Is Home Canning Worth it?
Assuming you don’t get hot jam on yourself which is probably the hottest substance known to man, I feel home canning is “worth the effort.” But feelings are not useful in a budget. We need some hard numbers to look at.
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Let me lay out the numbers for strawberry jam from fresh store-bought berries. I’ve made excellent jams from frozen Costco berries in the past. How is that even relevant?
Let’s assume that Grandma gave you her canning equipment and you didn’t have to pay for it so I don’t have to depreciate how many uses you get out of the crock pot, etc. The costs would be too variable and your sweet grandma probably picked it up at a yardsale for pennies, anyway.
Let’s also ignore the cost of running your stove as it is probably nominal.
And your time... we have to assume your time is worthless. I’m sorry, but unless you would have been using this time writing a blog post that’s worth more than $5 like mine average... (Okay I admit I don’t have enough history of blog writing to give an accurate number here.) You have to be the judge of your your time is spent. Time is money after all. Money is a store of energy… so then if time is money and money is a store of energy… you shouldn’t waste your time money or energy. I’m pretty sure my logic here is sound! ; )
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Random aside: When researching I found that sugar is about 300% more expensive than it was in the 1980s. Buy Steem and Bitcoin people!
That’s weird considering that you can still pay about as much USD now as then for a pair of jeans. Of course now there’s T.J. Maxx.
Strawberries were $.99 per pound on sale at Aldi. I bought 8 pounds and used 5 in my recipe.
Pectin: To make sure the jam gels properly. It’s optional but I like it.
Canning Lids (not reusable) ( at least not for canning.)
Jars and bands (reusable) We will include the total cost of the jars in case I give away or sell my jam. Entirely possible. We reuse a lot of jars but because we are ignoring the cost of equipment and electricity… I’ll keep this cost in the final expense numbers.
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Yesterday's Batch of Strawberry Jam
Hold on now I’m mashing on the clear © button on my calculator. You have to hit it at least 3 times… it’s not an obsession. It’s necessary. I’m not a Mathlete for crying out loud.
Strawberries $4.95
Pectin $2.24
Sugar $1.70
Canning Lids & jars $5.32
$14.21 for 6- 8 ounce jars of jam and 2- 12 ounce
Works out to:
12 ounce Jar cost is $2.36
8 ounce Jar cost is $1.58
Now let’s compare a popular brand of jam:
$2.98 for 32 ounces… oh no!!!!! The hard numbers are hurting my feelings!
Okay wait a second here. Am I comparing strawberries to strawberries? Let’s see what jam without high fructose corn syrup costs.
Welch’s Natural Strawberry Spread $2.98 for 27 ounces (.11 per ounce)
Homemade is $1.58 for 8 ounces ( .197 per ounce )
8 ounces homemade is $1.58
8 ounces of Welch’s is: $0.88
(I really want to add the cost of driving to the store to this number… and the human cost of having to give Walmart my money & the damage to my eyes from the buzzy flickering of cheap fluorescent lighting & the soul sapping of seeing the the PEOPLE OF WALMART who have no qualms about smacking their kids & acting like imbeciles.)
8 ounces of Mine is: $1.58
Say just for a moment I can(a.k.a. preserve) strawberries I grew from plants that your sweet old Grandma gave me for nothing. And the gosh darn clouds that keep dropping rain the next town over actually stop by my place for a change so I don’t have to pay the city for water. They cost me essentially nothing to grow.
Strawberries $0.00
Pectin $2.24
Sugar $1.70
Canning Lids & jars $5.32
Now I spent a total of $9.26 for supplies
Now my 8 ounces of jam costs: .128 per ounce… $1.02
I’ve finally beaten the Walmart price of Welch’s Strawberry Spread! In my imagination at least.
There is nothing like the feeling of pride and independence you get from growing and preserving your own food. I always have to take pictures of the finished product. The pretty labels are optional so I didn’t include the cost.
Tell your your sweet grandma I’ll be by to pick up those strawberry plants today. Maybe she just made cookies. I’ll save you some, I swear.
I'll be your best friend for a ^ and a Resteem. I swear! ; )
And of course, in #TEOTWAWKI, you won' t have to go down to the store and shoot people for your next jar of jam.
You mean when the SHTF? (Strawberries hit the farm?)
If you are making it for yourself and not selling it you can save some money in the long run by using the re-usable lids that are available. They are called Tatlers and they are lids and rubber gaskets. You use the same type of screw on band. The lid itself is plastic. I would not want to put those on ones that I might sell though as that would add cost. There is also a one piece lid available. Not really designed for multiple use but I have found if you are careful when opening the jar they can be reused several times before they will not seal again. Also if you do not grow your own produce buying it at local farms or farmers markets can reduce your price substantially. Most of my canning jars and equipment has come from yard sales and thrift shops. Just check things over well before purchase to make sure there is no damage. The best part of canning is you control what goes into your food and if properly stored it will last for years if need be.
That was a fantastic reply. I will go get some of those lids you recommend! : )
There is a little learning curve in using them. Don't tighten down the rings as tight as you usually do. There has to be some room for air to escape. I tend to leave about 1/4" more head space to prevent boil-overs especially if it has to be done in a pressure canner. I have had about 95% success rate with them sealing properly and have found the failures to be caused by filling the jars a little too high or tightening the rings too tight before processing. Generally, if you put the rings on then turn back about a quarter of a turn to loosen again you will be fine. The packages come with instructions that are very helpful. I bought mine from lehmans.com Happy canning!!
I've used Tatlers, too. I use regular lids, too, because I get so many at yard sales for next to nothing. But the Tatlers do stand up over time. And my jars will outlive me, unless I drop them. Some of them are older than me, too.
Do you put a little cooking oil or spray on your rubber gaskets when you store them? My aunt taught me that years and years ago. She said it helps prevent them from drying out. Of course back then it was not Tatlers but the really old jars with the glass lids and metal clamps. I do it with the tatlers and store them right on the plastic lid so they don't go out of shape.
I've never tried that, but I can see that it would be a good idea! I'll start doing that, for sure. I do put the rings on the tatlers, too, for storage. Thanks for the tip and happy canning!
It's an interesting question! I leave out the pectin and then I can use less sugar (a good ratio is 4 cups fruit to 3 cups sugar - that's lots less than with pectin). And jars last for generations, unless there's breakage. They should amortize out for at least 10 years, although I use jars that are easily 50 years old. And then with homegrown fruit that I don't spray, the expenses are much different.
I know, it can be hard to get the numbers to work on home canning. I usually find myself using the less quantifiable stuff to justify it: gained knowledge & independence, better ingredients like veg & fruit homegrown organically (leaving aside the sizable amount of SUGAR that goes into jams. Yikes!), and pride. It's also a good way of preserving garden harvest that might otherwise have gone bad if left fresh. I'm looking at my husband right now, who has a serious chile pepper plant hoarding problem. :) We've planted numerous fruit trees on our property over the years. They're not full size yet, but once their fruiting ability takes off, the harvest is likely to be sick! We'll have to can just to use as much of it as possible, or watch much of it rot on the ground. So, ha! This is how I make canning worth it in my head! Thanks for the great post.
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Hmmm homemade jam beats store bought any day! You know what went in it from get go! Grow it know it! Resteemit!
Thank you! I think so too... It was better when Mammaw made it though.
Never had grand parents so I have no idea. Hard to miss what ya never had ;-)
great read. I had no idea the cost is so different than we assume. but at the same time you are not putting anywhere near the preservatives and artificial crap in your homemade canned foods.
Well, now you know why the ladies at the fair put such a premium on their jams. You wouldn't believe how much they charge for local honey here. ...like $18 an 8 ounce bottle!
Is it true botchilism can't grow in jams because they have such high acidity?
"[Marisa McClellan] explains that most jams, jellies, preserves and pickles are high-acid foods, which can be safely processed in a boiling water canner with no risk of botulism. “It is impossible for botulism to develop,” McClellan said. “I really stress it just isn't going to happen.” I always take the bands off the jars so that if any corruption happened the lid would pop off and you'd dispose of the contents. So far so good... as botulism is really bad. Meats must be pressure canned.
Cool thanks. I actually picked up some really good strawberry jam while i was out in Michigan last weekend. Also picked up a giant mason jar full of honey
How bizarre. I was completely thinking this over just hours ago today, and then randomly found your post.
When the strawberry student is ready, the teacher will appear, I guess?
Thanks for the breakdown. You confirmed my suspicions, you suspicion magician, you!
What conclusion do you come to? Will you be canning? Suspicion Magician?! I wear my new title with pride! Lol
I have 17 acres of blackberries. But I don't have a kitchen built in my cabin, and I have no electricity or running water (lived this way for 4 years now) so I likely won't be canning or making freezer jams, but I do make Blackberry wine! (I put up a big post on how to do that last week) and so I think, as a bachelor, I'll be buying my jelly's and jams. MY conclusion, like yours minus all the potential freebies I don't have, is that it's cheaper anyway. I waste a lot of food, simply because I'm just one guy and have to choose things that store "dry" so to speak, or use what I can before it spoils.
Ever heard of a zeer pot? I made a test one and it worked as a cooler not a real fridge.
We have a propane grill that we do pressure canning on outside. The upfront cost is high. Where's grandma when you need her! I'm soooo envious of your blackberries. Perhaps you could trade them with a neighbor for something you need?! Wondering in what state you reside?
I'm in western North Carolina, up in the blue ridge near the parkway national park.
Oh I do fine. I don't actually HAVE any neighbors for quite some distance... and I don't know them. The closest ones are horse people, and I do know them, but they are not the homestead/farming type.
I have ways to cook, but I don't see me canning... yet.
canning is a good skill to have, (SHTF or not)
but economics of scale make foodstuffs cheaper in the big shops... so you might as well stock up on cans and jars to survive a small SHTF event where distribution of foodstuffs to shops becomes impossible for a while...