Canning 2012

This was our first year making our own preserves. Isaac and I are both students with many siblings. As an affordable gift that will hopefully still be appreciated, we decided to give preserves for Christmas this year.

We spent summer and fall driving to u-picks in the Annapolis Valley, hunting down deals at farmer's markets, picking peaches from a friend's backyard, and hiking to pick wild blackberries, raspberries, and cranberries. We spent hours of quality time together pitting, peeling and processing. The result: a full, beautiful pantry of our own preserves.

We had a few bumps along the way, of course. Since our first batch of jam turned out a little runny, I decided to err on the side of caution on the next batch. I managed to burn a pot of raspberry jam. I realized something was wrong when I poured the jam into a jar and, as it cooled, it transformed into a candy-like consistency. I couldn't even save the jar -- it had to be thrown away! Now I see why the recipes insist on small batches  ... at least I didn't waste all our berries!

Ever-frugal, I kept track of all of our canning costs. The results:

Start-up costs/re-usable:
This includes a funnel, a ladle, a hot water bath canner, a jar lifter, and lots of jars (from thrift stores, garage sales, etc)
Total: $53.87

Costs for 2012:
This includes jars that will be used for gifts (I got 48 pretty little jars with one-piece lids for $20 off Kijiji!), ingredients for the jam (pectin, lemon juice, berries, etc), and jar lids that cannot be re-used. (Please note: I kept a detailed list of all costs, include a 14 cent jalepano pepper!)
Total: $202.45

Total of Start-Up and Consumed Costs: $256.32

Types of Preserves Made:

Raspberry jam
Strawberry jam (used a recipe with less sugar -- even though it made less jam, the jam was a beautiful ruby red and bursting with berry flavour!)
Blackberry-Raspberry jam
Peach jelly (made from the peach juice strained from peach pits and peelings -- love being frugal!)
Apple Almond Earl Grey jelly (delicious, delicate flavour!)
Marmalade
Cranberry sauce
Strawberry sauce
Spiced Blackberry sauce (aka runny Spiced Blackberry jam!)
German cabbage (red cabbage with seasonings -- these didn't turn out so well, the spices were too strong)
Spiced Blackberry jam (although the recipe with nutmeg was yummy, the spices were a bit overpowering)
Canned peaches
Canned pears
Red pepper jelly (sooo yummy! We go through this very quickly! The recipe is easy, fun to make, and I prefer mine on the sweet side! It's very nice on sandwiches and on crackers with goat cheese!)
Tomato sauce (I have to admit I was a little disappointed at how much 10lbs of field tomatoes boils down! But the sauce was delicious)

Jars Made

250 mL jars: 20
190 mL jars: 20
pints: 27
quarts: 20
1/2 pint: 7
plus about two ice cube trays of frozen strawberry sauce (to be put in a freezer bag for smoothies!)

Total number of jars: 94

Including start-up costs, each jar only cost me an average of: $2.73
Not including start-up costs (which will be re-used year after year), each jar only cost an average of: $2.15

Even for my first year of canning, I must say that's a pretty good deal! Especially considering the number of gift jars I have (40). Even if I give each person 3-4 jars in a little basket (baskets from Value Village), each gift still comes in at under $10.

There's nothing quite as beautiful as the sight of a pantry full of different coloured, different shaped jars... I'm pretty proud of what we accomplished this year!