right in a wide mouth Ball jar by the immersion blender method.

Dave, I usually get Hellman's but I had some blue lids in my kitchen drawer that could have come off store brand or ? I might not have saved any newer Hellman jar lids because I don't like the plastic jars so wouldn't have thought to save them.

Dave, I buy the store brand, here it's Meijer. The plastic lid is green and it fits a regular mouth canning jar. The jar is plastic too, so not reusable, but the lids fit for storage.

Lucille, we have a local on-line auction called J&J. They have a building in a town about 15 miles away and so I can go look at anything I think I might like to bid on. There's no shipping, as I have to go to their building and pick up anything I've "won" in bidding. I've gotten several hundred canning jars, a 3 skillet set of LeCrueset for less than $30 a pan and they were brand new, an unused Zojirushi rice cooker that costs nearly $300 and cost me $10, and a pair of Ugg boots for my granddaughter for $18. (grin) A nice assortment of "stuff", along with lots of cake pans and Tupperware, some pitchforks and tools for the husband and a couple of designer purses! They sell everything from stuffed and mounted porcupines to furniture to local maple syrup to video games. They won't take used clothing other than hunting equipment and no used bedding or old stuffed toys. Everything else is accepted for bid. I've sold some stuff there too.

Annie

May I mention here that shaker jar lids from grated parmesian cheese fit regular canning jars? Kraft and Aldi are confirmed to fit.

Ball makes a cute 4 ounce 'dry herb' jar with a shaker top that also accepts regular size lids and bands. I'm going to save all of my Kraft tops from now on too.