The secret life of used jars

I was amused and had this conniving grin when I read David Lebovitz post on his jar collection. He mused that he is a jar collector, which should be fine since has a use for his stock of jars. He is an avid jam maker. I am not a jam maker and I'm not a fan of jams either. The closest thing to jam that I've actually eaten is the apple sauce that goes with roast pork and the Swedish lingonberry sauce that goes with the beef meatballs from Ikea. So maybe this is an awakening of sorts. As I was inspired to make the Easy Jam Tart, maybe jams should not be far from our home preparation repertoire. And as David said, jams are excellent gifts to give away too.

Before I came cross his jar musings, I have been contemplating for some time now about my own collection of Moccona Coffee jars. Les Jars was my excuse to keep my own collection of used jars. After I read his post, I took out all the empty jars from our cupboard and took stock. Some are already being used for lollies, used birthday candles, cotton balls, coffee, tea leaves, oats, polenta, sugar, etc. For some time now, I have been secretly concocting a plan to sweetly dispose these good looking reusable jars. Seriously, I have had the sweet temptation to make: almond biscotti, or coffee meringue kisses for the past 2 Christmases. I have wanted to make baked goods to give us Christmas presents ever since I started drinking this brand of instant coffee. David may not like my amateurish taste for instant coffee and my jars. They do look a bit boring compared to his variety of jar collection with their colourful designed and textured lids. If it were not for their reusable factor, these jars would have seen the best of their lives inside the recycling bin and then onto the Chullora Recycling Facility. My grandmother had a similar amusing take on recycling. She’s reused Nescafe coffee jars as drinking glasses, old biscuit and cookie tins into sewing kits, and used unwanted t-shirts sewed together into floor mats or rags.

This is not something we should deny – yes, we hoard and reuse jars and bottles! Yes, it does seem like borderline OCD. But hey, aren’t we doing our bit for the environment? At least we can say, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by 10kg worth of coffee jars. I do promise this. As we accumulate more and more coffee jars, we lose cupboard pantry space, its time to learn to make those meringue and biscotti treats. First we need to practice making them, so it will actually look sweet and tempting in these jars. Does anyone have a use for egg cartons?