Importance of Labeling

Labeling Jars

This may seem silly to you that we are even talking about labeling. Having a good labeling system can be very useful in more ways than you can imagine. Peepaw and I have had our system from the beginning. Basically we have three written lines on our labels;

1st Line: Our Name

2nd Line: The Content of the Jar

3rd Line: The Date

We put our name on the first line because we give so much away, and it’s nice for people to know when they use the product, who gave it to them. The second line will help because, ie. there are more than one kind of pickles and the label will let you know what is in the jar. Same for greens, they look a lot alike and without the label it would be a guess as to what is in the jar. Another thing about the second line is inventory, you can look through your jars quickly and know what is running low. The third line is important to know when you canned a favorite food, by the date, you can tell when that fruit or vegetable will be ripe and you can plan your next canning project. You can move your older jars to the front and help keep the jars from expiring.

The other day I heard a lady say that she puts a small number on the lower corner of the label. She numbers her cooking batches. This is in case a batch goes bad, she will only have to throw away the one batch. It is rare the a batch would go bad, however this would be nice to have if one did. We’ve never done this, we’re lucky that we never had a batch to go bad.