Don't Throw Out the Pickle Jar!

Uses for pickle jars: Make refrigerator pickles, save refrigerated leftovers, store grains, flours, sugars, etc., small ones can be used as drinking glasses, interesting ones (or not) can be flower vases, use one to hold buttons or craft supplies, make a candle in one, use one to hold gift goodies like homemade candy....

 Got a pickle jar? They're useful for so many things! One thing that might put you off though, is that pickle smell . The rubber gasket painted underneath the lid is the culprit. One way doesn't always work, so you may have to try several ways to remove the smell. 

The first thing to do is look for another lid. Maybe you'll be lucky and your jar will accept a used canning lid. You can sometimes put that inside the original lid and that does the trick. If that doesn't work, look for lids from other jars like peanut butter.

If that doesn't work , try wrapping the lid in newspaper and put it in a plastic bag for a day  or so. 

Or sprinkle it generously with baking soda and put it in a plastic bag. 

On a warm, sunny day, put the lid inside up so that the sun will strike it. Leave it there several hours. 

Again, time itself will remove the smell if you're patient enough. Leave the lid exposed to air in a safe place and forget about it for a week or so. 

Another thing that makes saving jars a problem is getting rid of the label. Some labels will soak off and some simply won't. That's because there are two kinds of glue. One is water soluble and one is fat soluble. Soaking a fat soluble glue wont do much other than take the top layer off. That will leave you with a sticky mess that won't wash off and makes a mess of any scrubber you try on it. 

The answer to that is to make sure the label is dry then apply fat or oil of any kind. The very best and fastest acting is lamp oil, or pure kerosene if you have it. Otherwise, try anything oily or fatty. Olive oil, vegetable oil, mineral oil and so on, will take a little while to absorb but once it does, you should be able to coax the label off. Be patient and let the oil do the work. 

The Sky is Falling!

 Or so they seem to keep saying. I opened my email this morning and it read like one of those tabloids I used to scan at the grocery store about who did what when and with whom and why. 

This governer did that, and Oh, my! That senator did that. She said that and he's in trouble about that. All while the poor people are struggling with COVID or paying back tuitions, or living rhough ice or storms or whatever. 

Not to diminish any of those things, but do you know what they're not talking about? They're not talking about prices going up and up and supplies still not stable. They're not talking about the weather affecting the crops or meat industries and they're not talking about how you and I are going to deal with those things. 

You have to dig around a little, then you could see someone talking about a 25% loss in wheat last year. You might read something about continuing drought conditions causing an effective drop in main crops across the west and midwest. You just might find something about how the last two to three years crop failures are catching up or a vague reference to an expected locust outbreak on the east coast. 

It's possible that someone out there is making some connections from crop failure to high prices and compounding it with COVID restrictions and mixing that with some politics. 

So, maybe the sky is looking a little gloomy, but if it really is falling, they're looking at the wrong pieces. 

You know what to do. Take advantage of sales, watch for those things that might be in short supply (higher prices) in the future, and watch your money carefully. It's your money, remember?