The Cost of Canning

Home-canned food almost certainly tastes better than store-bought, but it may not actually be less expensive once all the costs have been factored in. Consider the cost of growing the produce or buying it locally, the time it takes to process it for canning, the cost of additional recipe ingredients, the energy to cook the food and process it in the hot water bath, and the cost of the jars.

At the very least, gardening costs include seeds, soil amendments, fertilizer, water, tools, and time. There are ways to reduce these costs, such as seed saving, composting, natural fertilizers, heavy mulching, buying used tools, and organization. Many bloggers more accomplished at gardening discuss specific techniques, although I do occasionally touch on some of these subjects.

To reduce the price of the other ingredients in canning recipes, consider purchasing them in bulk. The most commonly used ingredients, at least for me, are sugar, vinegar, and salt. If there is a natural food store in your area that sells food in bulk, you may be able to buy sugar and salt by the bag, rather than from the bulk bins. This is worth it if you are doing a lot of canning and have a way to store it. Vinegar seems to rarely go on sale here so the only way I can get it cheaper is to tag along with my friend when she goes to the warehouse club. It is possible to make your own vinegar, but canning requires consistent acidity. It would be worth investing in a pH tester if relying on homemade vinegar.

Consider back-to-back canning for energy and time savings. Although my canning marathon on Sunday was exhausting, the total amount of food prep time was reduced by cleaning and trimming all of the fruit at one time. The amount of natural gas used to heat the hot water bath and keep it going was less than what would have been required in multiple sessions starting with new water each time. It occurs to me now that I could also utilize the solar oven to heat some of the water initially as well. Check out these two outdoor canning stoves, by David Omick & Pearl Mast and Pelenaka.

For anyone that does a lot of canning, you must consider the cost of the jars and lids. New canning jars are not inexpensive and the lids can only be used a single time for foods processed in a hot water bath or pressure canner. Some people are lucky enough to live in area where canning jars show up at yard and church sales frequently for next to nothing. Others, like myself, are stuck with cruising the thrift stores where jars, without lids or with rusty nasty lids, are priced at 99 cents no matter what size they are.

I knew this was not a good deal, but I wondered today how to determine what price would be a good deal for a used canning jar (in my market). I calculated the new cost per jar and per lid, including tax and shipping if applicable, that I currently pay. New jars, of course, come with a new lid, good for one use. My results:
Obviously, buying any jar, any size, at a thrift store for 99 cents is a bad deal! I can get a new jar with lid cheaper. Sometimes I'm lucky and can pick up thrift store jars for half price if the tag is the right color. Quite frankly, though, the hassle of going to the thrift stores, packing up the jars, unpacking them at home, washing them all, and then creating storage boxes for them almost negates any savings I've watched craigslist and see very few canning jars advertised locally.

Regardless of the possibly higher cost of my homemade canned foods, the taste is sublime and I get a great deal of satisfaction out of knowing I am eating (mostly) local and organic produce.