What are you canning now?

bobm

Garden Master
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
3,736
Reaction score
2,509
Points
307
Location
SW Washington
Four quarts of peaches in the freezer. Not much, I know, but it's the most that tree has ever produced and they were really pretty. Considering that a quart of peaches of similar size and type were $6 a qt. at the local farmer's market...and those were whole peaches, not cleaned and cut up, I feel pretty rich. According to those prices, those 4 qt. of peaches represented about $65 worth of peaches.
Bee, out of curiousity, what were all true costs ( including labor ) involved in producing the 6 quarts of peaches ?
 

ducks4you

Garden Master
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
11,769
Reaction score
15,574
Points
417
Location
East Central IL, Was Zone 6, Now...maybe Zone 5
Bee, out of curiousity, what were all true costs ( including labor ) involved in producing the 6 quarts of peaches ?
I canned 5 1/2 quarts of peaches last week. Since they were shipped to me, it was about 25 pounds of peaches before processing. It is labor intensive. You have to blanch in boiling water to get the skins off, then cut, then either cook in the sugar sauce or fill jars and pour the sauce over them, then hot water bath for 35-45 minutes. It took me 3 hours to do mine. Does that help?
 

Beekissed

Garden Master
Joined
May 15, 2008
Messages
5,054
Reaction score
6,801
Points
377
Location
Eastern Panhandle, WV
Bee, out of curiousity, what were all true costs ( including labor ) involved in producing the 6 quarts of peaches ?

Well...spent about half hour pruning trees last year, a few minutes shoveling wood chips, manure and emptying bags of leaves under the trees. All of 15 min or less picking the fruit. No actual costs involved except a little time and that has no monetary value where I live.

I don't blanch either...just sat and peeled and cut up the peaches while talking to family, added some sugar and let them sit a bit to make a syrup, shoved them in qt bags and into the freezer.

I don't call these things labor and they don't really have a cost to me....they are just me living the life I live. I'd no more put a cost on putting up peaches than I would in breathing each day, as both just come natural as part of my life.
 

baymule

Garden Master
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
Messages
18,810
Reaction score
36,951
Points
457
Location
Trinity County Texas
I paid $35 for half a bushel of peaches. I canned some for winter cobblers and made jam with the rest.
 

ninnymary

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 7, 2009
Messages
12,620
Reaction score
12,589
Points
437
Location
San Francisco East Bay
Well...spent about half hour pruning trees last year, a few minutes shoveling wood chips, manure and emptying bags of leaves under the trees. All of 15 min or less picking the fruit. No actual costs involved except a little time and that has no monetary value where I live.

I don't blanch either...just sat and peeled and cut up the peaches while talking to family, added some sugar and let them sit a bit to make a syrup, shoved them in qt bags and into the freezer.

I don't call these things labor and they don't really have a cost to me....they are just me living the life I live. I'd no more put a cost on putting up peaches than I would in breathing each day, as both just come natural as part of my life.
Bee, I so agree with you. You can't put a money value on things we enjoy doing.

Mary
 

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
26,727
Reaction score
32,516
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
I don't peel tomatoes for tomato sauce to be cooked and go in freezer.

Just run the ripe tomatoes through the food processor before they go in the pot.

If anything, I like the sauce better this way. I'm very much looking forward to making pasta sauce in the fall. (There is another ripe Kimberley on the backyard plant :).)

Steve
 
Top