Goodness, you guys are crazy for Weck jars! I had feeling this would be a popular giveaway, but I had no idea that it would be a Food in Jars record breaker. An impressive 670 of you signed up for a chance to win a six-pack of jars from Kaufmann Mercantile. As is my way, I turned to random.org for help choosing a winner. After a moment of consideration, it spit out #606, which is the comment left by Atarah. Congratulations, you lucky canner!
So many thanks to all of you for playing!
Holy Cow, I can hardly believe it I’m number 606 & I am so very thankful for these jars! Especially to find out this news today. I was needing a little extra hope, with things being so dreary in the world right now, this was the little spark I needed. I am so eager to can in these pretty jars! Thank you Marisa & Kaufmann Mercantile for offering this opportunity. This is indeed my favorite canning blog!
Thanks so much for the post on the Weck jars. I’ve been drooling over them for awhile and it’s nice to hear they get your seal of approval (no pun intended). It’s also nice to know that there’s somewhere to order them from that has reasonable prices, free shipping, and that doesn’t involve old-fashioned paper order forms.
I wanted to point out something from the original post regarding reuse/disposal of the rubber rings (seems a few other people did too). I was a little surprised by that because I didn’t recall seeing anything on Weck’s site in the past about those being disposable. Seems sort of wasteful and counter-productive to the high cost of the jar. Sure enough, though, there are at least two places on their site where they say, “Always use new rubber rings.” Perhaps that’s a recent addition after having too many reports of ring failure because people try to reuse them too many times and expect too much? If they’re not brittle or deformed, I’d see no reason why they can’t be reused (unlike the Ball lids where the gum and the lid become misshapen easily). People just need to have realistic expectations of rubber, which gets old and looses its elasticity over time.
I was also a bit confused about the rings on the Tattler lids because you happened to mention them in the same breath. I went back to my Tattler boxes with the instructions printed on them and they more or less indicate that they can be reused. To that, I breathed a sigh of relief because I bought them specifically to reduce waste on products that won’t remain canned long (soups and other convenience items). If I have to buy new rings and pay tattler’s ridiculous shipping and minimum purchase prices, I’m right back where I started.
I suspect this is one of those things where instructional language is being updated to account for the “laziness factor.” I find more and more lately that customer service folks would rather say, “Yeah, we don’t recommend/support that method of use,” than to say, “Yes, it can be done but make sure you do X, Y, and Z.” Today, it’s more about guaranteeing the product will work 100% of the time than about educating your users about how your product works so they’ll know how to use it properly. In the case of the rings, it’s easier to say, “Always buy new rings.” They also get to sell you more product that way. 🙁
A reply to Justin – Justin, *officially*, I was told that the rubber rings are supposed to be used only once. However …
The gaskets are reusable if you take care of them – i.e., don’t leave them on your windowsill in the sun, they’ll get dry & cracked. (Think rubber bands.) Don’t let your kids use them as slingshots. After using them in a recipe with oil or vinegar, please clean them well. Store them in a cool, dark, place and you can re-use them many, many times.
(I specifically asked about this. Although even if they were only one or two use items, rubber is much more sustainable than metal lids. But – I was told that canners can use them many many times. I don’t yet have enough experience to vouch for this myself, but I do have a control group of jars that I have started, will be cycling through often & I will be keeping track how many times each gasket is used w/o failure. Far, the control group (10 jars) has been pressure-canned twice, with 100% seal rate.)
I hope this helps!
I have canned everything that I could get my hands on for the past 47 years. My family & I live on a farm and raise a garden. It’s so rewarding to open the pantry and see all the jars with their different colors and textures. It is also a good feeling that I have canned things that my family can enjoy all year long. And another reward to myself is that I did it all with love.
I have always wanted to learn and can stuff like my mom always did. This year I got a tree full of Pears so I am diving in and making (so far) Pear Jam and Pear Sauce! Plus much baked goods. I would love to win this prize to continue this quest! Thank you!!!
Carol, this giveaway closed back in March.
I’m going to can strawberry chipotle jam…sweet and smokey hot.
I was in salt lake last week for my husbands hip replacement surgery. I wanted to get a break from the hospital, ended up at trolley square in my favorite store Williams Sonoma. I hadn’t before seen weck canning jars but it was love at first sight. Though I really couldn’t afford them , I bought the little set of a dz. I am going to make plum jam from my plum tree, give as gifts if I can stand to part with the jars. Thank you Williams Sonoma @ weck jar co 🙂 🙂 for making me smile.
Hi. New to this blog. Just wanted to say a few things about rubber weck rings and ‘the grass is always greener’.
I’m Dutch, and although I have been making jam and chutney for years, I had never heard of pressure canning until I stumbled over it on youtube a couple of months back. Being a hobbit at heart, I just had to give it a go and have just (literally a few days ago) received my first pressure canner purchased through Amazon. Don’t ask how much I had to pay for shipping and taxes. Just.. don’t ask. Lol!
Anyway, ever since entering the world of canning blogs and -video’s, I’ve been drooling about Ball mason jars. Go figure! But as you’ve might’ve guessed, they are eitther impossible to get over here or hideously expensive.
So I went and bought me a whole bunch of weck jars, which I can buy in several shops here in town, or order them online, and read the canning (or ‘wecking’) instructions on the Weck website. The Dutch language website tells me that the rubber rings are reusable and should be “boiled for 5 minutes in water with a spoonful of washing soda” prior use, “longer if they are greasy or moldy. In this case (when greasy and/or moldy) it would be better to purchase new rings to be sure of a good result”.
Perhaps the english version is a mistranslation of this? Or perhaps the site wanted to quote USDA guidelines and plastered their advice for canning with mason jars over the weck jar information?
Anyhow… A question: since I am single, I would love to can ‘single portions’ of meat and veggies, and have purchased 220 ml and 290 ml weck jars for this, but I can find no guidelines for pressure canning time for such small pots. Any advice?
The first thing I would like to can is…PEACHES!!!
I’ve been wanting to buy these jars for a long time, finally bought 6, (probably paid too much), & I love them. Plan to can my next batch of sauerkraut in them.
The first thing I would like to can in Weck jars is Aspharagus
I would process the last batch of tomatoes before the frost hits New England.
I am looking forward to canning “Pickled Chili-Garlic Green Beans” from the Baker Creek Vegan Cookbook, every recipe I look forward to trying, would love to do a Julia Child essay….thank you, looking forward to trying Weck jars.