Interesting to discover that Mason jars are suddenly hip. A year ago, I learned how to make sauerkraut from cabbage and related vegetables (essentially: salt,

Interesting to discover that Mason jars are suddenly hip. A year ago, I learned how to make sauerkraut from cabbage and related vegetables (essentially: salt, compress, and seal). Now we regularly enjoy homemade kraut from various types of veggies. It's delicious if you like pickled vegetables, and contains lots of probiotics. And, of course, Mason jars are a useful component. I don't see how using Mason jars as drinking vessels furthers one's back-to-nature ambitions, but learning to use them for food fermentation and storage certainly does. My next project: making wine (and vinegar) from various fruits. I especially wish to make lychee wine, because that was my favorite drink while living in Taiwan as a college student, and it's hard to find here in the U.S. I recently bought a couple of Fido jars, made in Italy. Similar to Mason but they have these cool clasp-able lids that release the CO2 gas that is produced by fermentation without your needing to unscrew the lid every few hours as is the case with Masons. At least, so I'm told by a fellow sauerkraut maker. Am about to give it a try. Mason jars are definitely a lot cheaper, but each has its use I suppose. Ah, so nice to talk about something other than technology once in a while. Balm for the mind and for the stomach.