Is Canning Profitable?

I canned these yesterday. There are puff ball mushrooms from the woods that I pickled, okra and small cucumber pickles and dill spears. Altogether, I did nine pints. We love fried and pickled okra so I planted a lot of okra. My cucumbers just keep growing and growing. I have taken some bags down to the post office and left a free sign on them and left some at the end of our driveway for free too. I like doing this, it makes me feel a part of the community. (Not everything is about making money. ;))

Anyway, I garden because I enjoy it and because I like the top quality food. There is nothing like garden fresh produce picked a short while before you eat it! If you have never had garden fresh produce, you don't know what you are missing! However, when it comes to how much a person saves gardening, I am not sure it is all that much unless you compare with organic food prices (my garden is non-GMO and no pesticides).

Expenses can be:
Seeds (big difference between regular and non-GMO)
Tilling costs (tiller, gas, tractor?, maintenance
Land
Watering
Time
Canning jars
Freezer
Freezer bags
Pressure Cooker
Boiling water bath
Canning supplies like spices, sugar, vinegar
Etc.

So, it can be a lot or a little, depending on how involved you want to get. It can be real hard to figure out how much a person actually spends or saves gardening. So, my opinion is, if you love it for a hobby and love the fresh food, you may as well do it and enjoy it, but if you would hate it and would rather spend your time doing something else, you could do some small patio gardening and call it good (or none at all). Gardening is a big undertaking and may or may not be profitable. There are many ways to save money and I think a person should do what they enjoy to accomplish that.