They’re everywhere: in your fancy cocktail bar and your down home country restaurant. In the hands of farmer’s market shoppers and 7-Eleven Slurpee slurpers. How did mason jars get to be so ubiquitous? How did they come to be embraced by the DIY canner and the hipster chicken & waffles restaurant? And what does their omnipresence tell us about the cultural cache of the South?

In this episode of Gravy, Gabe Bullard takes on the cultural politics of the Mason Jar: how it became hip, and what that hipness means.

Mason Jar with leather sleeve. Photo by Gabe Bullard.
Mason Jar with leather sleeve. Photo by Gabe Bullard.

You can find the panoply of jars supplied by Jarden Home Brands here.

Mascot-inscribed Mason Jar wine glasses. Photo by Linda Golden.
Mascot-inscribed Mason Jar wine glasses. Photo by Linda Golden.

A good crop of Mason Jar craft projects on Pinterest are here.

The Mason-Jar-fueled Twitter feud between John Kessler and Hugh Acheson is documented here.

John Kessler’s Atlanta Journal Constitution article decrying the trend of mason jars can be found here.

Heaven help you, if you want to turn your mason jar into a snowman, you CAN. (Photo courtesy of Club Chica Circle.)
Heaven help you, if you want to turn your mason jar into a snowman, you CAN. (Photo courtesy of Club Chica Circle.)
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