If you were to come to our apartment, you'd notice that we have a ton of glass jars in all shapes and sizes, from the miniscule ones that capers come in, to the valu-sized peanut-butter jars. Especially prized are jars with the push-button lids, because when Karel makes jelly, he needs to have lids that can withstand boiling and baking. A few years ago, he decided to try brewing mead, and bought a ton of el-cheapo supermarket-brand honey. The mead was good, if young, and the jars now make up our incredibly-f*cking-awesome spice/herb rack.
There are two rather disturbing things about this: one is that we did actually consume that much peanut butter. Granted, it was over the course of two years, but it's still a TON of peanut butter. The second is that we do actually use the jars over and over and over again. We use them to store food, mostly--nuts, raisins, yeast, leftovers, pesto, stocks, etc. When Karel decides to make jam, he picks through our collection of glassware. When there's a spider that needs to be disposed of, it goes in a jar. Pens and pencils and matches--in a jar. Hardly a week goes by when we don't have a jar getting its label soaked off in the Perpetual Bucket.
In spite of the obviously frugal nature of the exercise, hoarding jars is not a particularly Dutch thing to do. It really just comes down to the fact that we find them so incredibly handy--as long as you don't fill it up all the way, leftovers can be frozen and instantly reheated in the microwave--and since they're practically free, why not?
I think this year we'll be starting up some summer plants again--I want to try planting courgettes and tomatoes again. A couple years ago I started getting lazy with the fertilizer, which wasn't good, and I've learned a few tricks or three about pH. Take a guess as to what I'll be starting the plants in... :-)
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