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Is Your Old Mason Jar Worth Money? 5 Clues to Check · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:07
  Nancy May: Before we start, we wanna tell you about a podcast that Sylvia and I both enjoy
• 0:13
  Sylvia France: It's called Beach Speaks, hosted by Paige Friend.
• 0:16
  Her voice makes you feel like you've stepped onto Sand and you can finally exhale
• 0:21
  Nancy May: and she tells the stories about the ocean, nature, wellness, and life.
• 0:26
  And they leave you feeling calmer than when you started
• 0:30
  Sylvia France: You don't have to live near the beach for it to work.
• 0:32
  She brings the beach to you
• 0:35
  Nancy May: So the next time you have a rough day, please go to The Beach
• 0:39
  Speaks at TheBeachSpeaks.com So what do you say we get on with the show?
• 0:45
  Sylvia France: Ohm.
• 0:49
  So before the Ball brothers made the mason jars that live in your pantry, they made cans for kerosene
• 0:57
  Nancy May: Yes, they did.
• 0:58
  Cans wrapped in wood, believe it or not, and they were given $200 or borrowed $200 from an uncle to start their company
• 1:06
  Sylvia France: The tin kept rusting through, so they tried lining the cans with guess what?
• 1:11
  Glass
• 1:11
  Nancy May: Which is how a company that originally sold lamp fuel ended up on your pantry shelf
• 1:18
  Sylvia France: And before the jar existed, most people only had four ways to get through that cold, tough winter
• 1:25
  Nancy May: Correct.
• 1:25
  And when it came to preserving and putting up food, they would either salt it, smoke it, dry it, or pickle it.
• 1:33
  So Sylvia, what do you say?
• 1:35
  Let's go get one of those jars out of the cabinet
• 1:38
  Sylvia France: Or out of the refrigerator 'cause it had pickles in it
• 1:40
  Nancy May: Ooh, yum.
• 1:42
  On that note, welcome to Family Tree Food and Stories.
• 1:44
  I'm Nancy May
• 1:46
  Sylvia France: And I'm Sylvia France.
• 1:47
  Thank you for being here.
• 1:49
  I'm glad you're listening today
• 1:51
  Nancy May: Yes, and blush, blush.
• 1:52
  We are award-winning podcasters twice over now, and this week we are on week three of our Kitchen Sleuth series
• 2:01
  Sylvia France: The stories behind the ordinary things in your kitchen and the occasional heirloom, hopefully.
• 2:07
  So hello to Ashburn, Virginia
• 2:10
  Nancy May: Ashburn, Virginia, hello.
• 2:12
  And to all our friends and people that we don't know yet in Yorktown Heights, New York, darling.
• 2:19
  So Sylvia, what do you say we drink to that one?
• 2:23
  Jars up or glasses up?
• 2:25
  Sylvia France: Oh, no.
• 2:27
  Nancy May: Yes
• 2:28
  Sylvia France: your hoo-ha wine glasses that you love telling everybody about
• 2:32
  Nancy May: No, darling.
• 2:34
  This one is a red wine in my mason jar, but I do prefer my thin-rimmed French wine glasses, honestly
• 2:43
  Sylvia France: I don't drink out of jars either, except when I have no choice at a restaurant or maybe a good Bloody Mary.
• 2:52
  Yet, here we are
• 2:54
  Nancy May: Absolutely.
• 2:55
  So to Chateau de La Maison Ball.
• 2:59
  Shall we say ching ching or clunk clunk since we have mason
• 3:04
  Sylvia France: it's gonna be definitely clunk, clunk
• 3:06
  Nancy May: Right here.
• 3:07
  I think I can do this right here.
• 3:09
  There we go.
• 3:11
  Sylvia France: all right.
• 3:12
  We're going to read a jar together, or a couple, front to back, and you can do it with us
• 3:18
  Nancy May: if you are not driving and listening to us and at home, go
• 3:22
  grab one of your own mason jars or canning jars out of your own pantry.
• 3:26
  One jar at a time, So we don't lose you, we'll be working on this together
• 3:31
  Sylvia France: You go first.
• 3:32
  Which one are you holding, Nancy?
• 3:34
  Nancy May: Well, right now I actually have two, but I'm holding little one that says Golden Harvest Mason
• 3:41
  Sylvia France: Well, mine's a ball.
• 3:42
  It says ball wide mouth
• 3:45
  Nancy May: Of course, wide mouth.
• 3:47
  Sylvia France: Hey, be nice.
• 3:50
  Nancy May: I will.
• 3:51
  But two different jars, and believe it or not, the same company from both of them
• 3:56
  Sylvia France: Because Mason isn't a brand, it's just the kind of jar
• 4:00
  Nancy May: Which means exactly what, Sylvia?
• 4:02
  Sylvia France: A man named Mason patented the screw top closure in 1858.
• 4:06
  The patent ran out in 1879
• 4:09
  Nancy May: So what happened after 1879?
• 4:12
  Sylvia France: Anybody could make a jar and call it a Mason.
• 4:15
  It's kinda like saying Thermos or Kleenex or a Hoover
• 4:20
  Nancy May: Or a Hoover.
• 4:20
  Okay, I got that one.
• 4:23
  and the Golden Harvest and the Ball are actually, as I said before, the same companies
• 4:27
  Sylvia France: Yes.
• 4:28
  They're two names the same company, It's Newell Brands which owns actually Ball, Kerr, and Golden Harvest
• 4:35
  Nancy May: And a bunch of other stuff.
• 4:37
  We'll talk about that later.
• 4:38
  But the same owner, three names, and three different shelves,, so you have a choice
• 4:43
  Sylvia France: Well, I guess the name on the front is a marketing decision, as we know well
• 4:48
  Nancy May: Yes, all too well sometimes.
• 4:50
  But now let's read what else is on that jar.
• 4:53
  Everything that isn't the brand, okay?
• 4:56
  Sylvia France: Okay, let's go here.
• 4:57
  So mine says, "Made in
• 5:00
  the USA." I also have, um, on one side it's in milliliters, which
• 5:06
  I think is funny 'cause that's where it says Made in the USA.
• 5:09
  And then it also has cups and ounces, and I realize it has two lines that straddle both sides of the measuring
• 5:18
  Nancy May: And my little Golden Harvest mason jar, very simple.
• 5:22
  No measurements, no nothing.
• 5:24
  It Just, says Golden Harvest registration mark, Mason on the bottom in a larger type, and a pretty little symbol.
• 5:31
  I guess it's really a cornucopia if you look at it from the angle,
• 5:34
  Sylvia France: mine's kind of like apples and grapes and pears kind of with simply ornamental around it design.
• 5:41
  Nancy May: pretty
• 5:41
  Sylvia France: So only one of those is a claim anyone has to prove.
• 5:45
  Nancy May: So which one is it?
• 5:47
  Sylvia France: Of course it's mine.
• 5:49
  Th- a federal rule behind made in the USA.
• 5:53
  All or virtually all of it made here, and it's even traced back to the sand that was used to make the glass.
• 6:00
  Nancy May: Ooh
• 6:00
  Sylvia France: And if the ja- and if a jar says nothing at all
• 6:05
  Nancy May: Then you learn nothing, honestly, just like my Golden Harvest.
• 6:09
  Because nobody's required to say anything about it
• 6:12
  Sylvia France: But on your other jar, what does it say?
• 6:14
  Nancy May: My, on the other jar it says, "Made to last." Kinda like me.
• 6:20
  Sylvia France: But the most important statement of the two has to speak up
• 6:24
  Nancy May: It does.
• 6:24
  By law, like you said earlier, anything made in another country
• 6:28
  carries the country's name or some sort of designation on it.
• 6:31
  It has to be cast into the glass, and that's what it takes
• 6:35
  Sylvia France: So silent isn't a proof or another marketing slogan
• 6:40
  Nancy May: Absolutely.
• 6:41
  It's just quiet, and mine is a slogan.
• 6:45
  , and nobody has to prove a word of it So there's one more name on the front that we should actually talk about
• 6:50
  Sylvia France: I, my guess it's ball.
• 6:52
  It was five brothers and a woman nobody mentions
• 6:55
  Nancy May: Oh, nasty, nasty, but who is that woman?
• 6:58
  Not that she's nasty,
• 7:00
  Sylvia France: Well, we like to find those women, you know?
• 7:02
  That's, we've done it in many of our series.
• 7:05
  it was actually Frances Ball.
• 7:07
  She was married to George, one of the five
• 7:10
  Nancy May: What did Francis do?
• 7:12
  Sylvia France: Well, starting around 1905, she collected canning recipes and wrote them all down by hand
• 7:18
  Nancy May: Hmm, whose recipes did she write down?
• 7:21
  Sylvia France: Of course, family, friends.
• 7:23
  Then she and George tested them in their own kitchen
• 7:27
  Nancy May: Testing?
• 7:27
  I'll test a lot, but I'm not sure I would test everybody's recipes.
• 7:31
  What did she test for?
• 7:33
  Sylvia France: There were two things actually.
• 7:35
  It was accuracy and taste.
• 7:37
  And I want to be careful there because people kind of exaggerate that
• 7:43
  Nancy May: How so?
• 7:44
  Sylvia France: you'll hear that she tested for safety.
• 7:46
  The family's own archive says accuracy and taste, and those are not the same claim as safety
• 7:52
  Nancy May: Absolutely not.
• 7:54
  But what did the book turn into?
• 7:57
  - Sylvia France: The correct method of preserving fruit, which kind of
• 8:01
  sounds hoity-toity to me, but later it got renamed the Ball Blue Book
• 8:07
  Nancy May: Okay.
• 8:08
  Don't get me started on Blue Ball Book or Ball Blue Book.
• 8:12
  Kind of like the, I guess, the pickle that doesn't bounce or them
• 8:16
  Sylvia France: Soft pickle,
• 8:17
  Nancy May: Saw pickles, right, in a previous show.
• 8:20
  Ugh, don't get me going.
• 8:22
  But anyway, it was a canning bible, and everybody's grandmother at the time had one
• 8:27
  Sylvia France: I wish I had one now.
• 8:29
  So a woman wrote it at her kitchen table and the company's name went on the cover
• 8:33
  Nancy May: And not hers, sadly
• 8:35
  Sylvia France: No, not hers.
• 8:37
  But actually there's a foundation in Muncie carrying her name so she isn't lost entirely
• 8:43
  Nancy May: Which is a good thing, but just not on the book . And
• 8:46
  there's something you should know if you still have one of those copies
• 8:50
  Sylvia France: Well, I wish I did, so please tell me more
• 8:54
  Nancy May: Of course I will.
• 8:55
  Anything printed before 1994 is totally out of date.
• 8:59
  Like you would think so, right?
• 9:01
  And the method changed.
• 9:03
  Some of it, or most of it, is just totally out of date because it's not safe
• 9:08
  Sylvia France: So you keep the book and you get recipes from somewhere that's more current
• 9:13
  Nancy May: Correct.
• 9:14
  .. The National Center for Home Food Preservation is where you get the
• 9:17
  correct information today, and it's free, and all standardized
• 9:22
  Sylvia France: So . now hold your jar to the light and look at the glass itself
• 9:26
  Nancy May: Okay, I'm doing that.
• 9:28
  Mine is clear.
• 9:28
  What exactly am I supposed to be looking for?
• 9:31
  Sylvia France: Well, this time it's color mostly
• 9:34
  Nancy May: Then let me do this one because I had it completely backwards
• 9:38
  Sylvia France: Backwards how?
• 9:40
  Nancy May: Well, I thought that the purple jars that I've seen
• 9:43
  every now and then were actually blue that had faded in the sun.
• 9:47
  Apparently there's a paper in an archeology journal, and it isn't that at all
• 9:53
  Sylvia France: So please tell, what is it?
• 9:55
  . Nancy May: Well, , there's iron in almost all of the sand that the glass is made out of.
• 9:59
  Iron is what gives you that aqua color
• 10:02
  Sylvia France: So are you telling me that sought-after blue is actually an accident?
• 10:06
  , Nancy May: Correct.
• 10:07
  - The factory started adding manganese to cancel the iron out and get clear glass, 'cause they want it to be that way
• 10:14
  Sylvia France: So did it work?
• 10:15
  Nancy May: It did work, - and what nobody knew was that the
• 10:19
  decades of sunlight actually turns manganese or mag- manganese,
• 10:24
  say that three times fast, purple or pople.
• 10:29
  Sylvia France: so the purple is the stuff they added to kill blue.
• 10:32
  It kinda sounds like that purple shampoo that's all the rage
• 10:36
  Nancy May: I haven't seen the purple shampoo, but it's coming
• 10:39
  back in a different color , on a windowsill, not in a factory.
• 10:43
  Now we're gonna take a second look and look for bubbles or wavy glass surface
• 10:48
  Sylvia France: So is that damage?
• 10:51
  Nancy May: No, that's how it was made, and the collectors pay a lot more for the really wavy, bubbly glass.
• 10:57
  They call it character, darling
• 10:59
  Sylvia France: I like that.
• 11:00
  Which brings us to the question
• 11:02
  Nancy May: whether that dusty box in the garage is worth anything
• 11:07
  Sylvia France: So is it?
• 11:09
  Nancy May: Well, mostly no.
• 11:10
  Common jars run about 5 to $35, depending upon size and how they're closed
• 11:17
  Sylvia France: So what about the ones that aren't common?
• 11:20
  Nancy May: Well, that is, the key here.
• 11:22
  There are errors, the backwards letters, a missing one, a logo stamped the wrong way.
• 11:28
  Those got pulled off the lines when they were originally manufactured.
• 11:32
  So anything that's left, they're pretty scarce
• 11:36
  Sylvia France: So are you telling me a mistake is worth more than the perfect one?
• 11:40
  Nancy May: Correct.
• 11:41
  A mistake is.
• 11:42
  A damaged one, well, that's just the opposite.
• 11:45
  Chips, cracks, and broken necks
• 11:47
  Sylvia France: How much does that damage cost you?
• 11:50
  Nancy May: Who, who, uh, a lot.
• 11:52
  A collector reported that one books around $8,000 if perfect, and selling for only , 750 if the neck is cracked or broken
• 12:03
  Sylvia France: Well, I'm not a math scholar, but it sounds like about 10 cents on the dollar
• 12:08
  Nancy May: Maybe a little less, but now let's go to the bottom.
• 12:12
  We're gonna turn the glasses over, or the jars over, because
• 12:15
  there's something on the bottom of mine that I can't quite identify
• 12:19
  Sylvia France: Three things actually, and I only know what one of them is
• 12:23
  Nancy May: So hang tight.
• 12:24
  We're gonna keep you in suspense.
• 12:26
  We'll be right back.
• 12:32
  So we're back, Sylvia, and what are we doing?
• 12:35
  Sylvia France: The bottom of your jar what's on it?
• 12:38
  Nancy May: So a number, a symbol, and a little cluster of raised dots
• 12:43
  Sylvia France: So start with a number because that's the one I actually know
• 12:47
  Nancy May: All right, so, um, mine says 20.
• 12:50
  If I'm looking at the big ball jar it says 20, and then there's, looks like a horseshoe on it
• 12:55
  Sylvia France: Well, the number is the mold number.
• 12:57
  It tells you which cavity of the machine formed the jar
• 13:00
  Nancy May: Not the year?
• 13:01
  Sylvia France: Not the year, and that's the single most common mistake people make
• 13:05
  Nancy May: Well, I don't like to make mistakes, but you'll read online that
• 13:10
  the numbers 11 through 15 are actually scarce numbers on the bottom of those jars
• 13:15
  Sylvia France: Ha ha, I have 14 on mine.
• 13:18
  So on antique jars, which brings us to the symbol
• 13:23
  Nancy May: Yep, the one that looks like a little horseshoe or an omega, depending upon how you turn it
• 13:28
  Sylvia France: That's actually a glassmaker's mark, and it belongs to a company called Ardagh
• 13:32
  Nancy May: You know, I'd never heard of them before
• 13:34
  Sylvia France: They're headquartered in Luxembourg.
• 13:36
  Several of their plants are in Indiana
• 13:39
  . , Nancy May: where they're located in Indiana is only a few
• 13:41
  counties over from where the Ball brothers built their first plant
• 13:45
  Sylvia France: Ball shut the Muncie plant in 1962, but they had operations there up until 1998
• 13:52
  Nancy May: And the glass is still coming out of Indiana made by somebody else entirely
• 13:57
  Sylvia France: So the name on the front is the brand and the mark on the bottom is the maker
• 14:01
  Nancy May: Correct.
• 14:02
  Now, let's move on to the dots because I had a theory about those dots.
• 14:06
  You know, just as the side of the glass or the jar turns into the bottom of the jar
• 14:12
  Sylvia France: Let me guess your theory
• 14:13
  Nancy May: Okay.
• 14:14
  Well, my theory was braille.
• 14:17
  Somebody who couldn't see what was actually on the jar, I thought if you ran your finger over it, kind
• 14:22
  of like the ADA regulations, that they'd be able to figure it out
• 14:26
  Sylvia France: Well, that's the most common guess and you're kind of half right
• 14:31
  Nancy May: So half right?
• 14:32
  Like, tell me exactly how I am right or
• 14:35
  not
• 14:35
  Sylvia France: Well, it's actually a code, kind of like braille, and it's meant to be read, but just not by a human
• 14:42
  Nancy May: Not by human, and I'm gonna guess not by my, AI friend George
• 14:47
  Sylvia France: Nope, it's a machine it's the mold number again, written so a scanner can quickly catch it
• 14:52
  Nancy May: and you look at the bottom where you've got those
• 14:55
  rings around the whole base, all those tiny dots around the base
• 14:59
  Sylvia France: Yes, that's . texture.
• 15:01
  It keeps the jars from scratching each other coming down the line and help
• 15:04
  with the thermal shock since the glass is actually hotter than the conveyor belt
• 15:10
  Nancy May: Hmm, that's pretty interesting
• 15:11
  Sylvia France: Now, take off that lid because that's where the whole story actually lives and gets interesting
• 15:18
  , Nancy May: so let me take this one from here.
• 15:20
  John Landis Mason was a tinsmith.
• 15:22
  We're talking about the tin lids now, and he worked in metal, not in glass
• 15:27
  Sylvia France: So you're telling me that the name on a mason jar, and he never actually made the jar?
• 15:33
  Nancy May: Correct, not one jar at all.
• 15:36
  What he patented in 1858 was the closure or the threads on the neck
• 15:41
  and the metal cap that screwed it down tight on top of them
• 15:45
  Sylvia France: Can you tell me more about this rubber ring?
• 15:48
  That's the part that actually seals it
• 15:50
  Nancy May: Yeah, it is.
• 15:51
  And he waited 10 years to patent that ring, and it cost him literally everything
• 15:57
  Sylvia France: Why would anybody wait that long?
• 15:59
  It just doesn't make sense.
• 16:01
  He must have not been a very good business person
• 16:03
  Nancy May: I know.
• 16:04
  I don't know whether it was cost or just laziness or not knowing any better, but nobody really knows why.
• 16:10
  And a court decided that his delay, laziness, or whatever it was, meant that he had actually walked away from owning
• 16:18
  that patent, and he lost the rights to everything, even though he had a patent
• 16:22
  Sylvia France: So he lost his own invention.
• 16:25
  It sounds like a story I've heard before
• 16:27
  Nancy May: Yeah, like the Knox gelatin folks.
• 16:30
  But that's true, . and then his first patent, official patent, ran out in
• 16:34
  1879, and after that anybody could make a Mason jar and owe him absolutely nothing.
• 16:42
  No wonder the guy died penniless, right?
• 16:44
  Sylvia France: Well, that got me to my next question is what really happened to him?
• 16:49
  Nancy May: Well, as I said, he died in 1902.
• 16:52
  He had eight kids.
• 16:53
  With eight kids to feed, you'd think he'd move a little faster.
• 16:57
  And he died in a tenement in New York City, poor as a church mouse
• 17:01
  Sylvia France: So how many jars have his name on it?
• 17:04
  Nancy May: Well, that's part of his legacy, uh, although it didn't bring him any money.
• 17:08
  But a glass researcher named David Whitten puts the ball-perfect mason jar alone in hundreds of millions manufactured.
• 17:18
  Probably over a billion is my guess
• 17:21
  Sylvia France: Wow.
• 17:22
  A man who patented a lid lost it and died broke
• 17:26
  Nancy May: And the two-part lid that we know today , and is even
• 17:29
  more popular than ever, that one actually belongs to Alexander Kerr
• 17:34
  Sylvia France: So you're telling me that nothing is really about the jar
• 17:38
  Nancy May: Nope, none of it.
• 17:39
  It's all about the lid, and that's the part that you throw away
• 17:43
  Sylvia France: I know that after one use when canning, the seal compound breaks down and you can't trust it a second time
• 17:50
  Nancy May: No, you can't because that's the safety protection mechanism.
• 17:54
  and believe it or not, remember back in 2020, you know, the COVID era
• 17:58
  Sylvia France: Oh, I remember it well
• 18:00
  Nancy May: Well, you probably also remember if you can, which I know you don't can, but you do jarring
• 18:05
  and other things, there was a run on those lids in the grocery store and you couldn't find them anywhere.
• 18:11
  Kind of like you couldn't find yeast or bread flour
• 18:14
  Sylvia France: Well, someday I'm gonna tell you about the 100 pounds of tomatoes that I bought during COVID.
• 18:19
  That was my project.
• 18:21
  Nancy May: I didn't buy 100 pounds of anything over COVID.
• 18:23
  Sylvia France: it's a fun story.
• 18:25
  So it was not the jars, it was the lids, and you couldn't find them for months
• 18:30
  Nancy May: That's correct.
• 18:31
  Almost like the toilet paper too, as well.
• 18:34
  Mm. That was more important to us.
• 18:36
  Sylvia France: I thought you had leaves in the backyard, you told
• 18:38
  Nancy May: We do.
• 18:39
  We had leaves in the backyards in Connecticut in the woods, but that's a little TMI.
• 18:44
  Sylvia France: the glass outlives us all, and the lid is only good for one afternoon of canning
• 18:50
  Nancy May: Yep, until you open it, which is why I'll give you two things that actually do work with mine
• 18:57
  Sylvia France: Uh, so which too
• 18:58
  Nancy May: So, and I don't need the special lids, but it's dry storage
• 19:02
  for flour, rice, sugar, anything the pantry moths wanna get in.
• 19:06
  And a tight lid will stop those bugs pretty cold
• 19:10
  Sylvia France: So which kind of lid do you use?
• 19:13
  Because that truly matters
• 19:15
  Nancy May: Correct.
• 19:15
  It's the plastic storage cap, not the canning lid.
• 19:19
  The, reusable and it seals every time
• 19:22
  Sylvia France: And the second thing
• 19:24
  Nancy May: Well, that one is yours, I think
• 19:27
  Sylvia France: Of course it is.
• 19:28
  So it's a Sharpie.
• 19:30
  It's my secret weapon to my Mason jars.
• 19:34
  And ironically, it's owned by the same company that makes the Mason jars, which is Newell Brands or Newell Rubbermaid.
• 19:42
  So I take the marker straight into the glass, and for my sourdough starter, I use it as a baseline so I know
• 19:49
  when the starter has doubled, and I also put the date on it since I only feed my starter once a week, I admit
• 19:58
  Nancy May: Well, yeah, I get that, but most people also use a rubber band around the jar or, some
• 20:03
  other marking beyond a Sharpie to mark the level of their sourdough
• 20:08
  Sylvia France: I know, but they're a pain in the royal rear end to get on, and then the rubber bands roll off.
• 20:13
  A line on the glass doesn't
• 20:15
  Nancy May: I get that.
• 20:16
  And it comes off, the one that you use, because I thought a permanent marker, well, was actually permanent
• 20:23
  Sylvia France: Not in the dishwasher, my secret weapon.
• 20:25
  So every time, for me at least, I can get it off without lifting a finger
• 20:31
  Nancy May: Well, honestly, I have tried the Sharpie, but it doesn't come off of mine.
• 20:34
  I have to scrub it first and it stays right there.
• 20:38
  I have to really scrub.
• 20:39
  I think it has to do with the fact that we have well water and you don't
• 20:43
  Sylvia France: Yes, I have good St. Pete water, which we won't go into that.
• 20:47
  But to, honestly, I think it sounds like your Sharpie marker is ghosting you.
• 20:52
  So it's the same marker, same jar
• 20:55
  Nancy May: And different machines
• 20:56
  Sylvia France: And water.
• 20:57
  So whether that writing survived really has nothing to do with either of us
• 21:02
  Nancy May: No, it doesn't, but we have another story.
• 21:05
  I'll let you start, Sylvia
• 21:07
  Sylvia France: Well, you're the one that told me this story, which I thought was absolutely a hoot and a half, that your
• 21:12
  sister who lives in Oklahoma, who you were gonna get all this canning info for for our episode, came back with that she
• 21:21
  no longer cans anymore, and she uses her mason jars for storage of her wine corks
• 21:29
  Nancy May: Yeah.
• 21:30
  I'm guessing my sister has become quite the wino.
• 21:34
  so Bob and I are driving asking her this question, and, um, she's telling me about all the wine corks
• 21:40
  she's putting in there, and we also laughed and said, "We're presuming
• 21:42
  that you're not including the screw caps." And she laughed and said, "No."
• 21:47
  But I almost peed in my pants when Bob said, "So how many wine corks do you
• 21:51
  have, and are you pressing them for a second vintage?" You know snarky Bob.
• 21:56
  Sylvia France: It's kind of like fine wine, like women,, with the older we get, the better we get.
• 22:00
  And I guess that even clu- includes
• 22:02
  if you're picking your corks in a Mason jar.
• 22:06
  So, you know, one of the ways that we bonded is you were so kind enough to open your home to me, and you have everything.
• 22:13
  So I was like, "What do I bring?"
• 22:15
  So I brought some of Fred, my sourdough starter, because you had
• 22:19
  told me that you had killed your sourdough starter more than once.
• 22:24
  So, so, I wanted to give you the best chance it could, so I actually gifted you one of my wide-mouthed Ball jars
• 22:32
  that included the Sharpie marker so you knew exactly how to do it.
• 22:36
  And if I remember correctly, I even brought you the flour and the water.
• 22:41
  So You
• 22:43
  Nancy May: Because you didn't realize that we had well water, which works, but
• 22:45
  Sylvia France: know, but, you know, it, it was one of those that I wanted you to have a positive experience, and
• 22:50
  since then I, that you've called me a couple times that I've, been your,
• 22:54
  you know, call a person when you're having trouble with your starter.
• 22:58
  Nancy May: my sourdough panic person call.
• 23:01
  Sylvia France: What is it, like, with Who Calls Amelia?
• 23:03
  It's like phone a friend.
• 23:05
  Nancy May: Right.
• 23:05
  sourdough friend.
• 23:07
  Absolutely.
• 23:07
  We've got neighbors who are now doing sourdough, but the date on the jar that you gave me is long gone.
• 23:13
  Sorry.
• 23:14
  Sylvia France: I know, it washed off.
• 23:15
  So the only reason either of us knows it, it, what the jar came out is what we remember, and I also noticed it
• 23:22
  was the w- jar that you used with your wine in the toast when we started.
• 23:27
  Nancy May: Clink, clink.
• 23:28
  Not the glass, that's for sure
• 23:31
  , Sylvia France: So there was not one thing about who used it when we did the identification.
• 23:35
  That's where we're getting into next.
• 23:37
  It's important to know who used it and what they used it for
• 23:41
  Nancy May: Correct.
• 23:41
  So five things to take away
• 23:44
  Sylvia France: One, the front.
• 23:45
  Write down every word in order, just not the brand.
• 23:48
  Also include that if it's script or if it's in block Mason is a kind of jar, not the maker
• 23:56
  Nancy May: Two, the glass.
• 23:58
  Aqua is iron in the sand.
• 24:00
  Purple is manganese, manganese, may say that correctly, and sunlight.
• 24:06
  And bubbles, yes, they do add a lot of character
• 24:10
  Sylvia France: But I'm gonna put a warning here, because a lot of people and a lot of companies are, have
• 24:15
  the blue and then also the purple and then the amber, and it's fake.
• 24:20
  So what they're trying to do is have the jars look like they're old, and they're
• 24:23
  actually new.
• 24:25
  So you just need to be careful on that one.
• 24:27
  So Three, the bottom.
• 24:29
  A number and a dot cluster on the mold.
• 24:32
  The symbol is the glass maker
• 24:34
  Nancy May: And four, what is it worth?
• 24:36
  Well, errors and character add up.
• 24:39
  Chips and cracks take away up to 90% of the value
• 24:43
  Sylvia France: Five, what it will never tell you.
• 24:45
  The jar records the factory.
• 24:47
  You have to record the person and what was put in it
• 24:50
  Nancy May: So here's what we're gonna suggest.
• 24:53
  Take a picture of the jar that you have, write down who gave it to you, if it was a gift or not, and what they kept in it
• 25:00
  Sylvia France: Somewhere that isn't on the jar and preferably not in Sharpie marker.
• 25:05
  Nancy May: No.
• 25:06
  Because that rubs off.
• 25:07
  , "And you likely know somebody with a box of these in their garage."
• 25:11
  Sylvia France: I bet you do.
• 25:12
  Send her this episode and tell her the dots aren't braille
• 25:17
  Nancy May: Correct, yes.
• 25:18
  And better yet, tell her go to Family Tree Food Stories or
• 25:21
  Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories and our Facebook page.
• 25:25
  Also Family Tree Food Stories and the group where she can listen
• 25:29
  because, you know, every meal has a story and every jar holds a feast.
• 25:34
  Sylvia France: Or at least a good drink
• 25:35
  Nancy May: oh, definitely.
• 25:37
  So on that note, Sylvia, what do you say?
• 25:39
  Jars up?
• 25:39
  Sylvia France: To Frances Ball, who sat at her own kitchen table and wrote it all out by hand
• 25:44
  Nancy May: Ooh, who does that anymore?
• 25:46
  And to John Mason, who patented the lid and never saw a dime of it
• 25:51
  Sylvia France: Next Thursday, we're gonna be doing the recipe box
• 25:54
  Nancy May: Yes, the recipe box.
• 25:56
  I don't have recipe boxes, but I have a bunch of other recipes that mom gave me.
• 26:00
  Someone actually took pictures and blocked them all together and put them in a box somewhere.
• 26:06
  If not yours, someplace else
• 26:08
  Sylvia France: Well, it's the whole idea.
• 26:09
  It's a metaphorical box.
• 26:11
  It's keeping the recipes that we love
• 26:14
  Nancy May: And till next time
• 26:15
  Sylvia France: happy cooking and happy experimenting.
• 26:18
  Nancy May: Now to let me get back to my fancy French wine glasses
• 26:22
  Sylvia France: I thought it would be the Terry bounce.
• 26:23
  I'm gonna finish off my healthy drink 'cause it has celery in it, my bloody Mary
• 26:28
  Nancy May: Bye-bye.