Canning Analysis

JD located strawberries for $1 a pound last Sunday. He did what I've trained him to do and called me to discuss the potential of the good buy. We decided on 30 pounds to make jam. I really didn't know if I would financially come out ahead by canning it or not, but quickly figured it out after we were done. I made two double batches two days in a row - each double batch yields 10 pint jars, so we finished with 40 jars. With the cost of strawberries, sugar and pectin, I spent $51 on 40 jars! So, that's about half the price of what I pay for Smuckers at the store.

What really sold me on the deal was when I compared the ingredient list. Smuckers has high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup listed above sugar. Mine obviously has plenty of sugar, but no corn syrups!

The other nice part is I really enjoy canning. JD did the strawberry cutting and cleaning the first day with me, but James and Tori volunteered to do most of day two's prep work.

I also figured out that while it was about $1.28 a jar at $1 a pound, it really only goes up 37 cents a jar if the strawberries cost $1.50 a pound. I've bought several pounds at that price all year, and I think it's still well worth it at that price.

Now it will be interesting to see how many jars we actually go through a year. 40 jars of salsa is exactly what we need for a full year, but I don't know about jam. We may be making more next year!