Over my many years of cooking, I have made many jams, chutneys, and pickled things, but I never actually 'put it up' or canned it. I always ate it 'fresh' within a week or so of making it. I was a Chemistry Major in college, so the process did not intimidate me as it might some people. I just felt it would be a pain in the butt. I would have to buy specialized equipment. I would need to research proper technique. So I did not get around to it for years, but the idea has been nagging at me all that time. Canning appeals to my inner scientist. I also have a near obsession with self-sufficiency that canning satisfies in an age of convenient disposability.

So I finally did it! And now I'm totally hooked. Now that I have the jars, the pectin, the oddly fat-ended funnel, and the pressure canner, I will do this again and again. I will not be doing it to save money, though, because it won't. Perhaps if you grow your own produce from seed, canning will save you money compared to it's grocery store competition. However if you are like me and you pay $9 for 2 quarts of fresh strawberries at the Farmer's Market, you are not going to be saving any money. Sorry. Do it for the hand-crafted beauty of a slow food. Do it to make something truly delicious and unique for your family and friends. Do it to connect with your food. Don't do it to economize. If you don't believe me, check out my cost analysis below...

So my first attempt at canning was incredibly basic. I doubled the very first recipe in the 'Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving' in the 'Getting Started' section - Strawberry Jam. With half of it I followed the recipe to the letter:
7 cups (Yow, really???) granulated sugar, 8 cups whole strawberries, 4 Tbsp lemon juice, and 1 package of powdered fruit pectin. With the other half I couldn't help but improvise. I replaced the lemon juice with Aged Balsamic Vinegar and added 1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper. Trust me, it's great with strawberries. I followed the instructions and everything seems to have turned out great. I used the boil method - no pressurization necessary due to the high sugar level and acidity. Both are absolutely delicious. I prefer the balsamic version although the effect of the vinegar and the pepper is very subtle and I may up the amounts of both next time.

COST ANALYSIS:

The depressing part of this process was the cost analysis. Everything I do I have to analyze my cost per item, especially if I am going to give these out as gifts to my clients, or ever hope to sell similar products in the future. Now I could improve my economies of scale by producing larger batches and buying my sugar in 25 lb sacks at Costco, but it still ain't pretty. The following analysis is just for the plain strawberry jam.

So the cost per 12 oz jar comes out to $4.00. However this is an activity that I would NOT recommend doing with two toddlers running around, so if I factor in the cost of babysitting for the two hours it took me to can 12 jars, the cost per jar skyrockets to $6.50.  Considering I just saw two 32 oz jars of Smucker's Strawberry Jam at Costco for $6.49, that better be some far superior tasting stuff I just made.

Item	Total Cost	Cost Per Jar
6 12 oz Jars	$8.52	$1.42
2 qts strawberries	$9.00	$1.50
1 lemon	$1.00	$0.17
7 c sugar	$1.98	$0.33
1 pkg pectin	$3.49	$0.58