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And to think, I almost missed looking at these history notes today! Wow... the jar is such a basic item, or rather the jar lid... gosh, how did people can fruits and vegetables before the Mason jar? Or, did they?
Anyway, cool history note, thanks history people! ;-)
Heck, I guess they could can even before glass, using pottery and a wax stopper?
I have an old dark amber glass apothecary jar that was my dad's place to store his cigars! (I keep little tealight candles in it now.) It has words on it saying something about zinc unguent... and a glass top with a round knob.
Well, I went and took a picture of it to post, but no photos here I reckon... too bad, it was a nice picture. ;-)
Before they canned, they ate it fresh, dried, krauted, or whatever else was available in the good old days. They always had cabbage and collards growing, in addition to whatever else cool weather crops were available. I have heard old people talk about salting down green beans, sort of like kraut. A lot of old techniques were lost with the advent of refrigerators and freezers. The methods we have now-a-days are much better.
I can remember my mom saying her folks kept milk in the well house (they had a windmill and overhead tank), and kept it cool in the water, before grandmother got one of those newfangled ice boxes. :) I thought people also used to can with tin cans, but my family didn't that I know of. I remember grandmother's shed being full of old rusted cans with the top and bottom taken off. She used them around plants to fend off cutworms (and I suspect sand storms) down in West Texas in her raised-bed gardens. She had the greenest thumb I've ever seen. She could grow anything, and she put it up in jars in the storm cellar. My mom inherited that green thumb, and I keep watching my thumb to see if it will turn as green as theirs, lol. :)
