| Way back in the day when I was training to be a chef, we had to spend 1 afternoon a week for year making different preserves, and I have only started again recently. I find that if you use a kilner jar with the rubber seal they work great, as do normal jars that you sterilise with screw on lids. My sister got a whole load of wax discs (really just wax paper cut into diff size circles so you could do that yourself to use) so I pop those on if I use normal jars. You can also use plain parafin wax to seal with but have never tried that. Most of the jams and chutneys I have made have been fine without. I try to seal then when still quite hot and that makes it very airtight. I think the trick is to full the jar really full so you have as little air as possible in it which is where the problems can come in. Also when you fill the jars, make sure there are no little airbubbles as that can cause contamination too. I am so with you on making all your own stuff and bugger the supermarkets - one of the reasons I am dying to move out of London so I can have my own garden!!! Window boxes are just not enough currently!!!! There are some really good books about on amazon for jams and preserving. I have one called "clearly delicious" not sure if it is still in print though because it is quite old. I adore making preserved fruits like apricots in light lavender and brandy syrup etc. Something else that is amazing is doing your own flavoured vinegars - I am lucky enough to have a vinegar mother plant, so make from there. Also flavoured and infused oils. Moroccan preserved lemons are fantastic and add a brilliant element to cooking and are very easy to make. I am also obsessed with sourdoughs. I make my own cultures and then make bread from there. I did discard my 2 last cultures, but time to make some fresh ones. Would you like me to bung a couple of nice jam and preserve recipes up for ya? And don't be daunted just go ahead and make some, best way to learn is trial and error and it is such fun. I came home on Thursday and made loads of fresh apricot conserve, which for me was total Summer in a bottle - sorry to wax lyrical here, but ooh I love it soooo much!!!
Jez
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