Processing


I picked 12 quarts of strawberries, 24.5 pounds, at $.60 cents a pound. I spent a total of $14.70.


Aren't strawberries delicious looking and tasting!!


I froze 3 gallon bags of strawberries and dried a pint. The secret to frozen berries is to place them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and then put them in bags. This way they don't squish and stick together. The next time I dry strawberries, I will use parchment paper and see if that helps with the sticking factor. I used coconut oil and they came off ok but there must be an easier way. It is always shocking to see how much they shrink down but they are so flavorful in muffins and oatmeal!

I also made 18 pints of strawberry jam.

Not bad!! It took me about 2 hours to pick and probably 4-5 to process. I added an extra step this year. I washed the berries. Usually I don't but with the rain we had they were a little dirty and there were a lot of mold spores.

The jars, lids, bags, pectin, and sugar were leftover from last year's canning so I haven't needed to purchases supplies yet. Just as a comparison. I accidently bought (my parents picked them up at a farm) two gallon bags of frozen berries since we had run out. They were $2.50 a pound or so and I was horrified that they ended up costing me $24.00. I would have never bought them had I known. Even though it is time consuming, it is so nice to have all this to use for the rest of the year!!!

So, let's just be very very generous and say $8.00 a gallon bag and $2.50 a jar of (nice) strawberry jam and $5.00 for the dried. That would a bargain at about 75.00 from the grocery store. Which gives me a savings of around $60.00.

I plan to go strawberry picking a few more times (we go through frozen berries like water) and continue on with the many berry, cherry, peach, apple, etc. crops that we have.
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Comments

  1. MichelleJune 18, 2009 at 3:50 PM

    You must be feeling quite a bit better if you are being that ambitious! Good job!

    ReplyDelete

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