Find a local pick your own farm here!

Looking for Canned Strawberries: How to Make Home-Canned Stratwberries - Easily!! in 2024? Scroll down this page and follow the links. And if you bring home some fruit or vegetables and want to can, freeze, make jam, salsa or pickles, see this page for simple, reliable, illustrated canning, freezing or preserving directions. There are plenty of other related resources, click on the resources dropdown above. If you are having a hard time finding canning lids, I've used these, and they're a great price & ship in 2 days.

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Canned Strawberries: How to Make Home-Canned Stratwberries - Easily!!

How to can Strawberries

Home-canning strawberries to use later is easy with the directions below. Of course, freezing is superior to retain flavor, and canned strawberries are softer and less flavorful, but if this is the method you need to use, here it is! To can other types of berries, see this page!

For more information about strawberries, see Strawberry Picking Tips and Miscellaneous strawberry facts.

Ingredients

Strawberries - preferably fresh, but frozen (without syrup) works, too. It takes about 3 pounds of fresh berries to make 1 quart (2 pints) of canned strawberries.
Sugar - About 1/2 to 3/4 cup of dry, granulated (table) sugar per quart of prepared berries. You may use other sweeteners, like honey, agave, etc. but I haven't tried them, so the results may not be as good. See this page for honey / sugar substitutions.

Equipment

Jar funnel ($5 at Target, other big box stores, and often grocery stores; and available online - see this page) or order it as part of the kit with the Jar grabber .
At least 1 large pot; I prefer 16 to 20 quart Nonstick ceramic coated pots for easy cleanup.
Large spoons and ladles,
1 Boiling Water Bath Canner (a huge pot to sanitize the jars after filling (about $30 to $35 at mall kitchen stores, sometimes at big box stores and grocery stores.). Note: we sell canners and supplies here, too - at excellent prices - and it helps support this web site!
Half pint canning jars (Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger, Safeway carry them, as do some big box stores - about $7 per dozen 8 ounce jars including the lids and rings)
Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar. They may only be used once.
Rings - metal bands that secure the lids to the jars. They may be reused many times.

Optional stuff:

Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the almost-boiling water where you sanitize them. ($4 at big box stores or it comes in the kit at left)
Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)- Big box stores and grocery stores sometimes carry them; and it is available online - see this page. It's a tremendously useful to put jars in the canner and take the hot jars out (without scalding yourself!). The kit sold below has everything you need, and at a pretty good price:
See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon

Strawberry Canning Directions

Yield: 1 quart per 3 pounds of fresh strawberries

Step 1 - Pick the berries! (or buy them already picked)

It's fun to go pick your own and you can obviously get better quality ones! See this page for strawberry facts and picking tips

At right is a picture of a typical strawberry field.

I prefer to grow my own; which is really easy - but that does take some space and time and can be challenging.

As mentioned in the Ingredients section; you may use frozen berries (those without syrup or added sugar); which is especially useful if you want to make some strawberry jam in December to give away at Christmas!

Above and at left are strawberries and blackberries that I picked at a pick-your-own farm. If you want to pick your own, here is a list and links to the pick your own farms.

Step 2 - Wash the jars and lids

Cleaning canning jars in the dishwasher Now's a good time to get the jars ready, so you won't be rushed later. The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle, the water bath processing will sanitize them as well as the contents! If you don't have a dishwasher with a sanitize cycle, you can wash the containers in hot, soapy water and rinse, then sanitize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes, and keep the jars in hot water until they are used.

NOTE: If a canning recipe calls for 10 minutes or more of process time in the canner, then the jars do not need to be "sanitized" before filling them. But really, sanitizing them first is just good hygeine and common sense! See this page for more detail about cleaning and sanitizing jars and lids.

Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that's what the manufacturer's recommend) for 10 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out. Slice, hulled strawberries Leave the jars in the dishwasher on "heated dry" until you are ready to use them. Keeping them hot will prevent the jars from breaking when you fill them with the hot jam.

Step 3 -Wash and hull the fruit!

I'm sure you can figure out how to wash the fruit in plain cold water.

With strawberries you must remove the hulls. (the green leaves attached to the top of the berry)

Step 4 - Put the strawberries in a large pot, add sugar

Place the strawberries in a large pot and add 1/2 cup of sugar per quart of strawberries. Gently stir the berries to coat them with the sugar. If they aren't all evenly coated, add more of the sugar (up to 3/4 cup of sugar per quart of prepared berries)

Step 6 - Let stand for 6 hours

Let the mixture stand in a cool (40 F to 60F) place for 6 hours.

Step 7 - Cook the berries

Cook the mixture at low to medium heat, slowly until the sugar dissolves and the strawberries are hot throughout!

Step 8 - Get the lids warming in hot (but not boiling) water

lids, in a pot of steaming hot, but not boiling water Lids: put the lids into a pan of hot water for at least several minutes; to soften up the gummed surface and clean the lids.

Need lids, rings and replacement jars?

Get them all here, delivered direct to your home, at the best prices on the internet!

Step 9 - Fill the jars and put the lid and rings on

Fill them to within 1/4-inch of the top, wipe any spilled berries off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Then put the filled jars into the canner!

Putting the jars into the water bath canner

This is where the jar tongs come in really handy!

Step 10 - Process the jars in the boiling water bath

Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. In general, boil them for 10 minutes, See the chart below for altitude adjustment to processing times, if you are not in the sea level to 1,000ft above sea level range.

Note: Some people don't even boil the jars; they just ladle it hot into hot jars, put the lids and rings on and invert them, but putting the jars in the boiling water bath REALLY helps to reduce spoilage! To me, it makes little sense to put all the working into making the canned berries and then not to process the jars to be sure they don't spoil!

Recommended process time for canned strawberries in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	10min	15	20
Hot	Quarts	15min	20	25

Step 11 - Remove and cool the jars - Done!

Lift the jars out of the water with your jar lifter tongs and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.

Once cooled, they're ready to store. I find they last up to 12 months. But after about 6 to 8 months, they get darker in color and start to get runny. They still are safe to eat, but the flavor and texture aren't as good. So eat them in the first 6 months after you prepare them! Another trick is to keep the uncooked berries or other fruit in the freezer and make and can the jam as needed, so it's always fresh.

Summary - Cost of Making Homemade Canned Strawberries - makes 8 jars, 8 oz each**
Item	Quantity	Cost in 2019	Source	Subtotal
fresh whole berries (strawberries)	10 cups	$12.00/gallon	Pick your own	$1400
Canning jars (8 oz size), includes lids and rings	8 jars	$11/dozen 8 oz jars or $0.92/jar Lids alone are about $ per dozen	Grocery stores, like Public, Kroger, Safeway and sometimes, Big Lots, local hardware stores and big box stores	$5.00
Sweetener - see step 4	4 cups	$1.75	Grocery stores, like Public, Kroger, Safeway and sometimes, Big Lots, local hardware stores and big box stores	$1.75
Total				$20.75 total or about $2.50 per jar (if you already have the jars, and just need new lids: $2.00 per jar
* pectin use varies - blackberry jam needs very little, raspberry a little more, strawberry the most. ** - This assumes you already have the pots, pans, ladles,, and reusable equipment. Note that you can reuse the jars! abcxyz123.

Canning Books, Supplies and Accessories

These are my favorite essential canning tools, books and supplies. I've been using many of these for over 50 years of canning! The ones below on this page are just the sampling of. my preferred tools. but you can find much more detailed and extensive selections on the pages that are linked below.

The Ball Blue Book of Home Canning

The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes Paperback

This is THE book on canning! My grandmother used this book when I was a child.; It tells you in simple instructions how to can almost anything; complete with recipes for jam, jellies, pickles, sauces, canning vegetables, meats, etc.

If it can be canned, this book likely tells you how! Click on the link below for more information and / or to buy (no obligation to buy)The New Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving

Canning & Preserving For Dummies in Paperback

Canning and Preserving for Dummies by Karen Ward

This is another popular canning book. Click here for more information, reviews, prices for Canning and Preserving For Dummies

Of course, you do not need to buy ANY canning book as I have about 500 canning, freezing, dehydrating and more recipes all online for free, just see Easy Home Canning Directions.

Home Canning Kits

McSunley 21.5 quart Water Bath Canner, Stainless Steel See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon
See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon

I have several canners, and my favorite is the stainless steel one at right. It is easy to clean and seems like it will last forever. Mine is 10 years old and looks like new.

The black ones are the same type of standard canner that my grandmother used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and spaghetti sauce.

This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, Jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, a plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer, It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. It's only missing the bible of canning, the Ball Blue Book.

You will never need anything else except jars & lids (and the jars are reusable)!

The complete list of canners is on these pages:

Water bath canners - Good for acidic foods, like applesauce, pickles, salsa, jams, jellies, most fruits
Pressure canners - needed for low and non-acidic foods, like canned vegetables (corn, green beans, etc), and meats
Canners for glass top stoves if you have a glass or ceramic stove
Canners for induction stovetops

Pressure Canners

If you plan on canning non-acidic foods and low acid foods that are not pickled - this means: meats, seafood, soups, green beans corn, most vegetables, etc., then you ABSOLUTELY must use a Pressure Canner.

Of course, you can use a pressure canner as a water bath canner as well - just don't seal it up, so it does not pressurize. This means a Pressure Canner is a 2-in-1 device. With it, you can can almost ANYTHING.

There are also other supplies, accessories, tools and more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!

Canning Supplies Starter Kit - Canning Jar Lifter, Canning funnel, Scissor Tongs, more

Basic Canning Accessories

From left to right:

Jar lifting tongs to pick up hot jars
Lid sanitizer / lifter - to remove lids from the pot of boiling water (sterilizing )
Lids- disposable - you may only use them once
Ring - holds the lids on the jar until after the jars cool - then you remove them, save them and reuse them
Canning Jar funnel - to fill the jars

FREE Illustrated Canning, Freezing, Jam Instructions and Recipes

Don't spend money on books. that you don't need to. Almost everything you can find in some book sold online or in a store is on my website here for free. Start with theEasy Home Canning Directions below. That is a master list of canning directions which are all based upon the Ball Bblue book, the National Center for Home Food Preservation and other reputable lab tested recipes. Almost every recipe I present in addition to being lab tested com. is in a step by step format with photos for each step and complete. explanations. that tell you how to do it, where to get the supplies and pretty much everything you need to know. In addition, there almost always in a PDF format so you can print them out and use them while you cook.

[ Easy Home Canning Directions]

[FAQs - Answers to common questions and problems]

[Free canning publications to download and print]