Free tool
Canning Yield Calculator
Standing at the farmers market wondering if 20 pounds of tomatoes is enough? Point this both directions: pounds of produce to jars, or the jars you want back to a shopping list.
Your produce should yield about:
6.7 quarts or 13.3 pints
Round down when buying lids and plan a canner load at a time — a standard pressure or water-bath canner processes 7 quarts or 9 pints per batch.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure is the National Center for Home Food Preservation's published average - the "an average of X pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts" line printed on each NCHFP canning page. They are averages: small fruit, heavy trimming, and thick-vs-thin sauce all move the real yield, so buy a little beyond the estimate. Pints are figured at half a quart.
The full reference chart
| Food | Per 7-quart canner load | Per quart |
|---|---|---|
| Tomatoes - whole or halved | 21 lb | 3 lb |
| Tomatoes - crushed | 22 lb | 3.1 lb |
| Tomato juice | 23 lb | 3.3 lb |
| Tomato sauce - thin | 35 lb | 5 lb |
| Tomato sauce - thick | 46 lb | 6.6 lb |
| Green / snap beans | 14 lb | 2 lb |
| Carrots (no tops) | 17.5 lb | 2.5 lb |
| Beets (no tops) | 21 lb | 3 lb |
| Sweet corn - whole kernel (in husks) | 31.5 lb | 4.5 lb |
| Sweet potatoes | 17.5 lb | 2.5 lb |
| Apples - sliced | 19 lb | 2.7 lb |
| Applesauce | 21 lb | 3 lb |
| Peaches - halved or sliced | 17.5 lb | 2.5 lb |
| Pears - halved | 17.5 lb | 2.5 lb |
| Berries - whole | 12 lb | 1.7 lb |
Corn is weighed in the husk, root vegetables without tops. Sauce takes far more tomatoes than whole-pack - reduce a thin sauce by about one-third, a thick sauce by half, and the pounds go up accordingly.
Plan in canner loads
A standard canner processes 7 quarts or 9 pints per batch, so the smart move is to shop in canner-load multiples. If the calculator says your haul makes 9 quarts, either scale the haul up to 14 or plan two shorter days - jars waiting overnight for a second batch are where spoilage sneaks in. And before the water even heats, check your altitude adjustment once with our altitude calculator.
Stock up before the harvest does
The calculator tells you how many jars - these keep the answer from becoming a second shopping trip.
Ball
Ball Regular Mouth Quart Mason Jars (12-Pack)
The calculator just told you how many quarts - this is the box that covers a 7-quart canner load with spares for next weekend.
Ball
Ball Regular Mouth Lids (12-Count, 6-Pack)
Lids are single-use, so they run out long before jars do. Stocking flats by the sleeve is cheaper than the mid-season scramble.
Roma
Roma Sauce Maker & Food Strainer
The sauce yields above assume you are straining, not peeling by hand. A crank strainer turns 35 pounds of tomatoes into sauce in an afternoon - we scored it in a full review.
PrepWorks
PrepWorks Canning Essentials Set
Jar lifter, funnel, and bubble remover - the handling basics for every batch the calculator plans.
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