Jeepers Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Even though you've slaved over a product for hours and have a good handle on everything you can, label your jars. You will forget a year from now what you've done. Even if it's just the box they are stored in or just the ones on the front of a shelf, identify them. I ran across a case of half pint jars today that I had forgotten about. Humm. They looked familiar. The stuff inside was packed pretty tightly; it didn't shake around. Kind of an ugly brown. I probably used the Food Saver instead of the canner since it didn't slosh. I really didn't want to open a jar an waste it whatever it was. I couldn't stand it. I opened one. It was brown sugar. Sigh. I'm sure when I was vacuum sealing it last year I thought there was no way I wouldn't recognize what it was. I know no one else here (my house) would know what it was without opening it. Even if you would recognize it...would one of your loved ones know what you have if you weren't available? I'm thinking of my pickled beets now. Or sweet vs. dill pickles etc. I also just noticed my sloppy joes and my spaghetti sauce resemble each other. Off to do some labeling! Quote Link to comment
The WE2's Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 LOL...yes, mushrooms can look like banana slices or apples mayble, applesauce can look like brown sugar, flour can look like cornstarch or powdered sugar, just to name a few! One thing that works pretty good if you don't have any labels, is to stick the label on the INSIDE of the jar, facing outward and then vacume seal it. I've also taped the label, facing outward, inside my vacume sealed bags etc., before vacume sealing them....just in case the label on the outside should fall off after awhile. Quote Link to comment
TheCG Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I've grabbed a frozen container of chili to take to work, then realized at lunch that I had a nice container of spaghetti sauce. I also just noticed my sloppy joes and my spaghetti sauce resemble each other. Off to do some labeling! Quote Link to comment
rootdiggr Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Canned turkey broth and canned chicken broth cannot be identified without opening and tasting. And even then only by my son. Unfortunately, I have made this mistake more than once. Blush Quote Link to comment
Jeepers Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 Kinda glad I'm not the only one. Misery loves company I guess. I also made some pretty chicken veggie soup and ham veggie soup this year. I made it by layering each item in the jar instead of mixing them all together. When my son picked up a jar he said, "Neat, what's this?" He knew it was some kind of soup but since he'd never seen any that looked like that, he wasn't sure exactly what it was. The really dumb thing is I have 6 packages of round printable labels that are perfect for the top of a canning jar...sitting in the closet gathering dust. I've stuck labels inside the 'space bags' I've done but not the Food Saver bags. Good idea. Quote Link to comment
Leanna1017 Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 This is timely for me - I just found a case of unlabled jam in my pantry. Quote Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 on everything we can we put the label on the lid seeing I print out small address labels and they are hard to get off jars, on the lid works better as we don't ever reuse lids. Quote Link to comment
Jeepers Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 Leanna, I'm glad you had a clue what is in your jars. You'd think you'd remember what is in a glass jar. Not so much! AH, small address labels work great too. When I do label, I like to put it on the lid too. Also the jars have too much lumpiness on them for a label to sit flat. That's one reason I always liked the Kerr jars. They have 3 plain sides and are sort of more square and seem to sit beside each other easier. About all of my jars are Ball but I'd trade them all for Kerr jars in a heartbeat. I can' find them in my area now. I used to just use a fine tipped magic marker but the lids I have now have a big "Ball" written across them and that makes it harder to write on them. Which is probably why they do that since Ball sells labels to cover it over now. Hummm Quote Link to comment
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