Ask your County Agent

Stephanie R. Butcher County Coordinator Agricultural & Natural Resources Agent UGA Extension – Coweta County

Q. Can you save money by preserving food at home?

A. The short answer is it depends.

There has been a significant increase in learning home food preservation practices throughout the United States. During the pandemic, people spent extra time at home growing their gardens, preparing new food items, and trying new methods to preserve their foods.

In fact, the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) saw an increase of 620% in website access and 270% in requests for home food preservation validated recipes from March 2020 to 2022.

Whether or not you can save money by preserving food at home depends on several factors including the availability of raw materials such as produce and ingredients; equipment; resources and time.

Raw materials can be mainly divided into three categories: grown yourself, purchased or received as a donation. Each of these categories will affect the cost per pound of the main ingredient.

If you grow the produce yourself, you must consider the costs of plants, soil amendment, equipment, irrigation, and your own time.

When purchasing raw materials from the store, look for bulk pricing and in-season commodities for the best bang for the buck.

Equipment to preserve food will vary depending on the food preservation method used.

If canning is the method of choice, consider the cost of the canner, jars, rings, flats, canning tools, maintenance over the years, electricity or gas for your stove and your own time, which can vary greatly depending on the knowledge and experience you have.

If freezing is the method of choice, it is essential to understand the costs associated with freezing and maintaining food frozen.

For new home food preservers, the first-year investment with equipment and tools may be higher for canning and freezing, and a long-term commitment may be required to observe the return or savings in preserving food.

Resources such as guidelines and tested recipes are essential to preserving food safely.

Research-based free resources are available through the National Center for Home Food Preservation and from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning: https://nchfp.uga.edu

Additionally, UGA Extension offers the NCHFP book, “So Easy to Preserve” at https://setp.uga.edu

Time. Don’t forget to consider what your time is worth. However, for many people food preservation is a form of therapy, healthy exercise, or a family bonding activity.

One of my best memories as a child was canning green beans with my grandmother, and just last summer, my mom and I spent hours in the kitchen together canning peaches and freezing corn. I would not trade those memories for anything in the world.

Of course, you may get just as much enjoyment out of spending some time visiting local farmers markets where you can purchase locally grown already preserved goods. The Coweta County Farmers Market (located at 197 Temple Avenue, Newnan) is now open every Wednesday and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon through mid-October.

After considering all the factors and comparing the total cost of preserving food at home versus purchasing food at the store or farmers markets, then you may find the costs outweigh or are similar to the savings. While it is possible to save money preserving food at home, you have a better chance of saving if you commit to it long-term.

For more information about food preservation, contact the Coweta County Extension office at 770-2542620 or coweta.extension@uga.edu.

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences is an equal opportunity, affirmative action organization.