Preserves and liqueurs: where can I buy jars and bottles?
Comments(29)
When we started making preserves we came up against a brick wall within days. No jars. I rang my mother.
“We’ve just made some wonderfully bramble jelly!”
“How lovely, Darling.”
“We thought that you might like some.”
“Of course I would. Do you need some jars?”
She knows her daughter well.
Now we save all jars. Even the jars that seemingly have no future. It’s best to wash them all immediately so that when you are in the mood for running up something delicious they just need a rinse, a sterilising session in the oven and then you are ready to go.
I also swap preserves for jars, bottles and any sort of glass container. Loads of my clients are older people who stockpile these treasures. They’d be happy just to give them to me but a barter is always best. This way everyone ends up with something that they want.
I also am on the lookout in the shops. There is a great French lemonade that is on sale at Tesco and Waitrose. The lemonade costs £1.99 and the empty bottle costs £2.99 at Lakeland (free lemonade and a pound to spend on something else). Waitrose sells loads of indulgent puds in small glass jars. My mum is very keen on these puds and saves all the jars for us. The low straight sided jars seemed pretty useless until I made membrillo last night.
We made a big investment in Le Parfait jars a few years ago. You can reasonably priced Le Parfait jars at Lakeland. There are cheaper ‘Le Parfait style’ jars around but we have found Le Parfait are stronger and a better investment if you are going to reuse them again and again. Of course they are dirt cheap in France. Worth stocking up on if you find yourself in France with a car or have a friend going over there.
We reuse good lids. Generally they reseal well (no matter what the books say). If the lids are shot, we use shop-bought wax disks and cellophane lids for jam but don’t use these for churney as the vinegar dissolves through a permaeable lid and you are left with a dried up husk within months.
If we are making preserves as presents we buy the jars and screw top lids (in bulk) from a serious beekeeper (100+ hives). Look on the internet – there could be a beekeeper near you that buys jars in bulk and is willing to sell them to you. There will be a modest mark up but little or no carriage.
Thornes (one of the main UK beekeeping suppliers) will sell you jars but your order is limited and you have to pay a hefty carriage. Most beekeepers buy their jars from Freeman and Harding. F&H also supply bottles for aromatherapy, medicines and grog. If you don’t need many jars Lakeland sells them in cases of 12.
I get quite a few emails asking me where to find glass jars/bottles/containers. Everyone wants to source a good supplier of small bottles.
“I want to give my sloe gin as a present and am looking for small bottles.”
I found the bottles in the photo at The Leaping Hare shop in Suffolk last Christmas. £5.95 for 4 exquisite bottles. I still have them as D said that they were too pretty to give away and our grog is too special to put in any bottle. Ideally it is quaffed from demi john to glass to mouth. Bottles? They don’t get a look in.
If you are still resolute and genuinely need glass bottles, Freeman and Harding will sell small crates of simple bottles at reasonable prices. The carriage is steepish but when you work out the price of each bottle (including carriage) they are a lot cheaper than buying a couple of bottles from the pound shop. A few people could get together locally and share the cost. Lakeland has some very pretty bottles here.
I have also ventured onto eBay There are loads of pretty bottles gleaming out at a pound a pop for 4 bottles (including postage). A grog filled bottle would be perfect for stocking presents or the crowning glory of a special Christmas hamper. Beautifully labelled of course.
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over the years i have made a quite good collection [all my relatives and work collegues have helped!] of glass jars which have plastic lids – the ones which contained peanut butter, coffee etc tec. these are very good for chutney i find, easy to sterilise the lids by boiling and i don’t bother with wax disks or anything else!
Thank you so very very much Fiona!!!! Both of those links look like what I have been searching for!!! Thank you!!!!
I am not too keen on our Chelmsford Market. The fruit and veg there isn’t the best. I will try to check with the farm store and see if they get any quinces in. I am sure they must. Thanks again!!! I have saved both of those links.
Like Jo we’ve got quite hoard of jars under the stairs – especially a hexagonal jar with a smart plain black lid that contained a certain Indian condiment (someone in this household – not me – must be an addict!). But it looks good filled with home made jam or jelly.
Thanks for the reminder – as if I need an excuse to go to ‘The Leaping Hare Country Store’! I always find something ‘essential’ to spend lots of money on when I visit. A lovely place at Christmas.
Like you, i collect jars for the purpose of jamming/pickling/preserving and haven’t had to buy any this year, and i’ve been doing a fair bit (making hampers for christmas presents). Where i did stumble was with bottles: I’m making/made sloe gin, damson gin, chilli vodka and a range of flavoured vodkas such as toffee, toblerone etc. and obviously needed bottles to put them all in. I couldn’t afford to give each hamper a couple of big bottles of vodka/gin, so its been a case of trying to find some nice smaller bottles. While lakeland did some they were a bit expensive: Wares of Knutsford sold me 12 what they called oil bottles, square 250ml bottles with a metal screwtop lid for £21 inc p&p which i thought was very reasonable. Delivery took 2 days! I bought jam jars from them 2 years ago as well, when Lakeland refused to sell jamjars without the lids, and they were just as good then too.
I keep glass jars to recyle with the preserves I make but it is great to know where to get some interesting jars from so thanks very much for this post.
Sara from farmingfriends
I keep jars obsessively until the family insist on some being taken to be recycled.The Leaping Hare shop is fabulous and so is everything else at Wyken.
Oh my … I had to smile when I read your post. My mum recently overheard me saying that I’d like to learn to make jam, but I didn’t have any jars. One day, she arrived on my doorstep with boxes filled with them. “One less excuse now to start making jam”, she said. I now have a huge collection and well, I haven’t started makin any jam yet.
Hi Jo,
Great idea asking other people to collect jars as well as you.
Thanks for the tip on plastic lids. I tend to use the plastic lined metal ones as I wasn’t sure how the plastic ones would behave!
Hi Pat,
Pleased that you found the post useful. The Leaping Hare is a country shop and may not always have the bottles. It is worth a trip. Fabulous shop, farmers market early on a Sunday morning and great restaurant.
Hi Celia,
The Leaping Hare is the sort of shop that makes me spend and spend too. It is a great selection of stuff. Like you I shop there at Christmas.
Hi Kethry,
Thanks for the tip about Wares of Knutsford. This is really useful as finding small bottles without exorbitant carriage can be a real problem.
Hi Sara,
It would be worth linking up with friends to order from Freeman and Harding as I am sure that they’d discount for bulk buys.
Hi Rosemary,
I keep my jars in my preserving and winemaking shed as D used to complain about the space they took up.
I love Wyken too. Especially the lamas.
Hi Kate,
Family pressure!
I think making jelly is far more fun than jam and amazingly versatile. I find it very therapeutic and people love being given a jar as a present.
The sloe.biz website suggests asking a local pub to save small mineral water bottles for you, as they are the right size for presents. I also got lots of demi-johns from my in-laws and also from my mum – and one of my uncles has a few stowed away in his loft too – so its worth making enquiries or starting up discussions with random family members!
Hi Deborah,
Thank you so much for adding this suggestion to the site. Pubs, free bottles – perfect. If they are the ones with metal ‘beer’ tops, these tops can be bought online (I use http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk).
Yes it is definitely worth asking around for demi johns etc. When we started brewing in earnest so many people said, “If only…”
An excellent source if jars is actually Asda! Their Asda Smart Price Curry Sauce is currently reduced to just 6p a jar! They are excellent one pound size jars and have poppy tops. All they need is soaking in some hot, strong Miltons solution to get rid of the curry smell and they’re ready to use and best of all………..dirt cheap! As far as bottles go, I have been raiding my neighbours’ recycling bins for empty wine botttles that I then give the Miltons treatment and I bought a cheap hand-corker and some corks from Wilkinson’s for only about £4 for the corker and £1 for the corks. They do also sell packs of six empty wine bottles for about £3 so it’s always a good idea to pop into one if you have a large one near you.
Hi Minamoo,
Thanks so much for these tips! The Asda curry sauce at 6p a jar is cheaper than buying new jars. Milton is a good idea although a client taught me that bicarbonate of soda gets rid of smells like magic. Just sprinkle a little in a pot or a jar and rub in with a damp cloth and rinse. We use a cleaning solution for bottles and demi johns etc called WWP cleaner and steriliser. A 400g tub makes up to120 gallons. I buy most of this sort of thing on line (the art of brewing) as we live out in the sticks.
We don’t have a Wilkinson’s around here, unfortunately.
My winemaking book tips to link up with a local restaurant for bottles.
Hello to all Preserve heads… I highly recommend a company based in Bermondsey S.E London just off the old kent rd ,near tower bridge they are on-line www. frenchflint.com Though they are part of a big group they still offer a small but personal and slightly eccentric service thanks to Mary( i,m sure that’s her name) at the sales desk. Check them out or make the pilgrimage too see them, but beware you will buy so much more than you expected as they have so many great items…..enjoy.!
Hi Mark,
Thanks very much for giving the name of a good supplier. I’ve checked them out on the internet just now – what a great company!
I am over the moon right now. Went into the Lakeland shop in Bath and it turns out that they have discontinued their 500g Le Parfait jars so they’ve all been discounted to 99p each! I love their bargain corner! I also managed to get 6 1L ones for £6.99 and a jelly bag and stand for £3.79! I can’t wait to get back to Leeds so I can make your belgian pears and some quince jelly and membrillo!
Hi Minamoo,
Thanks for dropping by. Perhaps you were the cause of the snarl up on the Bath road this afternoon! Seriously, it’s great to hear about these offers. Le Parfait jars are pricey around here as they must be all over the UK. If I was in Bath I would be heading for Lakeland early tomorrow morning and thanking you again and again!
We have been pigging out on membrillo for lunch, the past few days.
I do so enjoy this blog and, as the winter weather means there isn’t much that can be done in the garden, I seek to discover other things to do with my time. My current obession if liqueurs – limoncello and ginger liqueur on the go at the mo – vanilla rum and lime Daiquiri next on the list. The cheapest place I have found for new clip-top botles is http://www.justpreserving.co.uk. A small range of designs, but good range of sizes and the delivery isn’t horrendous. Not as cheap as recycling (I do that too) – but perhaps others could let me know if they find anywhere cheaper. There are no home brew shops within a 20 mile radius, so online ordering is the way to go!
Ikea (bit of a nightmare to go to I admit) sells le parfait type jars very reasonably – the 0.5l ones are 97p each – I used these for my chutney before Christmas to give as gifts and they worked really well. They also do a 1l and 2l size too.
They also do a really pretty ribbed jar called “sagolik” (more pricey at £1.95) which I tried but wouldn’t use again as its rubber seal wasn’t very efficient.
I got some small oil/vinegar bottles from jamjarshop.com at a reasonable price and they made a great gift. They have a nice range of jars too and spare lids for all the jars I’ve got in the garage with missing lids!
I use a company called pattesons glass and do my own bottling, i think there website is http://www.jarsandbottles.co.uk , i make grape seed oil but they do glass jars and glass bottles for different purposes.
Hi Chris
Thanks for this tip!
Hi
I am the Sales Manager for a glass company (that supplies Thorne’s)and we also have ranges of Kilner and other jars/bottles some of which we would be happy to clear. Based in Dartford Kent
Please look at our Website http://www.jjpack.com
Thanks
Mike
Try http://www.headcook.co.uk/preserving.html they have most things you will need.
http://www.preserveshop.co.uk seem to have a good selection of jars and they sell them individually. I’ve bought packs of 12 etc in the past but it’s nice to choose lots of different shapes and sizes without having to buy too many.
Hi Mike, Martyn and Andrew
Thanks so much for these links.
You can still get swing top Grolsch bottles occasionally in the supermarket if you look out for them. Last year they had them in Morrisons and it was about £12 for 12 bottles. The drawback is that you have to find someone to drink the lager… These are also quite good for fizzy stuff (eg elderflower champagne). Empty Grolsch bottles are for sale on ebay at about £1 each!!
You can pretty up screw top wine bottles (surprisingly easy to persuade friends to save these). 70cl is quite a lot of liqueur to give away. Screw top wine bottles are very good for pasteurising apple juice, I have found.
Has anyone else found that the shape of a jar affects the set of jelly? It could just be coincidence, but I have made various batches of jelly this year and put it into recycled jam jars. Wide neck jars such as Bonne Maman don’t set as well as narrower neck jars, but the firmest set is with square jars such as Gu (Aldi).
1 litre Slom swing top bottles from Ikea for £2.03 are great for flavoured gin/vodka
I use Ware’s of Knutsford they are very good and very reasonable also Jamjar .com not quite as reasonable as Wares but have slightly different products.
I would say the shape of the jar has never affected the set of my jams and jellies
Hector do you use jam sugar with pectin added?
If like me you’ve haven’t read the instructions on the side of the pack …. I had quite a shock when one of my friends pointed out I should only boil the mixture for 4minutes!
Needles to say I now boil only 4 minutes no longer even if I use my own homemade pectin.
The set of jams and jellies are now much better. I have to confess I bought a Tefal jam maker as I’ve become to disabled to stand and make jam – it’s absolutely brilliant. Only problem is you can’t make more than 1kg at a time although I do 1.25 – 1.5 kg but it does splash rather a lot.
What a great blog! And a surprise to come across someone talking about us!
Freeman & Harding are close to my heart as it is my Dad’s business and I run the company. We pride ourselves on our helpful service and good quality products. I can honestly say that you won’t get a better service anywhere else, F&H always go out of their way for their customers. I’m also familiar with J&J as I used to work there and French Flint as we supply them some items.
We’ll always do better prices for larger orders and orders over £250 are free delivery on our website plus we’re always updating our range.
Off now to look at other articles on your site. Please pop along and visit our website again soon.
Cheers
Sarah