The shape of jam jars

matters.

I did not make marmalade last year. There was no point. I eat very little of it. The Senior Cat ate it on his breakfast toast but of course he was no longer here to eat it. Everyone else I know seemed to have a glut of it and was offering me some instead. 

Other people are still giving me jam jars. I accept those because they can be useful for other things.

But the shape matters. If I want to store things in a jam jar. It has to be right size and the right shape for the purpose. 

There is a French brand of jam you can buy in the supermarkets here. It is, as bought jam goes, rather nice I suppose. It is certainly popular. The problem is that it comes in tall, skinny jars. How do you get the jam out?  Once the jam is gone how do you wash the jar? What do you fill it with after that? How do you get out whatever you have filled it with when you want it? 

Then there are the jars used by the local firm  in the hills behind us. These are slightly shorter. They are a little wider. They contain about the same amount of jam. Yes, a little easier to get really clean I suppose. I have reused those from time to time. It's a nice quantity to give away too.

And there are those jars from my childhood - on the very rare occasions my mother made anything like that. (Spare fruit in our house was rare and, if there was some, it was bottled in the old Vacola jars.) Those jars are still the same. The sides slope gently upwards and they are relatively easy to clean. The top is wide enough to fit many things in. (A friend used to make a batch of brandied cumquats every year and used these...not quite my "thing" I fear but no doubt a good use for them.) I use the same jars to store beads and buttons and other small things.

The best jars though are the marmalade jars from "that place" in the UK. You can actually buy the marmalade here in the supermarket... orange or lime. There are two varieties of orange, one of which is labelled "sweet" - and thus to be avoided by me. 

Those jars are not too tall. The top is wide and the spoon goes in neatly. You can get all the marmalade out with very little effort. The jars look plump and homely. 

The jars are perfect for reuse. In these I can store more buttons, more beads, more stray ends of pencils and crayons, the mini-clothes pegs and much more. 

Lining them up filled with these things is just as satisfying as making a batch of marmalade or jam. These jars are the perfect shape.  Shape matters in a jam jar.