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Strawberry lemonade is a special summertime treat, but you can enjoy it year-round with this simple canning recipe. Since it’s canned as a concentrate, a single jar will make a whole pitcher, and it’s a real crowd-pleaser.
I’m always looking for more strawberry canning recipes, as these little beauties tend to be prolific in season. Strawberries don’t store well, so I’m always rushing to find a way to put them up in a jar. We’ll make strawberry jam, and strawberry jelly for the kids, and we even make strawberry wine…but still, they keep coming.
I was delighted to come across this tested recipe for strawberry lemonade concentrate in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.
At first, I assumed it was going to be the same as just canning strawberry juice but then adding a bunch of lemons (and sugar). That’d be great too, but the downside there is you need to spend time straining the strawberry juice through a jelly bag.
Instead, this strawberry lemonade concentrate just uses pureed strawberries, which saves time and gives you more strawberry goodness in the finished drink.
That means you’ll get a really fruit-filled lemonade without going through the trouble of extracting strawberry juice in a jelly bag.
What I love about this recipe is its simplicity, and all the ingredients just go into the pot to heat before canning. It’s a great way to put up strawberries without a lot of work, and it’s ideal for those years when you’re just buried in fruit but don’t have much time on your hands.
All you need to do is hull the strawberries and then process them in a food processor (or just mash them really well).
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate Ingredients
The basic ingredients for strawberry lemonade concentrate are as follows:
- 6 cups hulled strawberries
- 4 cups fresh lemon juice (from 16 to 20 lemons)
- 6 cups sugar
That should make a full canner batch of 7 pint jars.
Each pint of concentrate will make a half a gallon of strawberry lemonade. Just add 1 pint of home-canned concentrate to 3 pints water, and serve over ice.
Making Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
Once you’ve assembled your ingredients, the process is quite simple.
Start by juicing the lemons and then straining the lemon juice to remove pulp and seeds. This strawberry lemonade concentrate will contain strawberry pulp, but the added lemon pulp will make the drink bitter. It’s best to strain that out with the seeds.
Next, hull the strawberries and puree them. Lacking a food processor or blender, you can just mash them really well, removing all clumps.
Mix the strawberry pulp, lemon juice, and sugar in a saucepan and gently heat it to around 190 degrees, but do not boil. The sugar should dissolve easily, but continue stirring until it’s completely dissolved.
Canning Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
Since there’s strawberry fruit puree in this recipe, the canning time is a bit longer than when you’re canning plain lemonade.
Fill jars with hot (but not boiling) strawberry lemonade concentrate, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal with 2 part canning lids and load into a water bath canner.
Process half pints and pints in a water bath canner for 15 minutes (below 1,000 feet in elevation). Between 1,000 and 3,000 feet, increase the processing time to 20 minutes. Between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, the jars should be processed for 25 minutes. Process for 30 minutes above 6,000 feet in elevation. This recipe has not been tested in quarts and should only be canned in pints and half pints.
(This exact same recipe could also be frozen in freezer-safe jars with appropriate 1” headspace.)
Preparing Strawberry Lemonade from Concentrate
To reconstitute, mix 1 part concentrate with 3 parts water. For a 1 pint jar, you’d add 3 pints of water. For simplicity, you can just add a pint to a half-gallon mason jar, which holds 4 pints, and then fill it up the rest of the way with cold water.
That should give you a “basic lemonade” flavor that’s strong but not too strong. You can adjust to your own tastes.
Canning Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
Ingredients
- 6 cups hulled strawberries
- 4 cups fresh lemon juice, from 16 to 20 lemons
- 6 cups sugar
Instructions
- Prepare a water bath canner, jars, rings and lids before beginning. The canner should be pre-heated to around 180 degrees F (barely simmering) for hot pack.
- Juice the lemons and strain to remove any pulp and seeds.
- Hull and puree the strawberries.
- Mix the strawberries, strained lemon juice, and sugar in a saucepan.
- Gently heat the mixture on the stove to around 190 degrees F, but do not boil.
- Ladle the strawberry lemonade concentrate into prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Seal with 2 part canning lids.
- Process the jars in a water bath canner for 15 minutes, adjusting to the altitude (see notes).
- Turn off the heat and leave the jars in the canner for an additional 5 minutes to cool slightly before removing them with a canning jar lifter to cool completely on a towel on the counter.
- Wait 12 to 24 hours, then check seals. Store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use. Properly canned and sealed jars may be store in the pantry. Refrigerate after opening.
- To reconstitute, mix 1 part concentrate with 3 parts water. For a 1 pint jar, you'd add 3 pints water. For simplicity, you can just add a pint to a half-gallon mason jar, which holds 4 pints, and then fill it up the rest of the way with cold water.
- That should give you a "basic lemonade" flavor that's strong, but not too strong. You can adjust to your own tastes.
Notes
Yield
When I make this recipe, it yields about 5 pints. Ball canning’s original recipe says it yields “7 pints” but in general, I’ve found that their yields are always larger than reality. The strawberries are measured whole, just with tops removed in their recipe, which is honestly a bit vague. Given variations in size of strawberries, that’ll give you a bit of variation in yield. Both strawberries and lemon juice are fine for canning on their own, so adjusting the ratio of strawberry to lemon is fine. If you want a bit more strawberry, no problem. Or a bit less. This season when strawberries come in fresh in Vermont, I will weigh everything out to the gram to try to improve on Ball’s recipe and give you more exact guidance to get a more exact yield. Stay tuned!Reconstituting
One pint of strawberry lemonade concentrate will make 1/2 gallon of prepared lemonade. Simply take 1 jar of canned concentrate and add in 3 jars of fresh water. I like to just pour it into a half gallon mason jar and then fill with water, as that keeps things nice and clean. You can reconstitute it stronger or weaker based on your tastes.Altitude Adjustments
Process half pints and pints in a water bath canner for 15 minutes (below 1,000 feet in elevation). Between 1,000 and 3,000 feet, increase the processing time to 20 minutes. Between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, the jars should be processed for 25 minutes. Process for 30 minutes above 6,000 feet in elevation. This recipe has not been tested in quarts and should only be canned in pints and half pints.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ways to Preserve Strawberries
Looking for more ways to preserve strawberries?
- Canning Strawberry Pie Filling
- Strawberry Jelly
- Pickled Strawberries
- Strawberry Wine
- Canning Strawberry Syrup
Drink Canning Recipes
Canning up more quick and easy drinks and drink concentrates?
I had just enough lemons to make half the recipe. I also used one less cup of sugar as the strawberries I used were super sweet. The finished jars are so beautiful. Thank you for your recipes. I have lemonade, limeade, and now strawberry lemonade on my shelves ready for me thanks to you. 🙂
Hot water bath canning and pressure canning does not suggest using fresh lemons as acidity is not guaranteed to be appropriate for this use.
Bottled lemon juice would be the perfect adjustment if u can this product
Bottled lemon juice is only required if you’re adding it to adjust the canning safety of another recipe that isn’t acidic. For example, in salsa, when there’s a calculated amount of acidity needed. Every single variety of lemon is acidic enough for canning, and some are slightly less acidic than others (ie. Meyer Lemons at a pH of 2.6), but they’re all WAY below the safe level for canning, which is 4.6. That’s also true for strawberries. We’re not using lemon juice to adjust acidity, we’re actually canning lemons. There’s a difference.
In any recipe that requires added acidity for safety, I ALWAYS use bottled lemon juice. I’m not against bottled lemon juice when it’s appropriate and required for safety. However, in this case, we’re preserving lemons, and using bottled lemon juice defeats the purpose for me. You can definitely choose to use bottled lemon juice, but either way, it’s perfectly fine for canning.
Ball Canning uses fresh lemon and lime juice in their recipes (See: All New Book of Canning and Preserving, and Back to Basics Canning), and they specifically note that it’s perfectly fine when you’re adding lemon juice for flavor rather than preservation.
How many pints does this recipe make?
This recipe makes about 5 pints, but yields will vary a bit based on how juicy your strawberries are, and how big they are since they’re measured whole.
Hi! Can I use limes instead of lemons? Thanks!
Yes, limes work just fine in place of lemons.
Made this today and it’s delicious. It was really easy. I tried some leftovers with a sprite and it was great!! Thank you’
Could I use sweetener in place of the sugar? If so what kind would you recommend?
You can use any sweetener that’s appropreate for canning, as the sugar is here for flavor, not preservation. For maple or honey, you’d use about 3/4 as much for the same flavor as they’re sweeter than sugar. For other sweeteners, I have no idea, as I don’t use artificial sweeteners, monkfruit, etc. I can’t help you with those. Best of luck.
Hello, this looks so delicious! I do have a question, if I use quarts instead of pints how long should I process it? Also could I use a sweetener like Swerve instead of sugar? Thanks! Can’t wait to make this!
I did a quick google search, and at least according to swerve’s website, it’s ok for canning. I don’t know anything about it personally.
As to jar size, Ball Canning only has instructions for pints, but they’re using processing times as if they’re canning whole strawberries, which are 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts. A canning time of 20 minutes for this should be appropriate as well, though this specific recipe hasn’t been tested in quarts.
I have frozen strawberries, they have a lot of juice when unthawed. If I just use the juice and not the pulp, would it alter the recipe or processing time? Also, if I want to add basil, it’s really good that way, would I add the basil prior to canning to infuse and then strain when opening concentrate or cold infuse basil after opening concentrate? Any thoughts about that?
Could I use half sugar and half hemey
Yes, you can use half sugar and half honey. Enjoy!
If I use frozen berries how many cups? Or what does 6 cups fresh equal to in mashed. Or doesn’t it matter that much?
For canning safety, it doesn’t matter that much. Both strawberries and lemon are fine for canning and the exact ratio isn’t crucial. Using frozen fruit, they pack less tightly if measured frozen, so I’d add a bit extra.
Thank you for all your wonderful ideas and recipes!
Can pour warm mixture in a jar and let it cool and put it in the fridge to use with a week with out water bathing it?
Yup, if you keep it in the fridge it’ll be good for about a week.
Could you use blueberries or cherries instead 9f strawberries? And would it be the same measurements as the fruit and sugar as this recipe?
Yes, you could use either blueberries or cherries in place of the strawberries in this recipe. You’d measure the blueberries whole and the cherries pitted. Enjoy!
Can this be made without white sugar?
Yes, the sugar here is for flavor, not preservation, and you can just can strawberry puree with lemon juice, no problem.
How long will a reconstituted jar last in the fridge? Thank you!
Probably about 2 weeks I’d guess? That’s a guess. At least a week though, if in the fridge.
Could I make a double
Or triple batch at one time?
Yes, you can double or triple this batch size for canning.
I love your idea to use lemon zest into the sugar for making lemonade concentrate!. I’m looking at 2 lbs of strawberries, about 3/4 of a cup of fresh pineapple, one used up giant lemons that I will use to make zest, and 3 more huge lemons with which to make something. I also have a small bag of small limes I could also use. I was casting about for ideas what to do with all this. I love lemon-limeade. I was wondering I’d I made a batch of half pints with all this if it might work. The concentrate would be a delightful drink either with water or rum, or tequilla. Any suggestions?
Honestly, all of that sounds amazing. You could mix any combination of that together and make a wonderful drink mix. I think adding a bit of pineapple would be lovely, or you could do just strawberry lemonade concentrate and then a separate lime/pineapple mix.
How long is the shelf life for this once canned?
This should maintain peak quality for around 12-18 months, but be safe to eat so long as they’re sealed.
Can I use strawberries that have been frozen?
Yup, that works just fine.
This is one of my favorite recipes! I have made it many times using fresh lemon juice, but decided today to use the bottled. My husband and I cannot tell the difference. Its delicious! I have also made the raspberry version. I do take the time to remove most of the seeds from the raspberries before adding the lemon juice and the sugar. We did a taste test between the raspberry and strawberry versions when my sister and her family were visiting. Hand down, the raspberry was the winner! But everyone loved the strawberry, too. We really like it mixed with sparking water.
I might have missed this, but should you cut the strawberries up to measure them? Or just measure them whole? It sounds like a strange question, but it could create a difference in the flavor (I think) because if you measure strawberries when whole you would not get as many in a measuring cup. Since I only saw “hulled strawberries” in the recipe, that indicates to me that they are left whole.
In Ball canning’s original recipe, they are measured whole. Or, more specifically, topped/hulled and then measured, without chopping or mashing.
Can I use a pressure canner for this? Or does it have to be water bath?
Yes, you can use a pressure canner for this if you’d like.
How long should this be pressure canned? Can’t wait to try it!
Ball canning doens’t actually give pressure canning instructions for this recipe, only water bath canning instructions. That said, it looks like they’re using the same canning times as for whole strawberries. In that case, the pressure canning time is 8 minutes for pints and 10 minutes for quarts at 5 pounds pressure (under 2,000 feet in elevation) or 10 pounds pressure at higher elevations. Enjoy!
Could you use raspberries instead? Thanks.
Yes, you can use raspberries in place of the strawberries, that’s fine. You might want to strain out the raspberry seeds and just use pulp though, as raspberry seeds tend to bother people more than strawberry seeds. That’s optional though, you can just do the exact same process with raspberries instead of strawberries and that’s fine for canning.
Could you use lemon juice rather than real lemons?
Yes!