Kilner jars

love my Kilner jars, and have been collecting them over the 20 years or so I've had my own house. They get well used every year, and I love bottling all sorts of fruit for winter, plus tomatoes. Mine have come from an assortment of sources - car boots, the tip, donated as no longer used, LETS, boot sales, etc. I've never bought a new one :) I do have a few more modern Le Parfait ones, but I don't feel the same affection for them as the true English Kilner! I spent an hour yesterday cleaning a boxful out ready for use; some of them are qutie old, and I've just ordered some new tops for them. There's another basketful in the shed to deal with, interspersed with jam jars, so I need to get on and get them done. I keep the full jars on the top shelf in the larder where it's cool and dark. My mother and granny bottled fruit as well, so it's continuing a family tradition, and it's very satisfying stepping back and surveying a shelf full of bottled fruit form the garden, or from foraging expeditions, or collected from/given by friends. It's lovely to have fruit and tomaotes ready to eat in the depths of winter, reminding you of the summer months watching and waiting for the fruit to reach its full ripeness for picking. As well as the fruit bottling, they have a lot of other sues - sloe gin, other liqueurs, beans, buttons - all sort of things. A woman can never have too many Kilner