August 2, 2009: Whee! Guess What I Found!

I KNEW I had jars stored somewhere, but I looked all through the garage and couldn't find them. Today (son) John came over, and he was already dirty from installing a swamp cooler, so I asked him to go up in our very dusty attic to see if there were any canning jars up there. See what he found!




All together, there were five boxes full of very dusty jars,
as well as an old crisper drawer of jar rings.





A trip through the dishwasher and........


Eighty-three canning jars and a big bunch of jar rings!


On one of the lids was written "Strawberry '83". That gives you an idea how long these jars have been residing over the garage. Actually not quite that long, but we've lived in this house for 20 years, so I can only assume they came straight from our previous house to this attic!


Three vintage jars were in the collection. I could only find information on the Atlas Strong Shoulder Mason jar: The "Strong Shoulder" jar is a variation of the old shoulder seal mason jar. However, this jar sealed on a raised lip to help keep the jar from cracking - a common problem with shoulder seal jars. This concept led to the term "Strong Shoulder" as used by the Atlas company for their jars. The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, makers of the E-Z Seal and Strong Shoulder jars, was in business from the late 1800s until 1964. So that jar is at least 45 years old, and not a chip or a crack in it!



Now I really can can !!!




11 comments:

  1. Oh what a nice treasure. Now you just have to fill them all up with canned veggies. I can see the tomato sauce now. Yum.

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  2. OH, WAY COOL!!!

    I love attic finds, especially when they're in your OWN attic!

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  3. Daphne, that's the plan!

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    Ribbit, somewhere up there, there might be a brand new 1989 RCA VCR that cost like $$$$ back then. I never did find it after we moved here, and always suspected it got shoved in the attic. We moved from a huge house to a small one, and when I ran out of room, we just quit unpacking. I wish I had the guts to climb up there! I tried a couple weeks ago, but couldn't take the dust and the fiberglass insulation.

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  4. Wow! That's a lot of jars...how nice! I guess you have lots of canning to do!

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  5. Thank goodness for dishwashers! LOL! Made short work of the dirty jars and now you have some beautiful sparkling ones that are begging to be filled. I love the older ones too and the history of the "strong shoulders" jar.

    I imagine that attic is brutally hot right now over your way. Dusty and broiling hot are not a good combo - I would stay out of it too.

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  6. Shawn Ann, if I just manage to find time to do it, there's probably plenty to keep me busy canning for a while. Tomatoes and cucumbers! I rather doubt I'd fill half those jars though, but it was a nice find. I just bought two dozen, at least one box is unopened and can be returned.

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    KitsapFG, my dishwasher is on its last legs, I'm glad it held together through all those jars! New dishwasher is on the horizon.

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  7. Wow! What a great find! Can't wait to see how you fill that lot. :)

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  8. I have needed a new dishwasher for about 2 months...looking at those pictures made me realize I better make that a priority before I become inundaated with tomaotes! Sterilizing all those jars by hand would be a PAIN!!

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  9. Hidinginmygarden, I doubt they will all get filled. Maybe the pints and half-pints, but with only two of us I doubt the quarts get much use.

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    Erin, I have needed a new dishwasher for over FIVE months. Mine no longer drops the soap, so I have to set my timer for 12 minutes and manually add it. Also, if you enlarge the picture and look closely, you can see the water snout thingy on the upper rack is wired on in the back where it broke!

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  10. Well, at least you have a dishwasher! Cool find!

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  11. Great find Granny!

    Several friends gave me their canning jars a few years ago. I have a growing collection too!

    Have a great time putting up delicious food for the winter months! There's nothing like having your pantry stocked with your own garden yummies!

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