Conference moira::parenting

    I don't know what access you have to either storage space-i.e. over
    the winter, or to friends with Gardens...if you don't garden, but
    one of the things I have done with Baby food jars in years past
    was to make jams and marmalade and give it away.
    
    I grow a garden and have always had Rhubarb.  One of the things you can
    make with Rhubarb is Rhubarb Marmalade.  However, when you offer it to
    friends or workmates, they sometimes are not sure if they are going to
    like it.  A baby food jar is just about the right size to convince them
    to try it.  (Actually, if you follow the recipe, it is pretty good...no
    credit taken for my skills).  You can also make other kinds of jams
    out of Pick-your-own-strawberries/blueberries/peaches, when you have
    too many left over.  Making a batch, once you have all the stuff, have
    two hours and are organized is pretty quick and simple.
    
    Otherwise, recycle them.
    
    Jim

    p.s. on previous note, when you make jams etc, you seal the top with 
    parafin/wax.  Keeping the lids does nothing except give you an
    aesthetic cover until they begin eating your jam.  Once you take off
    the lid, its sealing qualities are not applicable to jam making.
    
    Finally, before you ask, I am not interested in your jars..heh heh!
    When I make jams, and can now, I use 1/2-1pint and 1quart jars.
    
    jj

    
    	When we bought our house, there was a workbench in the cellar.
    
    	Along the back of the workbench are some racks with the lids
    	of baby food jars nailed to them.  The jars are filled with 
    	nails, tacks, and assorted hardware.  When you need something,
    	you just unscrew the jar from the rack.  
    
    	Karen

    Another thing to do with baby food jars is (if you're crafty) to make
    those "snow domes"... You know, those things that have a scene in them
    with white flakes... You shake them and it looks like snow..
    
    If you're children are into Girl/Boy Scouting or other groups that do
    crafts, donate the jars to that group, they'll put them to great use!
    
    Later!
    
    Bob
    

    And yet another thing to do with them.  A bit late for this year, but
    you can always do it for next year.
    
    I used my sister's babyfood jars and made advent calendars out of them. 
    Take 24 jars and glue them together to form a "tree".  Put the numbers
    1-24 on them, and put a little prize in each one of the jars.  The
    child opens up one jar every day of December until christmas eve.
    
    Holly
    

    
    Baby food jars make great storage containers for those who have
    hobbies such as beadwork or jewelry making!

    
    Mind posting your recipe for Rhubarb Jam? (if not here in another
    note?)
    
    				Wendy

    Wendy, below is the recipe.  Before I start on that, I have
    two comments on Baby food jars in reference to the other noters.
    
    It is nice to think of jars as consumables...they can be for
    storing things in your workshops etc, but the two notes that
    talked about using them for the snow and for a tree for a child
    to access bothers me as a parent of three who were somewhat
    inquisitive and accident prone.  I think reusing jars for adult
    purposes is laudable, but somehow recyling them for a childs use
    when they are made of glass bothers me.
    
    As to the recipe, it is for Marmalade...not jam.
    
    Below is the recipe.  I will preface it with this comment.
    It uses entire oranges.  It also requires you heat the chopped oranges
    until they lobber.  When I have made this with a bunch of other single
    guys....none of whom had made anything like this before, you
    can't imagine how comical it was trying to figure out what a lobber
    was, when to tell if we were actually "lobbering yet", or what.
    Basically what we finally understood after a series of trial and 
    error was that you heat it and let it cook down until you can pick
    up a spoonful and let it drop off back into the pan.  When it 
    becomes so thick that it forms an extremely long drop that kind of
    hangs there in mid air for a second or two before dropping back into
    the pan, you have achieved a "lobber".
    
    
    ORANGE RHUBARB MARMALADE(passed along here without persmission from
    ------------------------ my major professor in college of 25 years
                             ago, now deceased...so I think it is ok.)
    
    
    4 quarts of chopped unboiled rhubarb
    3 oranges chopped medium
    1 cup pecans chopped medium
    
    14 cups sugar
    3 boxes of Sur-Gel
    
    Prepare rhubarb and oranges separately.
    
    Boil rhubarb down until solid.  Add no water
    
    Heat 3 medium chopped (entire) oranges to a slow boil, adding
    approximately 4 cups of sugar until liquid lobbers on cooled spoon
    and orange peels look watery and transparent.  Add pecans and bring
    to a full final boil.
    
    Remove from heat and combine with solid rhubarb.
    
    Add 3 boxes Sur-Gel and bring to a rolling boil(cannot be stirred down)
    Add remaining 10 cups of sugar and bring to a rolling boil again. Boil
    for 1 minute and remove from heat.  Stir for about 7 minutes, skimming
    off foam and floating peels.
    
    Now ladle(and or pour) through a formed jar funnel into clean, scalded
    jars up to 1/2 inch from the top.  Pour melted parafin onto top of
    marmalade while still hot.  Set aside to cool.
    
    ....find friends. distribute.
    
    Be sure you have your utensils organized, a measured jar funnel that 
    fits inside the baby food jars, a container you do not mind melting
    parafin in, etc. before you start.  You will find that most jar funnels
    are made for 1/2 pint large mouth and pint and quart jar mouths.  The
    thing that makes making jams and marmalades a mess is if you
    continually drip the stuff down the side while you are pouring.  You
    then have to keep a wet and warm cloth to wipe the mouth out and the
    sides...which is tough because the contents are now extremely hot and
    it is a pain.  That is why the jar funnel comes in handy.
    
    Hope this is of interest.
    
    Jim

    Wow, I'll bet that quantity uses up a lot of left over jars!
    
    Question: What's Sur-Gel? I assume it is a brand of pectin? Any
    particular type?
    
    I too collected a box or two of them without knowing what to do
    before I started dumping them in the recycling box. The amazing thing
    is that 3/4 of the food I was giving Charlotte was home made, and 
    still I went through a LOT of jars.
    
    Thanks to the previous noter who first mentioned that you can seal
    with wax for preserves - I had forgotten that and had written off
    putting jam in them since they do not seal well (after both my mom
    and I tried to use them with jam).
    
    This summer - fruit - canning - jars - (I'll be home on maternity
    leave) 8-).....
    
    Monica

    Sometimes elementary school teachers can use the jars for older
    students' craft projects.  My daughter gave me a Christmas present
    last year that was potpourri in a baby food jar, with a piece of
    eyelet-type (with holes, etc), cloth on top and held on with a narrow
    piece of ribbon.  Very pretty and she loved making it.
    
    As someone else said, anyone who does crafts can use the jars for
    small amounts of paint and beads, or sewers can put buttons, hooks
    and eyes, snaps, etc., in them.  My husband also used them in his
    workshop for screws, bolts, etc., but away from any little hands.
    
    Kathleen (who is glad her kids are way beyond baby food, but know it
    was easier to feed them then!)
    
      

    
    As alluded to in .10, if you don't have a personal use for the
    jars, you might want to contact a local elementary school or
    preschool and donate the jars.   I know my son's pre-school is 
    famous for using things (babyfood jars, coffeecans, buttons, 
    fabric and wallpaper scraps, etc) for art projects that many 
    households would simply throw away.
    
    Carol

I've seen babyfood jars in an old wooden pop-bottle 
carrier used as a spice rack.  The lids were painted
and labelled. It had a rustic "country" look to it.  

Ann

If you use them in a workshop for storing nails, screws, etc., .3 is the way 
to do it.  Don't do it if you're a clutterbug like me.  Typically, workshop 
floors are concrete; glass baby food jars don't take kindly to being dropped 
on concrete.

Clay

    I used the empty jars to make favors for the baby shower that I gave
    for my s-i-l in Sept.  I purchased baby material and cut it into
    squares.  Put one dot of hot glue of the top.  Then tied a piece of
    pink or blue ribbon around the lid.   I even put little tiny plastic
    pacifiers on each ribbon.
    
    I filled the jars with a variety of nuts that I roasted at home. 
    Everyone loved them.  Since the shower, several people have called to
    ask for the directions.  They used them as table favors for the senior
    citizens Christmas party.  (They changed the material to Christmas)
    
    Well,  it's just another idea.
    
    
    Lillian
    

    A friend of mine, a stay a home mom, supplements her income by crafting
    with baby food jars.  One of her best sellers are candles.  She pours
    green wax into the bottom, lets it set.  Then she pours red wax on top. 
    She then paints black marks that look like seeds on the outside of the
    jar. Ties a piece of twine around the top and voila a country candle
    (looks like a watermelon slice).  She sells them at craft fairs.  
    
    LG
    

    I use them to freeze pesto in the tail end of summer when my basil is
    about to get frosted; lasts through to the next crop, if we control
    ourselves!
    
    Adrienne

    I re-use them for Alyssa's yogurt or fruit - the perfect size for her
    afternoon snack.  Great size to pack left-over's in for her the next
    day.
    
    Also, I bring my salad dressing to work in them.
    
     

    I was thinking of grinding up some meats for my baby instead of using
    that awful babyfood meat.  I wanted to make a few of them ahead of time
    to send to the babysitters.  Can I freeze it in the old babyfood jars?
    If not what does anyone suggest.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Cheryl

    Try freezing the ground-up cooked meat in ice cube trays. Then remove
    the cubes to a ziploc freezer bag. You can then remove one or two at a
    time and take the the sitter - or, give the sitter a bag to keep in
    their freezer.
    
    Can also the same thing for vegetables and fruits (canned in juice,
    then puree before freezing).
    
    

    I always froze all my kids' babyfood that I made in ice cube trays.
    Once it's frozen, just remove the cubes and put them in ziploc bags in
    the freezer so you can take out however many you need. I did that with
    fruits, veggies and meats with good success. 

    just make sure you get them out of the trays and into plastic bags.  
    
    I wound up with interesting yellow water and peach leather on topfrom
    forgetting about my ice cube tray for a month in the frost-free.

	Definately don't use the jars!  They will expand in the freezer
	and crack (not speaking from experience but I've always been
	told not to freeze in glass).

	Karen

	P.S.. although, casserole dishes do not have that problem... must
	be because they are so much larger?

   Actually, I think the issue with freezing in glass is to leave enough
   air space in the jar for future expansion... to avoid just such
   problems.  Its not that glass itself is inherently bad in the freezer,
   just that the results for poor planning can be messy.
   
   imo,
   
   - Tom
   

    
    The problem is when water freezes, it expands, as opposite
    to contract. So, the resulting ice takes up more space than
    the water. You can still freeze foods with high water contents
    in jars if you leave enough air space and don't tighten the
    lids until the food solidified. This will let out the air
    that is displaced by the expanding food and ensure a tight seal.
    
    
    Eva