I make strawberry preserves with 2.5lbs of berries 4C of sugar and 4Tbsp lemon juice (no pectin), get 5 half pints of preserves and 1 half pint of syrup. If you use pectin you will increase your yield but will need more sugar. I don't usually use pectin, but Marla told me about Ball's pectin calculator (since they're packaging it in canisters now instead of boxes, you have to measure it out per batch). When I do use pectin, I use the low/no sugar kind so that I don't have to increase the sugar much (or at all) from what I normally use for traditional jams. You might get less yield (more liquid) using frozen berries.

I sell non-certified organic strawberries for $3/pint, a pint is about 1/2lb so I get 1/2 pint of preserves from each pint of berries and I charge $6/jar.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ball pectin calculator

I think my grandma is up to $3 a jar, or two jars for $5. Almost everyone will buy two jars at a time for the price break.

Guess it depends on where you are - here other farmers are charging $4.50 - $6/jar at market and I've seen half pints for as much as $8 in boutiques, 'living history museums" and maple sugar houses, places where tourists go. A farmer near me who has a commercial kitchen can make jam made from fruit she buys in (as a residential farmer working in my home kitchen I have to use my own fruit), conventional (strawberries from FL?) fruit and pectin, she wholesales to the feed/pet supply store and they sell it for $5.50/jar.

thanks for the info. cole's grandma needs to see ajsmama's price.
i also thought of selling frozen strawberries. i might try that at the saturday market. jam making would have to wait for slower times.

We sell ours for 5.50 a 9 ounce jar.

Check your local regulations. Frozen food may be considered "processed" (like jam isn't? But there are exemptions) and you may have to have a commercial kitchen, have a way to keep the food frozen at market, etc. I'd love to sell frozen berries and green beans but can't.

i asked the VDACS (Virginia Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services) inspector and he said its fine to sell since I have a certified kitchen in which I prepared the berries for freezing. These were berries i picked Sunday and i know by saturday some of them will not be in great shape anymore. i have 20 1 lb bags. I'll take just 10 this week and try to get $6 a bag and see how it goes.

$6 sounds good, 1 lb = app. 1 quart and that's what they were selling for (other vendors, conventionally raised) last summer - if frozen ones will sell this time of year. Don't you still have fresh? I'm just starting to see green berries, mostly flowers, will be another 2-3 weeks here.

If you have freezer space I'd hang onto them until season is over and people may want them when they can't get fresh any more (or local fresh anyway).

I don't sell berries unless they were picked that day, they don't stay glossy even after only 24 hours in fridge so I make jam. Had a hard time selling $3 pints (even when other vendor was selling $6 quarts) but sold out of all my strawberry jam and almost all the preserves.

you may be right about holding them until i (and anyone else) don't have any fresh ones. on the other hand If they don't sell i can just bring them back home so there's not much to lose by trying.
I have the walk in cooler set to the low 30's and the berries picked yesterday should still be fine for saturday as fresh berries. my only current competition at the markets are resellers with over ripe berries with big price tags.

It costs me, IIRC, $3.25 to make a pint jar of strawberry preserves (I just added up the cost of the ingredients to make a batch of 6 pints and divided by 6, don't forget to include the price of the jar/lis/ring. I charge $7 for a jar as that covers my costs and i find jars sell best at that price when I have them (not very often).

Even at Walmart the jars are getting close to $1 each now. 3 years ago they were $6.47/case, now they're $7.97 (67 cents each) and Big Lots is even higher for Golden Harvest. I just bought some on Amazon for $8.06 but free shipping and a sturdy box with cover flaps and dividers instead of the shrink-wrapped case so it was worth the extra pennies for the box to transport back and forth to market. Don't forget the electricity (propane, whatever) to process, plus labels, etc.

Do you have a way to keep the berries frozen at market? Partially thawed and refrozen (repeatedly) aren't going to be too good after a while. And you never know what people are going to buy - whether it was b/c the other vendor had a lot of berries, or they were in quarts, or the berries were larger (though not ripe), people were buying from them and not me the 1 week I had berries at market last year (market doesn't start until mid-June). So people may turn up their noses at frozen berries if you or someone else has fresh.

i got a cooler and freeze packs. i for sure don't know if people will buy frozen berries as i've never tried it before. i know i can sell all the fresh berries i bring (except for that last lonely little pint). right now i am considering making the frozen berries $7.50 a bag. if they don't sell i can still bring them home and make jam in the future. i wouldn't bring them again if they don't sell. the numbers for making jam are not as profitable as selling frozen berries for $7.50/lb. with the market rent including 4% of sales and also since i don't charge separately for sales tax which is 2.5% i lose 6.5% at the time of sale.

Yeah, if you're getting that much per lb the profit margin on jam is slim (to none with market commission - never seen that - and sales tax - no sales tax on food here in CT, but 6.35% on everything else incl. veggie starts)

I charge $4 for half pint and $7 for a pint.
9 oz jar? Never heard of that.
I also do the no pectin thing and I will only use cane sugar- no GMO beet sugar so I should charge more. I figure if you get a reputation of being expensive no one will buy any of your stuff. (Some are higher than my prices on jam at our market and my quality is better).

They are a straight sided jar with a gold one piece lid.

funny how all along i was thinking that vendors selling jams were cleaning up. now that i see the numbers the profit margin just isn't that much unless you can charge a lot for the product.

Thank you! Wish the customers saw it that way. I use cane sugar also, it's been about 43 cents/lb but wonder if that will be going up (though no shortage that I know of) just b/c everything else is (due to current drought and drought 2 years ago)?

Jay, where do you buy your jars?

didn't sell any frozen strawberries. i will either make jam or keep the strawberries and try to sell them frozen when there's no fresh ones.

Those of you who sell large quantities of jam, do you make it in small batches? The recipes I use indicate that I should not double them, and yield relatively small amounts, maybe 4 pints or so max.

So do you just make small batches whenever you have a chance? It would take me a long time to get a table full of jam ready to sell.

Preserves recipe I use I get 5 jars plus 1 of leftover syrup. Jam (just mash and cook a bit longer) get 5 jars.

If you use pectin I think you tend to get 8 jars from about 2 (I use 2.5 with no pectin) lbs. Only way I've heard to make really big batches and have them set well is to use Pomona pectin (calcium-activated) and of course a huge stockpot (not 5-6qt Dutch oven) since it will still foam up before it's at gel point.

Check discussions over on Harvest about Pomona, can also try their website and Ball (freshpreserving.com) website I gave above for pectin calculator (Ball pectin will have to do smaller batches than Pomona but still probably 6-8 jars).

My jams and jellies go for $4 for 1/2 pints and $6 for pints. I'm phasing out the pints.

I make several smaller batches, but they are 2-3x the regular recipe. My favorite pot will only hold 8 cups of fruit, so whatever that is is the amount I make.

I also use the ball pectin calculator and LOVE it. I don't do the cooking down style, but use pectin and pure cane sugar. My customers are very picky about the sugar.

Our market just started up, I missed the first week, it was just too cold for us to handle. I still sold over 1 dozen jars in the 2 very small town markets. For a first day, that's good.

Myfamilysfarm, that's interesting that you double or triple the jam recipe and it works for you. I guess I'll experiment more and as I get more confident maybe work up to that. I'd hate to botch a tripled recipe.

Will check the Pomona website as well. I guess even doing small batches of jam, it keeps for a long time and is something to bring to early markets when there's not a whole lot else to bring.