Orchard Road Mason Jars

A friend of mine told me about a new manufacturer of Mason Canning Jars called Orchard Road.  I am a lover of jars and just had to find out more about them so I searched the web and found  their website.    I contacted the company about their jars and they sent me some samples to try and see how I liked them in comparison to others I had used.  I am doing this post to tell you about this GREAT NEW JAR, but before I recommended it to others I wanted to get an answer to a few questions.

I ask them where their product was manufactured because I know that most of us love to buy American made products.  The person getting back to me with my information is Mike Furmanski and here's the answer he gave me when I ask about where they were made.

Our products do come from China.  There wasn’t a USA supplier willing to make the small quantities we needed to get started as a company.  I worked at Jarden Home Brands(Ball Kerr) for 12 years so I understand the importance of quality in these products for the canning process.  Our jars are slightly heavier than a Ball jar giving it a higher thermal shock rating and our lid manufacturer has been making canning lids for over 6 years and the plastisol(Sealant) comes from Pennsylvania. 

I ask him if the lids were BPA free.  Here's his reply.

           Yes our lids are BPA FREE, we will be calling that out with our next packaging run.

Finally I wanted to know if the jars contained any lead. He gave me a full explanation. Yes they do contain some lead. Here's how he explained it.

  Yes, our jars just like Ball jars do contain lead. Our level is 13 parts per million while the Ball Jars we tested were 23 parts per million. Both underneath the 100 per million threshold as an acceptable level. Lead is not in the raw materials of glass but in the heating process lead does transfer to the glass. We have test results if you’d like to see those but I’m including a comment from the chemist who did the testing below.

Click to read the Chemist comment 

With this information I feel good about recommending their jars. I am hoping to see them prosper and one day soon be able to have them manufactured in America.

Now to tell you a few things that I like about the jars.

Great Simple Design

They are simply designed with smooth sides except for the name. This is a great feature for those of us that like using pretty labels on our jars.

Yes, they did great in the Water Bath

I made Apple Pie Jam and it was a huge success!

I felt the real test of quality would come from pressure canning so I chose to try some pumpkin for this. This pumpkin was canned for 55 minutes at 10 pounds pressure using both Orchard Road and Ball Jars.  The jars did great!

What about the lids?  

The lids have a nice design leaving plenty of room for you to use a sharpie and write in the date and name of what's in the jar.  All of my jars sealed and after a month on the shelf they are still sealed.  They are standard size lids and rings and will fit other regular mouth jars.

Packaged to prevent breakage

They are packaged well to prevent breakage  and come six jars to a carton.

Sizes Available

Wondering where you can buy these great new jars.  Just visit their site.

Orchard Road Website