Strawberries! We finally canned 'em!

We went to pick strawberries on March 30 and while John hulled them for me, I just could not get it together to can them. I've not ever canned before so I think that's why. Just a little intimidated. But I finally did it. Or rather we did it. I had thought I would do it with Jani while the boys were napping one day. I'm so glad I didn't! Hot sugar is, well, hot. And John and I discovered that we really enjoyed doing this together.

We also learned that 13.5 lbs of strawberries will yield:
5 cups of freezer jam
4 cups of freezer jam without sugar
17 cups of jam
and almost 2 cups of crushed berries to put over french vanilla cake for Easter!

I can't believe how incredibly easy this was! And I know we'll never again spend $$ on store bought strawberry jam. Our berries were from a farm in a neighboring town, organic, and yummy. Not counting the jars in the cost since they are reuseable, I think our cost were:

$34 for strawberries (fyi, my friend in WI only pays $1.25/lb!)
15.5 cups of sugar (I know! we couldn't believe it either!) I'm guessing $3 for 2 bags???
freezer jam fruit pectin $1.54
freezer jam no sugar needed $1.56
1 cup of apple juice .12 (for the no sugar needed, on sale for $1 and it was organic!)

Total is $40 for almost 28 cups of strawberry yumminess which equals $1.42 per cup. That would be even better if we paid less for strawberries! I wonder if the ones at Sams are organic???

Just for the record I paid $8.82 for the small 1 cup jars (Kerr quilted crystal 12/8oz) and $6.82 for the pints (Mason regular mouth 12/16oz). So initially the cost are higher. The last thing I want (because we made do) is the water bath/pressure cooker so that it's easier finish them.

now for the pictures!