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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Gifts: jam making

100 replies

Jasminty · 03/07/2016 20:30

Hi I am fairly new to this and wanted your opinion on if I can make jam for my family for christmas. Give them the jars and ask when finished if I can have them back so I can make more for next time.

They're quite expensive. I know I could look cheap asking for them back but ..... what do think would it be so bad?

OP posts:

SabineUndine · 03/07/2016 21:40

sorry, when THEY'VE finished.

gabsdot · 03/07/2016 21:44

I love homemade jam and I'd be delighted to receive a jar as a gift. But glass jars are cheap and plentiful so don't ask for them back

TroysMammy · 03/07/2016 21:49

You can get 12 jars and lids from Wilkinson. 190ml - £4, 300ml - £5. I've given work colleagues home made chutney and sloe gin for Christmas and they always give me the jars and bottles back, hoping they can have more. I don't ask for them back though.

GinThief · 03/07/2016 21:50

I love homemade jam, especially MILs strawberry jam. Would be very happy with it as a gift. But not sure it's such a great gift if you ask for jar back.

Notso · 03/07/2016 21:51

If I give anything homemade like this then I make the container part of the gift. So I would give it in a decent jar with a flip top lid that the recipient could reuse.

TheDuchessOfArbroathsHat · 03/07/2016 21:56

If you ask friends and family to save jars for you you'll soon have more than you know what to do with. Ask my DH - he curses me and my jar collection at every available opportunity! I always reuse jars then sterilise them comprehensively and always use new lids. You can get them from Lakeland (expensive) or from Here - and they do every size as opposed to one size only from Lakeland.

RestlessTraveller · 03/07/2016 22:04

Why don't you add a little note to the jam, something along the lines of. "This is an endless jar of jam, when it's empty just return it to me and it'll be filled again"

My DP did this for me last Christmas with a bottle of Chanel No 5. Best present EVER!

Sparkletastic · 03/07/2016 22:08

No to endless jam.
Yes to endless Chanel scent.

OhtoblazeswithElvira · 03/07/2016 22:10

Surprised at some of the things I'm reading here:

-homemade jam shouldn't go off quickly. It should last at least a year. If it goes off quickly it wasn't prepared or stored properly.

-if you forage or have access to your own fruit, or reasonably priced fruit, and are reusing jars then homemade jam is cheaper than shop bought (of comparable quality)

-I love my homemade jam, it sounds like a cliche but it's waaay better than shop bought. We usually make a year's supply of different fruits. I tend not to give any as gifts as I'm greedy!

OP I wouldn't ask for the jars back. Think about it, if you covered the jars with a piece of fabric and tied it with string, would you ask for the fabric and string back? It's part of the present I think.

Lunar1 · 03/07/2016 22:14

I love getting home made jams etc, ant will always save up jars to give back. But if it's for a Christmas gift you can't ask for the jar back. People will end up throwing away the jam and returning your jar ASAP.

myownprivateidaho · 03/07/2016 22:17

I love homemade jam. I think it's a nice gift, much nicer than most crafty gifts. But no you can't ask for the jars back. But you can save jars throughout the year or ask friends/coworkers to save old jars foryou.

thisonethennomore · 03/07/2016 22:26

I make loads of jam and marmalade and always ask for the jars back (I tend to use one specific shape). I don't give it as gifts though, just give to friends and family that want it.
I probably get 50% of the jars back and lots of people save their other jars for me.

Birdsgottafly · 03/07/2016 22:27

Can you have a general conversation about recycling?

If they are just recycling the jar, or worse binning it, then it's better to ask for it back.

I buy 'decent' jam and love homemade jam, especially black currant, damson etc.

I'd rather have edible gifts because I don't like stuff.

KissMyArse · 03/07/2016 22:32

I love homemade jam

I also wouldn't mind returning the jar.

Would prefer it to be accompanied by sloe gin or elderflower champagne as a Christmas gift though.

I guess it depends on how environmentally friendly your family and friends are though.

MapMyMum · 03/07/2016 22:34

User thats really wasteful to buy jam and throw it out to put in your homemade stuff. I get that its cheaper than buying empty jars but I couldnt just throw out perfectly edible food that could feed hungry people in order tomout my own version in.... id rather do jar collecting all year than be that wasteful

LaurieMarlow · 03/07/2016 22:37

Load of idiots in this thread for not appreciating home made jam. It's a lovely gift OP. And I wouldn't mind returning the jar at all.

Welshmaenad · 03/07/2016 22:41

I couldn't throw out food just to use the hat.

OP, Wares of Knutsford is your friend.

Scuttlebutter · 03/07/2016 22:48

I love both making and eating home made jam, marmalade and various fruit curds. We also do chutney and home made sloe gin. At Christmas I give jars of home made goodies to various friends and relations but they are generally also people who I know appreciate them. I save jars during the year so I've always got enough kicking around if I need to make a batch of anything, but it would be the height of rudeness to ask for the jar back.

I don't give them as the sole or main present - they are a very welcome supplement.

RobinsAreTerritorialFuckers · 03/07/2016 22:54

Depends very much on who you're giving it to.

I regularly give my mum jam or chutney as a present, and she always insists on giving me back the jar (or at least, a jar, as she isn't that precise). She often makes me marmalade and I do the same thing. But that is because it's a genuinely wanted gift, I think. I love getting her marmalade as I can't make it so well, and I make chutney to her mum's recipe which she always loved.

I think adults being grabby for presents is a bit unpleasant and I would judge people who didn't have the manners to be nice about getting a jar of home-made jam. But despite that, I do think giving it as a regular gift is something you should only be doing if you know it's really enjoyed.

KissMyArse · 03/07/2016 22:55

I couldn't throw out food just to use the hat

Where on earth do you shop

icy121 · 03/07/2016 23:06

PP who said something about crafty gifts being more about the crafters enjoyment than what people actually want - 👍👍 to that.

Homemade jam = fine if your family especially like jam, but every jar of jam I've ever been given has gone mouldy before I've finished it.

Also good quality jam is cheap anyway....

Make your own honey - now you're talking. Apparently locally produced honey helps with hayfever according to one website I saw once and keeping bees is way cooler than standing over a stove with a thermometer.

QueenOfNowt · 03/07/2016 23:08

I would dump any 'friend' who gave me jam.

Onedaftmonkey · 03/07/2016 23:08

A few years ago at Christmas my hard up step sister made everyone in the family a home made hamper. Think jam, fudge, cookies, hot chocolate, handicrafts ect. It was a beautiful present well received by all. I think that asking for the jars back is just a tad penny pinching. Over the year you must collect many of the buggers. Just let them go....

CanadaMoose · 03/07/2016 23:12

My grandmother makes the best strawberry jam I've ever tasted, and it would make a great present. But to then give the jar back? No - I'm also crafty and would reuse it myself. Jars aren't that expensive.

WillyWanker · 03/07/2016 23:15

Home made game is usually pretty gross.

And if you do decide to do it, don't ask for the jar back for gods sake.

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