Glass canning jars are absolutely ridiculous here in Belgium. I garden and I am going to scale up my gardening next year, so I need to get into canning and preserving again.
If you live in the US, you could get a 12 pack of standard mason jars in a store for https://www.target.com/p/ball-16oz-12pk-glass-regular-mouth-mason-jar-with-lid-and-band/-/A-12794405 under $15.
Here, any sort of glass jar is no cheaper than 20€ for 6 online and in stores it is often 5-10€ per jar, depending on size!! That is 300% more expensive on the cheap end here. It is not super sustainable to have to spend 200 euros on glass jars to can your extra fruit and vegetables.
Is there a secret to finding reasonably-priced glass canning jars that some people have found? I would reuse glass jars that I get from the store, but you are not supposed to reuse the lids because they degrade and will let in harmful bacteria and let things oxidize.
I used to find them at secondhand shops, and I also reused the ones I got from the store.
if you have a pressure cooker you can sterilize them, and the lids aren’t going to fail right away.
that said, i eventually did just buy a case of new jars because I wanted the right jars for the job and uniform materials.