Making a Case for (Glass) Jars

This post is not about weight loss.  It is not about eating better (not directly, anyway).  It is not about exercise.  But it is about taking a small step toward wellness and being a better citizen of Earth, which is beneficial all the way around.

We all have heard over and over again why we need to ditch the plastic food storage containers in our lives and make the switch (back) to glass.  If you live under a rock, like I sometimes do, and haven't heard about the impact that plastic can have, check out this short article:  plastics in your kitchen  It goes well beyond being an environmental steward and really can affect your general well being and health by disrupting the endocrine system.

In this highly disposable society, it can be a difficult move to make.  Those little plastic containers and sandwich bags are so cheap and easy.  So much so, that when we share a batch of homemade salsa in a plastic container, we tell the lucky recipient not to worry about getting the container back to us.  And don't we secretly hope that they will oblige and forget to return it?  After all, we are usually giving them the crappiest one anyway.  The one that you really wouldn't mind never seeing again.  And the tomatoes always stain the plastic.  And if you use any oil, that NEVER washes off.  And it's one less lid to have to search for.  I could go on...

There is a simple solution that presents itself and it involves de-volving (not a real word?).  Several years ago, my dear friend, Shanna, introduced me to canning.  You know, that thing your grandma or maybe even your great grandma used to do?  Canning can go beyond delicious jams and jellies and provide everyday solutions in the kitchen.  Besides long term food storage, all of those jars and lids are really useful little buggers.  It all began on a camping trip with Shanna's family where she had to punt and figure out a way to pack food for her family in the cooler.  (Shanna is way more evolved than me and ditched the plastic long ago.)  She needed containers that were water proof, would stay sealed, stack well, are easy to see through, and she already owned.  Glass jars!  The cool thing is that they also come in several different sizes: small jelly jars, large jelly jars, pints and quarts.  This was a quick, easy and good solution.  Now what about at home?

Shanna also turned me on to using jars for general home food storage.  Again, the different sizes are very handy.  We now store nearly all of our bulk food items in canning jars:  nuts, seeds, dried fruit, brown sugar, beans, etc.  Some very cool things about this system versus the plastic:

• The jars are see through!  It's pretty simple to peek and see what's in it. The lids can also be written on with a sharpie or dry erase marker to label contents.  Dried cherries and cranberries look a lot alike.  
• As long as you only buy one type of lid/jar, (there are regular mouth and wide mouth lids and jars) you will never again have to search for the correct lid.  It's a one size fits all deal.  The lids and bands that hold them on are also very small to store.   
• The jars and lids/bands are dishwasher safe and won't melt if they fall through the rack and land on the heating element.  Nastiest. Smell. Ever.  
• Glass does not stain.  Spaghetti sauce is completely forgotten after that jar has been through the dishwasher. 
• Glass can go in the freezer.  I recently was turned on to the virtues of chia seeds and found out that they need to be stored in the freezer.  No problem.  But DON'T store something liquid in a glass jar in the freezer unless you like to clean up tiny shards of exploded glass.
• Jars and lids/bands can be very cheap.  Canning season is winding down (I am writing this in October) and stores that don't carry canning supplies year round are putting canning supplies on clearance.  Yesterday, I bought quart size jars at Lowe's (who'd have thought?) for only $5 per dozen.  That's a little less than half price.  I have never seen a dozen quart size plastic containers for $5.  I also picked up lids for 84¢ per box.  That's super cheap.  Another great place to pick up jars is Craigslist or Freecycle.  People seem to be getting rid of them all the time so you may be able to pick them up for free!
• The lids seal very well.  Brown sugar and raisins are my foe.  I don't use them a ton, but when I need them, I want them to be soft and ready to go.  Typically, this is not the case when they are stored in the bags in which they come home from the store.  I have found the jars to be an excellent solution for this.  The only problem is that brown sugar can be a mess going from the jar to the measuring cup since the cup won't fit inside the jar.  Placing the measuring cup in a bowl and spooning the sugar into it seems to work well.  Yes, it's one more dirty dish.  Oh well.  
• If you shop at a store that has bulk food bins, the food in those is refreshed much more often than what is on the shelves.  And it can be cheaper.  This is the stuff to store in jars:  nuts, seeds, dried beans, rice, sugars, soup mixes, granola, dried fruit, flour, candy!
• People feel guilty if they don't return the jar.  At least my neighbor that I share catnip with seems to.  She ALWAYS returns the cat nip jar.  The plastic containers?  Not so much.  
• If you do can food, you won't have to store dozens of empty jars.  The empty jars became a bit of an issue in our house when they began to take over every last nook and cranny that we had for storing anything.  Now they live in the pantry or cabinets storing food as they were intended!  So they are always in circulation and rarely need to be stored.  
• If you do can food, processed lids can be reused instead of being thrown away!  I mark all of my processed lids with an X so they don't get mixed up with unused lids.  They are then useful forever keeping pantry items fresh and seem to seal just as well as unprocessed lids. 
• Finally, as Shanna pointed out, they are pretty!  They are much more attractive in the cabinet that mismatched, half melted plastic containers.  When your cabinet doors are glass like mine, that makes a difference!

To clarify: I do not store leftovers in jars in the fridge, though that could certainly be done.  We have found glass containers with plastic lids (Gasp!  But the plastic doesn't contact the food.) that we are happy with for that job.  I do send glass containers with leftovers to school with The Boy in his lunch.  I point out to him that there is glass in there and it would be unwise to swing his bag around.   We have not had any problems (yet).   A little side note:  This year we bought some of the cloth sandwich size bags to try for school lunches and are pleased so far.  I throw them in the laundry at the end of the week and, while they are fading, they are surviving just fine.  

So how does this loosely apply to eating better?  Nuts, seeds, beans and rice are really good for you when you actually eat them.  Historically, I haven't keep many nuts, seeds, dried fruit, dried beans, rice, etc. on hand because it had a tendency to go stale or dry out before I remembered we had it or got around to using it.  This was primarily because it was stored stacked in bags upon bags and shoved behind cereal or beneath baking supplies in the pantry.  Out of sight, out of mind so to speak.  Now it is front and center in our kitchen reminding me that it's there for our use and going stale/dry much more slowly!