How Much Does "Free" Food Really Cost You?

[baymule]

Sometimes we are blessed by a friend, family or neighbor that has an over abundance and shares with us. Sometimes it winds up costing us, but is still gladly recieved. For example, my Mom's neighbor gave all the figs on his tree. I was delighted.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=34058

I made strawberry fig preserves many years ago and my grandmother always made them. But with no fig tree and most people that have figs really don't seem to care and just let the birds and deer have at them. So with a tree full of ripening figs to pick, I have made 3 batches of preserves and am gathering up for another batch. So I got to thinking just what have these "free" figs cost? I'm not counting gas to go back and forth because I am at my mom's 2-3 times a day. She had a stroke in March and is now back in her home for now.

sugar------------$2.48
3 boxes jello---$1.86
1 box sure jell--$2.08
1 jar w/lid-------$0.68 times 5 = $3.40

Total for one batch--$9.82

I even made one batch with blackberries that I picked in a vacant lot, more "free" food for just my gas and time. Mmmmm......love blackberry cobblers. They make awesome blackberry fig preserves too!

So for about $10 I have 5 jars of yummy preserves (per batch) that you just can't beat the taste of anywhere, and I am so proud of my preserves!

What "free" food have you been given, how did you process it and what was the total cost?

 

[moolie]

I'm not given food very often, but I do glean as much as possible

We have Saskatoon berries near us (a type of serviceberry, like a large blueberry) and we always pick as many blackberries as possible along the country roads if we are down visiting my brother in Vancouver when they are ripe. I make some of each into jam, and freeze lots for pies.

One of my neighbors has a crab apple tree and hasn't used the fruit in the 4 years we've lived in this neighborhood, so I'm planning to ask if I can pick them this fall in return for a few jars of the jelly and butter I will make from the crab apples.

In the case of the crab apples, they won't cost me a dime to put up other than some sugar because they gel on their own (very high in pectin) and I have just over 600 canning jars at this point (most of which were obtained second hand or for free). I'm also well stocked up on canning jar lids in all 3 sizes that I have jars for, but if I had to buy them they are $1.25/dozen for regular mouth at Dollarama, and $1.99/dozen for rubber rings for my glass lid jars. I try to keep my wide mouth jars for things that actually need a wide mouth, because the lids for them are $2.99/dozen.

In the case of the Saskatoons and blackberries, each batch of jam will take around one quarter of a box of Pomona's pectin (about a dollar per batch) plus sugar or honey, I'll have to check the honey pricing but sugar is about $1/kg, 1 kg = ~5 cups, each batch of jam takes 1 - 1 1/2 cups of sugar or honey, so about 25-50c per batch for the sugar at most?

Not bad really, when I look at it like that. Free food in my case is more about my time commitment than about monetary cost. A batch of jam, jelly, or butter is usually 6 or 7 pints--so with free fruit plus $1 for pectin, $50c max for sugar, and $1 for lids = $2.50/batch.

 

[Living the Simple Life]

Funny, I was just thinking along these same lines. We scored a load of free food on Friday. We got the opportunity to clean out a commercial refrigerator and freezer. A lot was baked goods. We kept a small amount (cookies for the kids' lunches, etc.) but most was donated to the homeless shelter. We also donated to them a case of brussel sprouts and okra (gah!).

We had to clean the pans, etc. so we had probably a total of 8-1/2 hours into the project (hubby and myself). We ended up with:

18# chocolate chips
58# butter
50# ground beef
37# frozen peas
25# frozen pearl onions
8# parmesan cheese
10# fontina cheese
6# mozzarella cheese
10# frozen corn
27# bacon

Everything is currently in the freezer (except chocolate chips) but will eventually can the ground beef so there will be some added expense there.

We don't score free food very often, like Moolie, we mostly glean (pears, tomatoes, etc.)

 

[Bettacreek]

Remember that the jars will be reusable. Another thing, look for dutch jel/gel. It's spelled different ways depending on who's selling it. I finally brought my canning stuff over here, so I can get an exact price on it... $4.59/lb. It uses 52g per "batch", which is the exact amount that comes in a box. Total cost for a batch (that would take 1 pack of the boxed stuff) would be $0.53, vs the $2.

 

[Hinotori]

I only use a cup of sugar per batch of jam. I don't get quite as much end product, but I like it better. We buy sugar in 25 pound bags where ever I can find it cheapest. I just rotate stock in my buckets.

I use a little lemon juice in each batch, but a bottle lasts me a long while during preserving time as long as my hubby doesn't get into a lemonaid mood.

I try and buy lids on sale. Last year I got a ton at 1.25 a box. This spring my hubby bought me some of the Tattler lids.


We have a ton of wild blackberries all around the property that make good jam after I seed half of it. There are thimble berries down the road that I haven't managed to preserve any of. Or get home for that matter, I tend to just eat them. I found some huckleberry bushes last week that hopefully will ripen before fall. There is also an Orange Honeysuckle that I'm hopping to try the fruit on this year.

Every time I visit family during growing season, I come back with a lot of produce. My great uncles both have large farms. We get asparagus, watermelons and cantaloupe, corn, and potatoes in season. I don't buy potatoes since the boxes I get in September, if kept properly cool and dark, will go until about march before they start softening and sprouting. Then I just keep the sprouts cleaned off and can make it another couple months if there is any left.

My great aunt has a vineyard that they keep up but don't pick anymore. We didn't get any grapes from her last year because they didn't ripen with the odd weather. Only got grapes from my mom who has a couple of sheltered south facing vines against her house. My aunt also has many apple and pear trees we are welcome to fruit off of as well as walnuts and filberts.

If we had to drive down just to get the food, it wouldn't be worth it, but if we are going around visiting anyway, it's well worth it.

Razor clams cost us quite a bit to get since it takes a tank of gas to drive down to the coast and back, but we really like them. The steamer clams and oysters are much closer since we just have to go over to the sound. So part of a tank of gas. It's 55 bucks a year for fishing and shellfish combo. We like to fish so it comes out of entertainment fund.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

The fig episode wouldn't have costed me quite as much. I once did try to change the flavor toward strawberries, but really I do like figs, so it was an extra expense for nothing. I think I was the only one who ate them. I couldn't have avoided the sugar expense however. I stockpile sugar for the summer months, because I use more, due to harvests. I buy it on sale when at all possible. The thing that gets me is that a lot of ya'll sugar that you use in your kitchen, started off all around me. I can drive to the sugar refinery in 30 minutes. I have never checked into it, but I wonder if I could buy my sugar directly from them, in bulk. But thats a subject for another thread.
Anyway, I've had my jars for years, so it would have just been new lids, sugar, gas and time for me. And thats if I wouldn't have used all my new lids and recycled some old ones, which I have been known to do......and thats if I didn't have some empty Prego jars with lids that I wanted to use before tapping into my precious masons. I go for those jars for preserves and tomatoes (things I only need a hot water bath, rather than 10LBs of pressure for X amt of time).

 

[me&thegals]

We're given windfall apples from a cousin. We don't use sugar in our applesauce, so it's just time and electricity. Wild asparagus is free. Wild morels are free, as are the blackberries and black raspberries we pick and freeze whole.

I pick elderberries, turn that into juice, and some is used as plain juice while the rest is turned into elderberry jelly, which I sell for $5 per 1/2-pint jar.

 

[Marianne]

If it's fruit, it's usually in my mouth before it can get processed.

The way I look at it is that it's most likely cheaper than what I would have paid for a jar or can of the same in the store.

If it's not cheaper, then it's a lot better.

If it's actually not better, I still know how to do it and that knowledge is worth a lot this days.