Sidenote

On the issue of buying used instead of new, I made a positive step today. Every few months I clean out closets and take my used items to Goodwill. For a few weeks now I've been carrying around some things in the back of the truck to take to Goodwill for donation. After all the reading lately about reusing, not buying new, and canning your own food, I got to thinking about checking to see if Goodwill had any glass containers for food storage for things like dried beans, nuts, etc. So I loaded up my donation items and drove to the donation drop-off area at the local Goodwill which is less than a mile away. Then I popped inside to check out the housewares section.

And what do you know? They had some great canning jars. I snatched up 7 pint-size Ball jars for $.30 each and 3 quart-size ones for $.5o each! Score! Now when Mom and I put up artichoke relish this year we won't have to buy as many new jars. My goal would be to have enough used jars that we don't have to buy any new ones. I will keep checking back and will check other thrift stores in the course of my travels to see if I can find more. I didn't find the glass containers, but I'll keep my eye out for those, too.