Could the most interesting thing in your pantry be the jar?

That old Ball jar holding your sourdough starter has a real and interesting story behind it. It could also have some real value that you might have overlooked. Before you put it in the yard sale, take a closer look. Odd lettering, unusual colored or wavy glass, and some easily overlooked markings might make you think twice about putting that fifty-cent sticker on it.

So, go grab a jar from your kitchen shelf or pantry and join Nancy May and Sylvia France as they show you how to decode and learn more about the mystery of that Ball or Mason Jar in your hand right now.

Yes, in this episode of Family Tree Food Stories, Nancy and Sylvia explore Ball Mason jar markings, colors, history, and clues to their real value. You'll learn why a factory mistake matters and why they matter. What those numbers on the bottom of each jar actually mean. And how kerosene cans become part of the story behind Grandma’s homemade jam jars.

From the inventor behind the Mason name to the jars we wash, refill, and refuse to throw away, this episode brings together foodies and everyday home cooks with collectible curiosities and something more personal: the things we make in the kitchen from scratch, or a box, and the stories we've heard and share with family and friends.

Five things you’ll learn:

• Ball jar identification: What embossed lettering and bottom markings can tell you about your jar.
• Old Mason jar value: Why rarity and condition matter—and old doesn’t automatically mean valuable.
• Blue and purple Mason jars: The clues in colored glass and the limits of using color to judge age.
• Collectible jar mistakes: Why some manufacturing imperfections attract collectors’ attention.
• Ball and Mason jar history: The kerosene connection and the inventor who didn’t share in his name’s lasting success.

Send us a picture of your Mason Ball jars and the story behind what you do with them.

Even if it's collecting loose change or nuts and bolts. Send us your stories on our Facebook page at: Family Tree Food & Stories Group

Subscribe to Family Tree Food Stories, share this episode with your family’s molded-salad defender, and visit podcast.familytreefoodstories.com for more deliciously strange stories hiding in plain sight.

Additional Links Shared:❤️

• Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon
• Instagram Story updates 📸
• Facebook Family Tree Food Stories GROUP👍
• TikTok: Family Tree Food Stories
• 👇Share Your Story With Nancy & Sylvia!: Leave us a voicemail
• You can send us a DM on Facebook.

Next Thursday: we're jumping into the secrets behind the famous Ball canning jars and why people love them. We learned a ton here too.

About Your Award-Winning Hosts:

Nancy May and Sylvia France are the powerhouse team behind Family Tree, Food & Stories, a member of The Food Stories Media Network, which celebrates the rich traditions and connections everyone has around food, friends, and family meals. Nancy, an award-winning business leader, author, and podcaster, and Sylvia, a visionary author, foodie, and business leader, combine their expertise to bring captivating stories rooted in history, heritage, and food. Together, they weave stories that blend history, tradition, and the love of food, where generations connect and share intriguing mealtime stories and kitchen foibles.

If you missed the first time around... now's your time to listen to Family Tree Food & Stories and get inspired to make better use of what’s already in your kitchen. Then visit our page to share how you're using your leftovers this year. Waste less. Cook smarter. Tell the story behind your fridge.

"Every Meal Has a Story, and Every Story is a Feast." (tm) is a trademark of the Family Tree Food & Stories podcast. (c) Copyright 2026. All US and International Rights Reserved.

@familytreefoodstories #familytreefoodandstories #foodie #foodpodcast #MasonJars #BallMasonJars #FoodHistory #historypodcast #podcastrecommendations

Before we start, we wanna tell you about a podcast that Sylvia and I both enjoy

It's called Beach Speaks, hosted by Paige Friend.

Her voice makes you feel like you've stepped onto Sand and you can finally exhale

and she tells the stories about the ocean, nature, wellness, and life.

And they leave you feeling calmer than when you started

You don't have to live near the beach for it to work.

She brings the beach to you

So the next time you have a rough day, please go to The Beach

Speaks at TheBeachSpeaks.com So what do you say we get on with the show?

Ohm.

So before the Ball brothers made the mason jars that live in your pantry, they made cans for kerosene

Yes, they did.

Cans wrapped in wood, believe it or not, and they were given $200 or borrowed $200 from an uncle to start their company

The tin kept rusting through, so they tried lining the cans with guess what?

Glass

Which is how a company that originally sold lamp fuel ended up on your pantry shelf

And before the jar existed, most people only had four ways to get through that cold, tough winter

Correct.

And when it came to preserving and putting up food, they would either salt it, smoke it, dry it, or pickle it.

So Sylvia, what do you say?

Let's go get one of those jars out of the cabinet

Or out of the refrigerator 'cause it had pickles in it

Ooh, yum.

On that note, welcome to Family Tree Food and Stories.

I'm Nancy May

And I'm Sylvia France.

Thank you for being here.

I'm glad you're listening today

Yes, and blush, blush.

We are award-winning podcasters twice over now, and this week we are on week three of our Kitchen Sleuth series

The stories behind the ordinary things in your kitchen and the occasional heirloom, hopefully.

So hello to Ashburn, Virginia

Ashburn, Virginia, hello.

And to all our friends and people that we don't know yet in Yorktown Heights, New York, darling.

So Sylvia, what do you say we drink to that one?

Jars up or glasses up?

Oh, no.

Yes

your hoo-ha wine glasses that you love telling everybody about

No, darling.

This one is a red wine in my mason jar, but I do prefer my thin-rimmed French wine glasses, honestly

I don't drink out of jars either, except when I have no choice at a restaurant or maybe a good Bloody Mary.

Yet, here we are

Absolutely.

So to Chateau de La Maison Ball.

Shall we say ching ching or clunk clunk since we have mason

it's gonna be definitely clunk, clunk

Right here.

I think I can do this right here.

There we go.

all right.

We're going to read a jar together, or a couple, front to back, and you can do it with us

if you are not driving and listening to us and at home, go

grab one of your own mason jars or canning jars out of your own pantry.

One jar at a time, So we don't lose you, we'll be working on this together

You go first.

Which one are you holding, Nancy?

Well, right now I actually have two, but I'm holding little one that says Golden Harvest Mason

Well, mine's a ball.

It says ball wide mouth

Of course, wide mouth.

Hey, be nice.

I will.

But two different jars, and believe it or not, the same company from both of them

Because Mason isn't a brand, it's just the kind of jar

Which means exactly what, Sylvia?

A man named Mason patented the screw top closure in 1858.

The patent ran out in 1879

So what happened after 1879?

Anybody could make a jar and call it a Mason.

It's kinda like saying Thermos or Kleenex or a Hoover

Or a Hoover.

Okay, I got that one.

and the Golden Harvest and the Ball are actually, as I said before, the same companies

Yes.

They're two names the same company, It's Newell Brands which owns actually Ball, Kerr, and Golden Harvest

And a bunch of other stuff.

We'll talk about that later.

But the same owner, three names, and three different shelves,, so you have a choice

Well, I guess the name on the front is a marketing decision, as we know well

Yes, all too well sometimes.

But now let's read what else is on that jar.

Everything that isn't the brand, okay?

Okay, let's go here.

So mine says, "Made in

the USA." I also have, um, on one side it's in milliliters, which

I think is funny 'cause that's where it says Made in the USA.

And then it also has cups and ounces, and I realize it has two lines that straddle both sides of the measuring

And my little Golden Harvest mason jar, very simple.

No measurements, no nothing.

It Just, says Golden Harvest registration mark, Mason on the bottom in a larger type, and a pretty little symbol.

I guess it's really a cornucopia if you look at it from the angle,

mine's kind of like apples and grapes and pears kind of with simply ornamental around it design.

pretty

So only one of those is a claim anyone has to prove.

So which one is it?

Of course it's mine.

Th- a federal rule behind made in the USA.

All or virtually all of it made here, and it's even traced back to the sand that was used to make the glass.

Ooh

And if the ja- and if a jar says nothing at all

Then you learn nothing, honestly, just like my Golden Harvest.

Because nobody's required to say anything about it

But on your other jar, what does it say?

My, on the other jar it says, "Made to last." Kinda like me.

But the most important statement of the two has to speak up

It does.

By law, like you said earlier, anything made in another country

carries the country's name or some sort of designation on it.

It has to be cast into the glass, and that's what it takes

So silent isn't a proof or another marketing slogan

Absolutely.

It's just quiet, and mine is a slogan.

, and nobody has to prove a word of it So there's one more name on the front that we should actually talk about

I, my guess it's ball.

It was five brothers and a woman nobody mentions

Oh, nasty, nasty, but who is that woman?

Not that she's nasty,

Well, we like to find those women, you know?

That's, we've done it in many of our series.

it was actually Frances Ball.

She was married to George, one of the five

What did Francis do?

Well, starting around 1905, she collected canning recipes and wrote them all down by hand

Hmm, whose recipes did she write down?

Of course, family, friends.

Then she and George tested them in their own kitchen

Testing?

I'll test a lot, but I'm not sure I would test everybody's recipes.

What did she test for?

There were two things actually.

It was accuracy and taste.

And I want to be careful there because people kind of exaggerate that

How so?

you'll hear that she tested for safety.

The family's own archive says accuracy and taste, and those are not the same claim as safety

Absolutely not.

But what did the book turn into?

- Sylvia France: The correct method of preserving fruit, which kind of

sounds hoity-toity to me, but later it got renamed the Ball Blue Book

Okay.

Don't get me started on Blue Ball Book or Ball Blue Book.

Kind of like the, I guess, the pickle that doesn't bounce or them

Soft pickle,

Saw pickles, right, in a previous show.

Ugh, don't get me going.

But anyway, it was a canning bible, and everybody's grandmother at the time had one

I wish I had one now.

So a woman wrote it at her kitchen table and the company's name went on the cover

And not hers, sadly

No, not hers.

But actually there's a foundation in Muncie carrying her name so she isn't lost entirely

Which is a good thing, but just not on the book . And

there's something you should know if you still have one of those copies

Well, I wish I did, so please tell me more

Of course I will.

Anything printed before 1994 is totally out of date.

Like you would think so, right?

And the method changed.

Some of it, or most of it, is just totally out of date because it's not safe

So you keep the book and you get recipes from somewhere that's more current

Correct.

.. The National Center for Home Food Preservation is where you get the

correct information today, and it's free, and all standardized

So . now hold your jar to the light and look at the glass itself

Okay, I'm doing that.

Mine is clear.

What exactly am I supposed to be looking for?

Well, this time it's color mostly

Then let me do this one because I had it completely backwards

Backwards how?

Well, I thought that the purple jars that I've seen

every now and then were actually blue that had faded in the sun.

Apparently there's a paper in an archeology journal, and it isn't that at all

So please tell, what is it?

. Nancy May: Well, , there's iron in almost all of the sand that the glass is made out of.

Iron is what gives you that aqua color

So are you telling me that sought-after blue is actually an accident?

, Nancy May: Correct.

- The factory started adding manganese to cancel the iron out and get clear glass, 'cause they want it to be that way

So did it work?

It did work, - and what nobody knew was that the

decades of sunlight actually turns manganese or mag- manganese,

say that three times fast, purple or pople.

so the purple is the stuff they added to kill blue.

It kinda sounds like that purple shampoo that's all the rage

I haven't seen the purple shampoo, but it's coming

back in a different color , on a windowsill, not in a factory.

Now we're gonna take a second look and look for bubbles or wavy glass surface

So is that damage?

No, that's how it was made, and the collectors pay a lot more for the really wavy, bubbly glass.

They call it character, darling

I like that.

Which brings us to the question

whether that dusty box in the garage is worth anything

So is it?

Well, mostly no.

Common jars run about 5 to $35, depending upon size and how they're closed

So what about the ones that aren't common?

Well, that is, the key here.

There are errors, the backwards letters, a missing one, a logo stamped the wrong way.

Those got pulled off the lines when they were originally manufactured.

So anything that's left, they're pretty scarce

So are you telling me a mistake is worth more than the perfect one?

Correct.

A mistake is.

A damaged one, well, that's just the opposite.

Chips, cracks, and broken necks

How much does that damage cost you?

Who, who, uh, a lot.

A collector reported that one books around $8,000 if perfect, and selling for only , 750 if the neck is cracked or broken

Well, I'm not a math scholar, but it sounds like about 10 cents on the dollar

Maybe a little less, but now let's go to the bottom.

We're gonna turn the glasses over, or the jars over, because

there's something on the bottom of mine that I can't quite identify

Three things actually, and I only know what one of them is

So hang tight.

We're gonna keep you in suspense.

We'll be right back.

So we're back, Sylvia, and what are we doing?

The bottom of your jar what's on it?

So a number, a symbol, and a little cluster of raised dots

So start with a number because that's the one I actually know

All right, so, um, mine says 20.

If I'm looking at the big ball jar it says 20, and then there's, looks like a horseshoe on it

Well, the number is the mold number.

It tells you which cavity of the machine formed the jar

Not the year?

Not the year, and that's the single most common mistake people make

Well, I don't like to make mistakes, but you'll read online that

the numbers 11 through 15 are actually scarce numbers on the bottom of those jars

Ha ha, I have 14 on mine.

So on antique jars, which brings us to the symbol

Yep, the one that looks like a little horseshoe or an omega, depending upon how you turn it

That's actually a glassmaker's mark, and it belongs to a company called Ardagh

You know, I'd never heard of them before

They're headquartered in Luxembourg.

Several of their plants are in Indiana

. , Nancy May: where they're located in Indiana is only a few

counties over from where the Ball brothers built their first plant

Ball shut the Muncie plant in 1962, but they had operations there up until 1998

And the glass is still coming out of Indiana made by somebody else entirely

So the name on the front is the brand and the mark on the bottom is the maker

Correct.

Now, let's move on to the dots because I had a theory about those dots.

You know, just as the side of the glass or the jar turns into the bottom of the jar

Let me guess your theory

Okay.

Well, my theory was braille.

Somebody who couldn't see what was actually on the jar, I thought if you ran your finger over it, kind

of like the ADA regulations, that they'd be able to figure it out

Well, that's the most common guess and you're kind of half right

So half right?

Like, tell me exactly how I am right or

not

Well, it's actually a code, kind of like braille, and it's meant to be read, but just not by a human

Not by human, and I'm gonna guess not by my, AI friend George

Nope, it's a machine it's the mold number again, written so a scanner can quickly catch it

and you look at the bottom where you've got those

rings around the whole base, all those tiny dots around the base

Yes, that's . texture.

It keeps the jars from scratching each other coming down the line and help

with the thermal shock since the glass is actually hotter than the conveyor belt

Hmm, that's pretty interesting

Now, take off that lid because that's where the whole story actually lives and gets interesting

, Nancy May: so let me take this one from here.

John Landis Mason was a tinsmith.

We're talking about the tin lids now, and he worked in metal, not in glass

So you're telling me that the name on a mason jar, and he never actually made the jar?

Correct, not one jar at all.

What he patented in 1858 was the closure or the threads on the neck

and the metal cap that screwed it down tight on top of them

Can you tell me more about this rubber ring?

That's the part that actually seals it

Yeah, it is.

And he waited 10 years to patent that ring, and it cost him literally everything

Why would anybody wait that long?

It just doesn't make sense.

He must have not been a very good business person

I know.

I don't know whether it was cost or just laziness or not knowing any better, but nobody really knows why.

And a court decided that his delay, laziness, or whatever it was, meant that he had actually walked away from owning

that patent, and he lost the rights to everything, even though he had a patent

So he lost his own invention.

It sounds like a story I've heard before

Yeah, like the Knox gelatin folks.

But that's true, . and then his first patent, official patent, ran out in

1879, and after that anybody could make a Mason jar and owe him absolutely nothing.

No wonder the guy died penniless, right?

Well, that got me to my next question is what really happened to him?

Well, as I said, he died in 1902.

He had eight kids.

With eight kids to feed, you'd think he'd move a little faster.

And he died in a tenement in New York City, poor as a church mouse

So how many jars have his name on it?

Well, that's part of his legacy, uh, although it didn't bring him any money.

But a glass researcher named David Whitten puts the ball-perfect mason jar alone in hundreds of millions manufactured.

Probably over a billion is my guess

Wow.

A man who patented a lid lost it and died broke

And the two-part lid that we know today , and is even

more popular than ever, that one actually belongs to Alexander Kerr

So you're telling me that nothing is really about the jar

Nope, none of it.

It's all about the lid, and that's the part that you throw away

I know that after one use when canning, the seal compound breaks down and you can't trust it a second time

No, you can't because that's the safety protection mechanism.

and believe it or not, remember back in 2020, you know, the COVID era

Oh, I remember it well

Well, you probably also remember if you can, which I know you don't can, but you do jarring

and other things, there was a run on those lids in the grocery store and you couldn't find them anywhere.

Kind of like you couldn't find yeast or bread flour

Well, someday I'm gonna tell you about the 100 pounds of tomatoes that I bought during COVID.

That was my project.

I didn't buy 100 pounds of anything over COVID.

it's a fun story.

So it was not the jars, it was the lids, and you couldn't find them for months

That's correct.

Almost like the toilet paper too, as well.

Mm. That was more important to us.

I thought you had leaves in the backyard, you told

We do.

We had leaves in the backyards in Connecticut in the woods, but that's a little TMI.

the glass outlives us all, and the lid is only good for one afternoon of canning

Yep, until you open it, which is why I'll give you two things that actually do work with mine

Uh, so which too

So, and I don't need the special lids, but it's dry storage

for flour, rice, sugar, anything the pantry moths wanna get in.

And a tight lid will stop those bugs pretty cold

So which kind of lid do you use?

Because that truly matters

Correct.

It's the plastic storage cap, not the canning lid.

The, reusable and it seals every time

And the second thing

Well, that one is yours, I think

Of course it is.

So it's a Sharpie.

It's my secret weapon to my Mason jars.

And ironically, it's owned by the same company that makes the Mason jars, which is Newell Brands or Newell Rubbermaid.

So I take the marker straight into the glass, and for my sourdough starter, I use it as a baseline so I know

when the starter has doubled, and I also put the date on it since I only feed my starter once a week, I admit

Well, yeah, I get that, but most people also use a rubber band around the jar or, some

other marking beyond a Sharpie to mark the level of their sourdough

I know, but they're a pain in the royal rear end to get on, and then the rubber bands roll off.

A line on the glass doesn't

I get that.

And it comes off, the one that you use, because I thought a permanent marker, well, was actually permanent

Not in the dishwasher, my secret weapon.

So every time, for me at least, I can get it off without lifting a finger

Well, honestly, I have tried the Sharpie, but it doesn't come off of mine.

I have to scrub it first and it stays right there.

I have to really scrub.

I think it has to do with the fact that we have well water and you don't

Yes, I have good St. Pete water, which we won't go into that.

But to, honestly, I think it sounds like your Sharpie marker is ghosting you.

So it's the same marker, same jar

And different machines

And water.

So whether that writing survived really has nothing to do with either of us

No, it doesn't, but we have another story.

I'll let you start, Sylvia

Well, you're the one that told me this story, which I thought was absolutely a hoot and a half, that your

sister who lives in Oklahoma, who you were gonna get all this canning info for for our episode, came back with that she

no longer cans anymore, and she uses her mason jars for storage of her wine corks

Yeah.

I'm guessing my sister has become quite the wino.

so Bob and I are driving asking her this question, and, um, she's telling me about all the wine corks

she's putting in there, and we also laughed and said, "We're presuming

that you're not including the screw caps." And she laughed and said, "No."

But I almost peed in my pants when Bob said, "So how many wine corks do you

have, and are you pressing them for a second vintage?" You know snarky Bob.

It's kind of like fine wine, like women,, with the older we get, the better we get.

And I guess that even clu- includes

if you're picking your corks in a Mason jar.

So, you know, one of the ways that we bonded is you were so kind enough to open your home to me, and you have everything.

So I was like, "What do I bring?"

So I brought some of Fred, my sourdough starter, because you had

told me that you had killed your sourdough starter more than once.

So, so, I wanted to give you the best chance it could, so I actually gifted you one of my wide-mouthed Ball jars

that included the Sharpie marker so you knew exactly how to do it.

And if I remember correctly, I even brought you the flour and the water.

So You

Because you didn't realize that we had well water, which works, but

know, but, you know, it, it was one of those that I wanted you to have a positive experience, and

since then I, that you've called me a couple times that I've, been your,

you know, call a person when you're having trouble with your starter.

my sourdough panic person call.

What is it, like, with Who Calls Amelia?

It's like phone a friend.

Right.

sourdough friend.

Absolutely.

We've got neighbors who are now doing sourdough, but the date on the jar that you gave me is long gone.

Sorry.

I know, it washed off.

So the only reason either of us knows it, it, what the jar came out is what we remember, and I also noticed it

was the w- jar that you used with your wine in the toast when we started.

Clink, clink.

Not the glass, that's for sure

, Sylvia France: So there was not one thing about who used it when we did the identification.

That's where we're getting into next.

It's important to know who used it and what they used it for

Correct.

So five things to take away

One, the front.

Write down every word in order, just not the brand.

Also include that if it's script or if it's in block Mason is a kind of jar, not the maker

Two, the glass.

Aqua is iron in the sand.

Purple is manganese, manganese, may say that correctly, and sunlight.

And bubbles, yes, they do add a lot of character

But I'm gonna put a warning here, because a lot of people and a lot of companies are, have

the blue and then also the purple and then the amber, and it's fake.

So what they're trying to do is have the jars look like they're old, and they're

actually new.

So you just need to be careful on that one.

So Three, the bottom.

A number and a dot cluster on the mold.

The symbol is the glass maker

And four, what is it worth?

Well, errors and character add up.

Chips and cracks take away up to 90% of the value

Five, what it will never tell you.

The jar records the factory.

You have to record the person and what was put in it

So here's what we're gonna suggest.

Take a picture of the jar that you have, write down who gave it to you, if it was a gift or not, and what they kept in it

Somewhere that isn't on the jar and preferably not in Sharpie marker.

No.

Because that rubs off.

, "And you likely know somebody with a box of these in their garage."

I bet you do.

Send her this episode and tell her the dots aren't braille

Correct, yes.

And better yet, tell her go to Family Tree Food Stories or

Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories and our Facebook page.

Also Family Tree Food Stories and the group where she can listen

because, you know, every meal has a story and every jar holds a feast.

Or at least a good drink

oh, definitely.

So on that note, Sylvia, what do you say?

Jars up?

To Frances Ball, who sat at her own kitchen table and wrote it all out by hand

Ooh, who does that anymore?

And to John Mason, who patented the lid and never saw a dime of it

Next Thursday, we're gonna be doing the recipe box

Yes, the recipe box.

I don't have recipe boxes, but I have a bunch of other recipes that mom gave me.

Someone actually took pictures and blocked them all together and put them in a box somewhere.

If not yours, someplace else

Well, it's the whole idea.

It's a metaphorical box.

It's keeping the recipes that we love

And till next time

happy cooking and happy experimenting.

Now to let me get back to my fancy French wine glasses

I thought it would be the Terry bounce.

I'm gonna finish off my healthy drink 'cause it has celery in it, my bloody Mary

Bye-bye.