No offense, but if all you saw in this post was a “cost benefit analysis” then you missed the point entirely. As I talk about in my own blog, they’re not packaging up olives – they’re packaging up summer, and memories. Each jar of olives they put up, is a jar of olives they don’t need to buy later in the year. Each portion of preserved food that ANY family puts up provides them with one more serving that doesn’t need to be purchased at a grocery.

There are plenty of statistics out there to prove it’s cheaper to buy. Of course it is! When you can mass produce, and grow genetically modified fruits that last longer, don’t spoil as easily, and don’t bruise, then you can produce cheaper goods. But you get what you pay for. When I want to eat cardboard, all I need to do is buy tomatoes from a grocery store. Sure they’re cheap… but you get what you pay for.

Have you ever even heard of a cost/benefit analysis?! They must be the 5 most expensive jars of olives ever.

As an agricultural economist, I can tell you that the olive industry in NZ is heading for a massive dump caused by chronic over-supply as more people jump on the bandwagon and their groves come to production.

There is a limit how many people will pay enough for oil to make it sustainable in a population as small as NZ and we are perilously close to it now! I just did a paper on it for publication soon.

Sadly, Kiwis are all too fond of ignoring the economic realities of such ventures: most of the wineries struggle to make a profit as well.

I have the same fear, only it is of making: The Salmon Mousse.

Just so you know, there are neat little tools you can get, designed JUST for removing glass jars from boiling water and pressure canners. Here’s a picture:

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They have rubber coated handles so you never burn your hands on metal (though please do use oven mitts with good grips when using them), and they have rubber grippers on the bottom part so the jars don’t slip out.

Your boiling water bath is, as mentioned, good for acidic foods (and olives in vinegar do qualify). However, if you’re ever worried, invest in a pressure canner. We can our own chicken broth, green beans, and other non-acidic foods with no worries at all. Scrupulous cleanliness is important, and a good guide to pressure canning. For instance, our chicken broth is canned at 212 degrees F (the temperature of boiling water), at a pressure of 220 pounds, for 20 minutes. This ensures that nothing can live inside there. The pressure poundage creates a higher temperature than boiling water alone can achieve, thereby killing off your botulism spores.

We live by our pressure canner. :) It’s so useful for canning, and it’s large enough to use as a back-up soup pot if we have lots of people coming over. AND if you get a tough old hen that’s outlived her egg laying days, you can slaughter her and put her in for a while, and she comes out tender as a pullet. :)