Preserves and liqueurs: where can I buy jars and bottles?
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Kitchen equipment, Liqueurs | 30 comments
You can buy beautiful new bottle online
“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.
Leave a reply
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 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…”
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!