Canning season is coming soon! When you’re ready to harvest the bounty from your garden or perhaps the local farmers market, come see us. We have the largest selection of canning jars and accessories around. We have jars from 1/2 pint to 4 Gallon size. We stock everything you need , well everything except for the fruit.

So why do people call them Mason Jars anyway? Did stone masons use them? Well no, but in 1858 a tin smith from New York City named John Mason invented the Mason jar. He invented a machine that could cut threads into lids, which made it practical to manufacture a jar with a reusable lid. The ease of use of Mason jars help spread canning across the nation, but that was not the end.

in 1882 Henry William Putnam of Vermont, invented a jar that used a glass lid with a metal clamp to hold the lid in place. These “Lightning Jars” became very popular because the metal lids of Mason jars could rust or the seal could break and contaminate the food inside. Many similar designs of glass lid and metal bail or clamp lids were popular for the next 80 years of more.

In Buffalo New York, Charles Ball was making wood-jacketed tin cans to store oil, lard and paints. In 1883 Ball changed to glass containers. In 1886 Ball switched to glass fruit jars. Operations were moved to Muncie Indiana and Ball jars quickly became the leader in the category. Ball jars are still the leading name in home canning, even though the business was sold to Alltrista in 1993 and changed to Jarden Home brands just a couple of years ago. Jarden also sells Kerr jars, which are now essentially the same as ball, but Kerr was the first to use the modern lid as we know it. Alexander Kerr invented the one piece metal disk with the attached rubber gasket and the ring to hold it on in 1915.

So now you know a bit more about canning jars. Thanks to PickYourOwn.org for the information. And now for the best part! Since you’ve read this blog, you may print it and bring it in to our store for $ 1.00 off any case of Ball canning jars.  We call this a Blogpon!

-Clark