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Everything for the jar except the fruit

Preserving jars, water-bath canners, pectin and muslin, off the shelf in Greyton and couriered anywhere in the country.

See what is on the shelf

The counter in Main Road

Orders in before eleven are packed the same afternoon. Collections Thursday to Saturday, nine until two, from the counter in Main Road, Greyton. Everything else goes on the courier Monday and Thursday — R95 anywhere in the country, and free over R900.

Why we only sell the empty jar

There is no shortage of people in this valley selling you jam. What there is a shortage of is the jar it goes into, the lid that seals it, and somebody who can tell you why last season's batch went cloudy by August. We started on a kitchen counter in 2018 with forty cases bought off a hotel that was closing in Caledon, and it turned out half the district had been driving to Somerset West for the same thing. Everything on the shelf now is plain undecorated glass and honest hardware — no printed labels, no gift boxes, nothing you are paying extra to throw away. The fruit here runs apricots from late November, figs and plums through January, quince in April and Seville oranges in July, and we stock to that calendar rather than to a catalogue.

The apricots start in the last week of November

Quince follows in April and the Seville oranges land in July. Order jars and lids before the fruit does — everybody in the valley wants them in the same fortnight, and so does the courier.

Order for the season
Jars washed and warmed in the oven
Jars washed and warmed in the oven
Twenty minutes at a rolling boil
Twenty minutes at a rolling boil
The lid dips when the seal takes
The lid dips when the seal takes
Dated in pencil, shelved a year
Dated in pencil, shelved a year

Jars, canners and everything in between

Tell us what you are putting up

Every batch is a slightly different problem. Twelve kilos of figs off one tree wants a different setup to a season of chutney for the church bazaar, and anybody bottling tomatoes properly needs a pressure canner and not the water bath on this page. Send us the fruit, the quantity and roughly what you want at the end of it, and we will write back with a list and a price before you spend anything. There is no charge for the asking and no obligation after it.

Send us your details

Your name, a phone number and what you are putting up this season. We answer inside a working day. 028 254 9017 · Main Road, Greyton · Thursday to Saturday, nine until two.