Preserving jars for home made jam, etc

My wife has asked me to post this. We have a smallholding and she likes bottling jam, fruit, tomatoes, etc. But in this part of Spain (NorthEast Extremadura) the jars are relatively expensive, certainly compared with the USA where they cost around 50 cents a jar. We find we pay upwards of 2 or 3 euros even in local Leclerc, Carrefour, Al Campo (Auchan), etc. One might have thought that in a rural environment a lot of people would do home-made stuff and so the jars would be cheap, but not so.

Do any of you know of a cheaper source, please? Thank you.

For home made jams, I always use ordinary jam jars & my jam always keeps for 1 or 2 years. I don't know if it will keep for more than 2 yrs as I always run out by the 2nd yr. I love home made jam & will never go back to bought jam after I've been making jams for yrs.

Does anyone know if they do grow blackcurrants in Spain (Rojales area)? I'll miss my home in Canada if I can't grow my own blackcurants in Rojales.  Currants have good pectin which sets very well with a mixture of blueberries, strawberies & raspberries.

Hi Forhotspot. The thing is, if one never buys bought jam how does one accumulate jam jars? We buy dozens of jars at a time as most of them end up being given away as gifts.But if the jar is going to cost euros 2.50 it costs far more than the stuff you put in it.  It's almost  cheaper to buy jars of olives, jam, salsa, etc and toss the contents just to have the jar.

We are in raspberry season here in La Vera. We picked up 4kg plus of wonderful raspberries at a local co-op for 10 euros yesterday. I wouldn't even pick 4 kg for 10 euros let alone have to grow them first and then grade them. They are currently being made into jam, hence my wife's telling me to find out where people buy jars.

Hi GuyT,

  I used to buy blueberry jam when I first came to Canada &  I saved the jars. I also get empty jars from friends & relatives. I don't use very big jars for jam. I don't like the bought jams as I can't see & taste the fruit whereas I can taste real fruits in my jam. Blueberry, raspberry & strawberry don't set well without currants.

I grow my own raspberry but I don't think I will grow it when I move to Spain as the roots are annoying unless I can grow it in containers but I certainly need to grow blackcurrants in order to make nice jams.

How about printing a label for the back of the jars - Please return when empty - .

Of course it will only work if the people receiving the jars live locally to you.

My neighbour would pickle onions so I used to pass on my empty jars.

Do you belong to any clubs locally or is there anywhere where you could leave a notice and a box to collect the jars.  A local charity shop perhaps which would help for a donation?

With a lot of food stuff stored in jars then there should be a large supply of empties going into the basura or recycling bins.  You just need to find a way of collecting them.

Go to your local resaurant or hotel and ask them to save you any jars they use, that is what i do. A few  jars of jam to the owner and everyone is happy