Good Ole Agee Jars

There are two things that I am crazy about at the moment.  The first is Crown Lynn (thanks Ness) and the other is agee jars.  What’s agee jars for those not from New Zealand?  They are NZ’s equivalent to Mason Jars and I have loads … although I’m not sure I have quite as many as my good friend Ness.

Agee jars are vintage now a days, but I remember as a child being surrounded by them when mum or my aunty was preserving and helping them peel peaches with the old school peeler that was attached to the old table.  I’m sure most of the peaches didn’t’ make it into the pot as mum always used golden queen peaches - the best peaches in the world.  The smell of them simmering in the pot, pouring them into the sterilised agee jars, then sealing them with their screw lids and putting them in the cupboard for a rainy day.  They were good memories as a child and I’d like to think I have learnt from those experiences in preserving. I love to preserve but can’t find myself to give away my agee jars with my preserves so tend to make batches in a variety of old jars.  The agee jars stay with me, and the older jars go out to friends and family. 

Anyway back to the jars.  Yip they are vintage now a days, but were a dim a dozen so long ago.  Funny how you take things for granted when you are young and then when you get older see an art in something old and it's because of this that I started to collect them as time went on.  


Of course not all people understood my passion for these jars.  When I lived in Wiltshire, my sister Deanne was disgusted at all these jars I had collected and couldn’t see the need for them all.  “Do you really need all these jars?” she would say to me and in reply I would smile and say “Yes Deanne I do”.  "Yes but do you need all these different size jars?" she would add.  "Yes Deanne, I do"  I would reply.  One thing you must understand about my sister Deanne is that she likes the “minimalist look” therefore she likes to defrag and loathes clutter so when she sold her house and her and her whanau moved in with us, it took some adjusting, but that's topic for another blog.

Now I’m living at the Ponderosa, my agee jars are right at home in the old villa and some of the uses I have found for them is a must when you live in a house that has little to no storage - but I'm not complaining.  I’m all for recycling or using what you already have, so now I have a kitchen which is literally 10 times SMALLER than the one I used to have (including not having a draw for cutlery or utensils), I utilised my jars to hold my cutlery and these are just three of a few I have on my kitchen window.  Below is a combination of Agee Jam Jars and an Old Special Agee Jar.

Another recycled use for my jars is making a toothbrush holder for the bathroom because there is very little space in that room as well.  I spray painted the lid black, just in case one didn't turn out quite right, and simply placed the toothbrushes and toothpaste in the jar.  This looked great, but after a little time of getting settled, little things started appearing on the bathroom counter, so I decided to place another jar to house those objects.  I'm not 100% sold on the second jar as I'd like to convert a couple of my old crown lynn plates into a tiered storage for effect, but for now the jar works perfectly.

Another use I thought was great was a soap dispenser.  I saw this on a website and thought I'd like to give that a go.  So after spray painting the lids black (to go with the toothbrush holder) and using the old soap dispenser pumps we had ... here we have it.  It's dead easy to make and I think it look great!!  I now have 3 in the house thanks for my beautiful husband helping me here :-)  

I also used alot of my jars at my recent house warming party as a vase to hold flowers as I was going for the rustic look.  I filled the bottom of the jars with sand and placed candles on top and hung them or rested them on the tables.  I placed fairy lights in the trees and dangled some jars from the trees with some of the fairy lights in them as well.  I'm just so disappointed I didn't get photo's of how it was set up as it looked absolutely fabulous.  In fact alot of people who turned up to the event thought we were throwing a secret wedding or renewing our marriage vowels :-) Hopefully some of my friends out there will lend me a couple so I can share the story of the house warming on another blog.


The possibilities are endless when it comes to these jars and you don't have to be limited on storage or preserving.  You could spray paint them and used them as decor in your house.  You can make a chandelier (yes I've seen it done and it looks great), serve individual desserts in them for your kids birthday party, or salads on the go.  You can serve cocktails out of them at your next cocktail party.  You can even use the jam jars as wine glasses.  I have ideas of using a couple of my jars as lights on the side of the chicken coop as well. I just have to convince my husband it's a great idea.  


If you any of the agee jars or any type of jar for that matter, use your imagination.  It could be your best feature and save you on stress and money.