Can making your own jam be cheaper?

[lucille]

I have been trying to figure out if making our own preserves might be cheaper in the long run. We buy the fancier brands. I usually find the cheapest one that is mostly fruit and only has sugar and pectin added. So the price comparison wouldn't be against the cheap stuff at the grocery store. I can get a big jar of strawberry preserves at World Market for $7.

The difficulty factor is that we don't have any sort of berries that grow on our property so no free fruit at least yet. Prices at the farmers market or pick your own places are really expensive, usually double the price at the grocery. I do see strawberries fairly cheap in the summer at the grocery but they are the typical big grocery store strawberries and I don't know if they are worth making into jam. I have also considered making a new garden bed behind the garage and doing either blueberries or strawberries but the area only gets morning sun.

Anyone with more experience with this kind of thing have ideas?

[MNfrugal]

If you want the jam/preserves to be cheaper, I think you'd need to find some kind of free fruit. Around here, that's usually rhubarb or apples. It might require "thinking outside the box" (jar) beyond the flavors of jam you prefer.

Growing your own strawberries or blueberries would have other health benefits like the exercise from working the garden. I'm sure it would have frustrations and expenses, too. I expect it wouldn't be cheaper in the long run. But that's just my guess.

[Babalu]

The .99 store around here sells big jars of fruit jam so my guess is you would not save money by making your own. Homemade jam has its own appeal, so if you enjoy it I endorse it totally, but not for the savings.

MNfrugal has a point about free fruit, and I know of a place around by me that sells reduced price fruit in big boxes. You have to be very careful also about sterilizing the jars before using. Home jelly making is really a lot of trouble, IMHO.

[MNfrugal]

There also are recipes for freezer jam-- jam that you make and then store in the freezer. That avoids the need to sterilize jars.

I've sometimes made a blueberry-rhubarb freezer jam. I like to freeze it in the plastic containers from store-bought frosting.

[Babalu]

I never heard of freezer jam. Interesting, thanks for the heads up.

As for the free fruit, you can be a bit expansive on what you consider "fruit." I have some exotic rose petal jam, and you can also use rose hips as fruit. Rose is part of the apple family, didja know? You can also use crab apple fruit for jam if you have a tree.

[mcnerd]

Unless you acquire the fruit without cost, there is no monetary savings since you also must have the pectin, sugar, jars, lids and a Boiling Water Canner to process homemade jams and jellies in. But there is a personal joy in making your own that often overrides the cost factor.

BTW, if someone still does the archaic (and potentially dangerous) process of pouring homemade jams or jellies into sterilized jars, sealing, and putting on the pantry shelf, you may want to get some current canning books or just read the directions in a box of pectin.

[mzScarlett]

I get jars from freecycle.org; freely give & freely get! Also at yard sales, 10 cents a piece or from Salvation Army for 25 cents each; Mason, Kerr, & Ball; I belong to both a gleaners group & a harvest group: so I help groups get the fruit; give some to the owners, some to community, & some to ME! YEAH! so, yes, it pays & tastes glorious & the freezer jams are wonderful! Many times folks have fruit trees & berries that just go to waste; if you don't have one why not start on in your area? And you can grow fruits in almost anything: hanging pots: get everbearing strawberries & enjoy strawberries all year long! make beautiful plants as well! also can grow SOME blueberry plants etc in pots; you can also get "colume" apple trees; you can grow almost anything in pots: & get pots free a lot of times; don't have to pay a great deal of $ for them either! & NOW is a great time to be checking into things: cuz bareroot strawberries at granges etc will be in Feb: 25 plants for $3.00; FRUGAL TIP: buy PECTIN at summer's end when marked down! they will be fine for the following year! good luck!

[purplefdu]

I don't know about cheaper for something as common as strawberry or whatnot, but for pomegrante it sure is. Any exotic flavor is probably cheaper if you have the stuff (or can borrow everything but jars) and get the fruit cheap or reasonably priced. I normally spend about $20 for enough pomegrantes, blueberries and rasberries to make enough jam for our extended family every year. I borrow my canning equipment from a friend (or we have a canning party and share the work) and purchase jars on clearance as well as pectin, etc.

I rather like the freezer kits from the store. They don't store that long compared to regularly canned stuff though.