SAVE those glass gallon jugs. I'd buy them from you myself if TX wasn't so far from NH. Someone will want them, that's certain. My grandmother used mason jars to root cuttings back in OK years ago. Stick the cutting in the soil in a shady spot and put the jar over it. Check it periodically to make sure the cutting is still alive, and you should see new growth in about 8-10 weeks. I like that idea with the 5-gal water jugs that windsurfgirl used to grow spinach during the winter. What a great idea. Cheryl

I have my mother's jars, my grandmother's jars, probably my great-grandmother's jars! I have my (now deceased) mother-in-law's jars, and some new jars and jars that were given to me by elderly ladies in my church who no longer can but happily swap those empty jars for home-canned goods or freshly baked bread. I occasionally find jars at yard sales or second hand stores, but not so much any more. Robert, it's too bad you threw away those zinc lids, they are worth more than the jars! I do use the old blue jars and zinc lids to store dried beans, rice, lentils, dehydrated onions and garlic, etc. Many have chipped edges so I can't use them for canning, but they remain useful for storage. Cast iron is coming back with a vengeance. I've cracked a coule of relatively good pans by placing cold pans into coals, or once by taking a pan from the fire and putting it into a bucket of water so the children playing around the campfire didn't burn themselves. It was irreparable. I recently bought several pieces of Le Crueset enameled cast iron for less than $30 a piece at a local on-line auction. I just bought a Squeezo for $24.00 there too, and have picked up a couple of old Griswold's for less than $20, but they are few and far between. I usually only find them because the listing sellers misspell the names. Annie

Members of my family used to can in mayo jars (boiling water bath, not pressure) but began to notice in more recent years that the mayo jars had become noticeably thinner. That's when they stopped saving them for canning. Every canner, especially one who cans in high-volume, is going to lose a jar occasionally, but I still contend, whether it's commercial jars re-used or standard Ball/Kerr/Bernardin jars, if they are treated with respect, the loss rate is minimal. I do a lot of canning and I honestly don't remember the last time I lost a jar. Certainly I have lost jars, but in thirty years I'm guessing I've lost three through breakage. Ironically, I've never lost a commercial jar or a very old jar (i.e. Atlas Mason or others), only Ball or Kerr, but that may simply be a function of numbers. I'm very comfortable with these commercial jars and particularly for short-term processing would rather use these than toss them out. Definitely I feel it's a more appropriate use than throwing them into a landfill or even recycling. However, mayonnaise now comes in plastic and many companies, like Classico, are now preventing secondary usages by re-designing materials or the neck in such a way that it's impossible. Carol

Food Saver has NEVER advised anyone to use that system to make any home canning safe. To make home canning safe, a high acid is needed, as well as processing times for foods that contain lower acid, which would need a pressure canning. Because I have been canning a very delicate thin skinnned pepperoncini, and using a special vacuum system to remove all the air from these peppers, and also force in all vinegar and salt brine, then fill canning jars with these peppers that have been exposed to the special vacuum (NOT A Food Saver vacuum) my process involves no heat of any kind, but instead, a high acid, and a high amount of vacuum with no chance of any air that would be trapped in the jars. My peppers are safe, and have no chance of being contaminated by any bacterial botulism or any other kind of spoilage. The ONLY think I used the vacuum process for is a specific pepper type, with no added water, only full strength 5% vinegar and pickling salt as the brine.