That's good to know info. Now where were you ladies when I was much younger and the brown sugar was hard as a brick?

Gramma knew what she was talking about! I put a slice of bread in the jar and the top half of the brown sugar is nice and soft. Not sure if the bread has to be closer to the bottom half to get the bottom soft, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. So does anyone think it was the jar that created the hardness? I'm thinking it won't do any harm to transfer the soft sugar to another jar and see if it stays soft.

A big thanks to everyone for their advice!

an apple slice will work too

Oh, those are so cute! At $2-3 a pop, I can afford to purchase several to keep on hand in the event a friend tells me she's experiencing the trauma of hard brown sugar. I can just pull a little bear out of the drawer, give it to her and be the favorite friend for life! LOL.

A slice of bread will do the trick. I haven't had a problem since I started keeping it in a tightly sealed plastic container.

Yep, a half slice of white bread will keep your brown sugar soft. The bread will get hard but it works for some reason and doesn't get moldy...hmmmmmmmmmm

In a pinch, I have put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the sugar and then a piece of damp paper towel on top of that and put the lid on my plastic container. Sounds like you just need something that has a bit of moisture in it to keep the sugar from hardening. I do like the brown bear idea though.

Bread, I always remember my grandma having bread in her jug of brown sugar.

I always use a slice of bread and change it ever so often when it gets dried out.

The little clay shapes that you wet maybe twice a year and pat dry and put in any container work perfect. Have used for years