Mason Jars

 The good old mason jar!  I found canning about 3 years ago now and every day I find new things that can be canned and new uses for mason jars.  My personal preference is Ball brand jars because they are USA made and after 3 years of use I have never had a jar fail.  I can not imagine it is worth saving the few bucks to get the Chinese knock offs.  I started off canning simple jams and apple sauce things you can water bath can.  Last year we canned our first batch of meat requiring pressure canning and recently ate it just under a year later and it was tasty.  I prefer canning over freezing because it does not require electricity for storage, and you do not have to worry about freezer burn.  Other then actual canning you can use ball jars for freezing.  I have been switching over slowly to storing our left overs and freezing thing such as soups in mason jars.  The fact that mason jars all share the same lid(2 sizes reg and wide mouth) makes it easy to keep organized.  Although you can not use lids more then once for canning purposes I do reuse them for left overs and for freezing.  Mason jars are also great for storing dry goods.  I store allot of dry goods and dehydrated foods in mason jars.  If you have a food saver they sell an attachment to put the jars in a vacuum and this can increase shelf life by a ton.  So many uses for the great mason jar do not be afraid to jump in and try canning.