Harvest & pantry
How many pounds of produce per canning jar?
Estimate pounds to jars or jars to pounds for nine common products, using USDA canning data.
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How this works
Both directions: type what you picked to get jars, or type the jars you want to get the pounds to pick or buy. Numbers are the USDA canner-load tables — 21 lb of tomatoes fills 7 quarts, 13 lb fills 9 pints. The pint figure is not half the quart figure, so both are carried. Bushels are the canning guide's weights (tomatoes 53 lb; apples, peaches and cucumbers 48; snap beans 30) — a farm-stand “box” of tomatoes is usually a 25–32 lb lug, not a bushel.
Source tables: NCHFP / USDA: whole or halved tomatoes · NCHFP / USDA: thin and thick tomato sauce
Questions people ask
How many pounds of tomatoes for 7 quarts?
USDA averages are 21 pounds for 7 quarts of whole or halved tomatoes, 35 pounds for thin tomato sauce, or 46 pounds for thick sauce. Choose the product carefully: the whole-tomato calculator result does not apply to sauce.
How many tomatoes are in a bushel?
A tomato bushel weighs about 53 pounds. USDA gives 15 to 21 quarts when canned whole or halved, 10 to 12 quarts of thin sauce, or 7 to 9 quarts of thick sauce. Variety and preparation affect the actual yield.
Why is my yield lower than the chart?
These are planning averages for fresh produce, not guarantees or weights of finished food. Variety, ripeness, trimming losses and how far a sauce is reduced all change the number of jars. Follow a tested recipe for preparation and processing; this tool estimates yield only.