100+ Fruit Canning Recipes

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Canning fruit is the perfect way to preserve a bumper crop of fresh fruit in season, and you can store those jars right on your pantry shelf.

There’s something about a pantry full of home-canned fruit that makes me feel rich. It’s like you’ve taken all the flavors of summer and bottled them. Thankfully, it’s also really easy. Most fruits are high in sugar and acid, making them perfect for a quick water bath canning.

Most people can their fruit with added sugar. However, the sugar doesn’t improve preservation; it just affects texture and flavor. It’s perfectly safe to can your fruit with less or no added sugar, so feel free to experiment.

I often recommend that beginner canners start with fruit. Many fruits, including blueberries, apples, pears, and peaches, are all safe for simple water bath canning and can be processed without any extra ingredients. Many recipes include sugar or lemon juice, but in most scenarios, these are optional.

It’s easy to find a recipe that suits your taste. You can can fruits whole, halved, diced, or puréed in water, fruit juice, or syrup. Just taking to consideration how you like to eat your fruit or what recipes you want to use it in.

Products like jam, jelly, pie filling, and fruit butter are all simple to make and may be water bath canned at home as well.

If you’re new to water bath canning, I recommend you start with my beginner’s guide to using a water bath canner before getting started on any of these recipes. You may also want to take a look at my canning supplies list to make sure you have everything you need on hand. It’s annoying to get partway through a recipe and realize you don’t have everything you need.

Most fruits are high-acid foods, which means they’re safe for water bath canning. You don’t need to own a pressure canner for these recipes. Pressure canners are handy to have around, but they’re mostly used for low-acid foods like vegetable, meat, and soup canning recipes.

Safely Canning Fruit
Preparing Fruit for Canning
Fruit Canning Recipes
Apples
Apricots
Aronia
Blackberries
Blackcurrants
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Chokecherries
Cornelian Cherry
Cranberry
Figs
Gooseberry
Grapes
Ground Cherry (Husk Cherry)
Haskap Berries (Or Honeyberries)
Hawthorn
Kiwi
Kumquat
Lemon
Loquat
Mango
Mulberry
Oranges
Passionfruit
Peach
Pears
Persimmon
Plum
Pomegranate
Prickly Pear
Quince
Raspberry (or Black Raspberry)
Redcurrant
Rhubarb
Strawberry
Watermelon
Canning Recipe Lists

Safely Canning Fruit

While most fruits are acidic, some are not quite as acidic as others, and these are considered borderline safe for water bath canning. To make them safe we have to add lemon juice or citric acid. In these specific recipes, the lemon juice helps preserve the fruit and isn’t optional.

In some recipes, like canned blueberries, lemon juice is used to bring out the flavor of the fruits. In other recipes, like applesauce, it can be used to preserve the bright color of the fruit and prevent browning. However, as mentioned above, in some cases, it’s essential for increasing the acidity of the fruit and making it safe for canning.

To be safe for water bath canning, fruit must have a pH below 4.6.

Some examples of low-acid (or high-pH) fruits that are not safe for canning without added acidity include:

Asian Pears (regular pears are fine)
Bananas
Cantaloupe (and other Melons)
Coconut
Elderberries
Ripe Mangos (Green mangos are fine)
Persimmon
Watermelon
White Peaches (regular peaches are fine)

I’m a big believer in taking safety seriously when canning. If you’re unsure about the pH of the fruit you’re using, please look it up. An even better option is to use a tested, safe canning recipe.

Preparing Fruit for Canning

Fresh, clean fruit is about the only thing you need to get started canning. Most recipes, like those for apples, pears, plums, and peaches, encourage you to remove the skin before canning. This step isn’t required, but it does make a better final product. That said, it’s totally up to you.

Most recipes also use the “hot pack” method. For this method, you bring your fruit to a simmer, driving off any air in the fruit’s tissues, before packing it into canning jars. Like removing the skin, it is a bit more work but generally yields a better finished product.

The other option is to “raw pack” your fruit. For this method, you pack the raw fruit into canning jars and then pour boiling water, juice, or syrup over it before sealing the jars and canning them.

Many fruits can be canned in plain water, and the health-conscious may be tempted to choose this method. However, it tends to lead to a bit of washed-out flavor. Usually, I can all of our fruit in an extra light syrup to prevent the fruit from losing its sweetness to the liquid. It still mimics the natural sweetness of the fruit and doesn’t make it any sweeter.

You can choose various syrup strengths, from extra light to heavy. Measurements for canning syrups are available here.

Acidic fruit juices, like apple, pear, grape, and cranberry juice, are also excellent canning liquids. They’re my favorite option if you’re looking for a method to can fruit without any added sugar but you don’t want to end up with bland, washed-out fruit that results from canning with plain water.

In addition to canning minimally processed slices or whole fruit, you can also make a wide range of safe fruit canning recipes. Depending on the fruit you’re working with, you may want to try making jam, jelly syrup, chutney, relish, pie filling, or other products.

Fruit Canning Recipes

I sorted these canning recipes for this list by type of fruit. Under each fruit, I tried to include as many safe canning recipes as possible. There’s a basic recipe for canning each in plain water, juice, or syrup. I also included options for fruit pickles, compotes, jams, sauces, and more.

Unfortunately, not every fruit canning recipe is available on the Internet. Sometimes, good old-fashioned books are a better source of information for this old-fashioned skill. The Complete Book of Home Preserving has recipes for canning every fruit type.

This book is one of my favorites and is a great resource that I recommend every beginner canner have on their shelf.

Apples

Picking apples is one of the highlights of fall, but after you’ve enjoyed an apple pie or two, what do you do with all your extra fruit? If you’re one of the lucky few with a root cellar, storage apples can keep for months. However, most of us will need to find other ways to preserve them.

Canning apples is a great option, and there is a wide range of recipes available. You can can the basics like applesauce and apple slices or more intensely flavored recipes like pickled apples and apple jam.

Apricots

My parents live in California, and their yard is graced by an enormous apricot tree. Each year, they harvest buckets of apricots from the tree, which they usually freeze. This takes up an enormous amount of freezer space, so this year, my mom asked me to gather up some apricot canning recipes.

Thankfully, it was a simple task. Apricots are great for canning, and there are some wonderful recipes for putting up fruit, pie filling, silky apricot butter, and more.

Aronia

Aronia fruits are also known as “chokeberries,” and because of their intensely tart flavor, they don’t always get the best reputation. However, they’re rich in antioxidants, and some people consider them a “superfood.”

I think they’re worth eating, and they work really well in recipes with added sugar. Their tart flavor is excellent in jam. Aronia fruits don’t have any natural pectin, so you must add boxed or liquid pectin to get your jam to set.

(It’s important to note that ChokeBERRIES are different from ChokeCherries, a commonly foraged wild edible that we’ll cover later.)

Blackberries

My family goes through a couple of jars of blackberry jam each month. Plain blackberry jam is my husband’s favorite for toast and sandwiches, so I end up preserving a lot of our berries.

Even after I’ve made all the jam we need, there are always some leftovers. Blackberries are incredibly productive, whether you’re growing them in your home orchard or foraging them in your local wild spaces. My family always ends up with buckets of fruit, and I’m always looking for more ways to preserve them.

Luckily, there are many great ways to canned blackberries:

Blackcurrants

Blackcurrants are one of the most valuable fruits on our homestead because they grow in otherwise unusable areas. They thrive in shady areas with moist soil, making them perfect for the woodland garden here on our Vermont homestead.

They’re one of the few fruits that will give you tons of production, even in full shade. In fact, blackcurrants don’t like to be grown in the sun. It can actually burn them.

While I don’t see many people growing blackcurrants here in the United States, they are extremely popular in Britain, where the cloudy weather and frequent summer rainstorms give them the moisture to thrive. Blackcurrants aren’t good for fresh eating because they have an intense tart, astringent flavor, but they’re absolutely delicious in jam and other preserves.

Usually, I end up canning a lot of our blackcurrant harvest with one of these recipes:

Blueberries

Our family loves blueberries, so we always grow and harvest tons. They’re easy to freeze, and I love keeping a few of them in the chest freezer. However, keeping all of our blueberry supply in the freezer just isn’t practical. We’re fairly limited on space, and the amount of blueberries we store would take up a lot of it, so I always can at least part of our harvest.

There are several delicious ways to can blueberries. I love canning the whole berries for use in muffins, pancakes, or even just a pour over yogurt. You can also make jam, jelly, or pie filling.

Blueberries are acidic enough to be safely canned on their own, but you’ll notice most recipes call for added lemon juice. The lemon juice really brings out their flavor, but you can skip it if you don’t have any on hand unless you’re making pie filling. The lemon juice is essential for canning pie filling because it’s needed to safely can using clear gel (a canning-safe thickener).

Cantaloupe

Unfortunately, there aren’t many great recipes for canning cantaloupe. Unless you add large amounts of lemon juice or other acidic ingredients, it isn’t safe for canning.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation doesn’t have tested recipes for canteloupe, but there are a couple in books and online.

If you decide to search for more, be careful about finding safe recipes. I wouldn’t trust any canteloupe canning recipe that doesn’t call for good amounts of vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice, or pineapple juice. Ensure you’re using a tested recipe, not one that has been made up at home or just designed for refrigerator use.

Cantaloupe Pickles (NCFP Recipe)
Salted Cantaloupe Jam (Ball Canning Recipe)

Cherries

Unfortunately, we can only grow tart pie cherries here on our homestead in the cool northeast. They’re too sour for fresh eating but make excellent preserves and pie filling.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a warmer climate and grow or pick sweet cherries, they’re great for canning, too.

All cherries are acidic enough for canning, no matter the variety. Cherries are low in pectin, so if you’re making jam, you’ll need to add boxed pectin, or you may end up with a low yield.

Chokecherries

The name chokecherry doesn’t sound very pleasant, but they’re great tart little fruits related to many of our domesticated stone fruits. While they’re too stringent for fresh eating, they make tasty jelly and syrup.

I enjoy canning wild chokecherries, but I always recommend that foragers check out some of these other chokecherry recipes before preserving their entire harvest.

Cornelian Cherry

These cold, hardy fruits are a type of fruiting dogwood that’s popular in Eastern Europe. They’re hardy to zone four or five and make a fun, unique addition to any homestead looking for cold-tolerant orchard crops.

We grow a few trees here in Vermont. Each year, we enjoy a bunch of fresh cherries, and then can the rest is homemade jam.

Cornelian Cherry Jam

Cranberry

Most of my canning is done in the summer months when we’ve got large harvests coming in, but cranberries are the exception. They’re the one thing you’ll find in my canning pot during the winter.

Most people are familiar with canned cranberry sauce, but even if that’s not your thing, there are tons of great cranberry canning recipes out there.

Figs

When I was a kid in California, my family would harvest figs by the bucketful. It was always a challenge to find ways to preserve them all.

Thankfully, as they’re both sweet and acidic, they’re perfect for canning.

Gooseberry

Gooseberries get little attention here in the US, but they are a popular fruit for home growers in England. They thrive in their cloudy, wet summers. I’ve found that they’re also great for moist, shady spots on our cool Vermont homestead. We’re able to harvest buckets of fruit from them each July.

Gooseberries are acidic and tart, making them ideal for jam. They’re also a rich source of pectin, meaning you can combine them with other fruits to help set up different types of jam.

Grapes

Many purchase grape jelly at the store, but few preserve their own grapes. While I love the classic grape jelly of childhood, I also love old-fashioned grape jam with peels.

Beyond jam and jelly, there are a ton of fun grape canning recipes, including a delicious pie filling and surprisingly tasty pickled grapes.

Ground Cherry (Husk Cherry)

These interesting little plants are relatives of the tomatillo. Similarly, their fruits are covered in a paper husk, but unlike the tomatillo, they offer a rich, sweet, pineapple-like flavor.

Ground cherries are native to Peru, but have been a fairly common annual plant in US gardens for hundreds of years. Readers might recognize the name from the Little House on the Prairie books. You can also occasionally find them in supermarkets, though they may be sold under other names, such as “poha berry,” “goldenberry,” or “cape gooseberry.”

Growing ground cherries is easy and a lot like growing tomatoes or tomatillos. They thrive with minimal care and usually offer an abundant harvest. The fruits typically ripen to an orange-yellow color and have a pleasant, sweet flavor that’s a combination of pineapple and strawberry. Since we started growing them, I found a ton of great recipes for them.

When canning ground cherries, the lemon juice is essential. Ground cherries are borderline regarding acidity when it comes to safe canning.

Ground Cherry Jam (AKA. Husk Cherry Jam)

Haskap Berries (Or Honeyberries)

Haskap berries are some of the hardiest fruits you’ll find. They’re incredibly cold-tolerant and can be grown even in zone two. This extreme hardiness has made them popular in Canada, Siberia, and Eastern Europe.

Their popularity has continued to grow, and we’re starting to see them in the US more often. This is probably because Haskap berries are easy to grow and are generally more prolific than blueberries. They don’t transport well, but you can sometimes find them at local farmers markets, or find plants to grow your own.

I adore the soft fruits that taste like a mix between blueberries and grapes, but it’s important to preserve them before they spoil. Thankfully, they make excellent jam.

Haskap Jam

Hawthorn

Usually, only avid foragers are interested in these trees. Hawthorns grow about 15 feet tall, or covered in sharp thorns, and are members of the rose family.

They produce fruits that look quite a bit like crabapples, though they have a slightly different flavor. It’s closer to a cross between crabapples and rose hips.

The fruits are dry and aren’t good for fresh eating. However, they do make decent jelly and syrup.

Hawthorn Jelly

Kiwi

Not many people think of kiwis when they think of canning, but it’s actually a great way to preserve them. Kiwis are full of natural pectin, making them an excellent choice for jam. Some people even add them to other fruits to help them set.

As kiwis ripen in the winter, they’re fun to can when you’re not busy with all of your other summer harvests.

We grow hardy kiwi berries on our Vermont homestead. They’re a hardy relative of the kiwis you would find at your local grocery store. They share the more traditional kiwi’s delicious tropical flavor but are hardy down to zone 3. You can substitute kiwi berries for traditional kiwi in canning recipes.

Kiwi Jam

Kumquat

Kumquats are unusual citrus fruits. Unlike most others, the sweetness of kumquats is in the peel rather than the flesh. They make an excellent jam when you slice the whole fruit into the mix.

Most kumquats have plenty of natural pectin, but their pectin levels can be affected by growing conditions. If you’re having trouble getting a kumquat jam to set properly consider adding a pack of liquid pectin at the end.

That said, I’ve never needed to add pectin. All of the kumquat jam I’ve made has set up beautifully.

Kumquat Jam
Kumquat Pickles
Candied Kumquats (Canned using instructions from kumquat jam)

Lemon

Lemon holds a special place in the canner’s pantry. As it is so highly acidic it’s used to lower the pH of many common canning recipes, from ground cherry jam to tomato sauce. Lemon juice also helps preserve the color of produce and contains pectin, helping jams to set up nicely. But it shouldn’t be overlooked as a fruit itself. Lemon is excellent for canning solo, too.

Canning lemon juice is the obvious solution and I love to keep some on hand. However, there are some other great ways to can lemon. You can use it as jam, jelly marmalade, or can whole slices in syrup. They make for some tasty homemade lemon drops!

Loquat

Loquats are tasty members of the Rose family that are native to China. While I would love to try canning some, I have yet to get the opportunity as they’re not readily available in the Northeast.

However, canners from other areas have told me they make excellent jam and jelly.

Mango

I absolutely adore mango in all of its forms. It’s one of my favorite fruits, so it’s no surprise that I use it as much as possible. Fresh mangoes, make delicious mango wine, and sweet mango jam.

Unripe mangoes are acidic and safe for canning. However, ripe mangoes are borderline acidic, so you need to find a recipe that uses a good bit of lemon juice.

Mulberry

If you’re unfamiliar, mulberries look a lot like blackberries growing on trees. They’re popular shade trees for streets, parks, and playgrounds, so you may be able to forage for them even if you live in an urban area. In more rural areas, they’re fairly common along river banks and in clearings.

It’s also easy to grow mulberry trees, even on fairly small homesteads. Even though you lose a lot of the harvest to birds, it’s possible to get enough berries for canning just for a single tree.

Mulberry Jam

Oranges

When you think about canning oranges, you probably think about marmalade. Oranges are one of the classic choices for making that vitamin C-rich preserve.

While I enjoy a good marmalade, I also like to preserve oranges in other ways. You can make a delicious orange jam without the peels or even can whole or sliced oranges. Using clementines, you can make the classic canned mandarin oranges, which are always a big hit with kids and adults alike.

Passionfruit

Growing up in California, I used to love snacking on passionfruit plucked fresh from the vine on my way home from school. Sadly, these prolific vines only grow in tropical or subtropical climates and don’t thrive in the Northeast.

If you’re lucky enough to have some growing near you, bottle their tropical flavor with a delicious passionfruit jelly.

Passionfruit Jelly

Peach

Peaches are the flavor of summer itself. They’re rich, juicy, and sweet. Unfortunately, store-bought peaches are nowhere near as tasty as those from your own tree or local orchard. When they’re in season each summer, you must preserve some if you want that true peach flavor to last!

I can peach slices or pie filling for pies and cobblers all winter.

Then, I always make a batch or two of peach jam or jelly for snacking and some of my peach scrap jelly to make use of any “waste products,” like the skins from canning peaches.

Pears

Pears are one of the best fruits for canning. They’re similar to canning apples but actually a bit easier to work with.

Pears hold up to cooking exceptionally, so it’s easy to can them whole or sliced. The downside is that if you want to make pear sauce or butter, you’ll need to puree them. It’s worth the effort, though. Pear sauce has wonderful complex flavors.

As they don’t tend to just turn to mush, you can also use them to make a chunky pear jam.

(You can use any standard pear variety for these recipes, but Asian pears are unsafe as they aren’t quite acidic enough. There is one tested recipe for canning Asian Pears as halves or slices, but they’re unsafe for jams, jellies, or other preserves.)

Persimmon

Persimmons are another of my autumn favorites, but they’re not quite acidic enough to can on their own. However, you can safely process them with a bit of lemon juice or other acidic juice.

Thankfully, lemon juice pairs well with persimmons. The tart lemon juice helps to balance and enhance the persimmon’s sweetness.

Personally, I think lime juice is even better. I use it to make a tasty persimmon jam.

Persimmon Jam

Plum

Fresh plums are a real treat, but these soft fruits don’t keep! They need to be preserved quickly to maintain their flavor. Plum jam is one of my favorites.

I also like to can some plums for wintertime baking. Upside-down plum cake using my home-canned plums seems like a treat from a fairytale on a cold January day.

Pomegranate

These jewel-like fruits are among the few winter fruits available to can alongside kiwis and cranberries. The best use for canning pomegranate is jam. You can make a delicious jam by extracting the juice from the arils like any other fruit by simmering them and then straining them with a jelly bag. If you want to enjoy the flavor without finding tons of fresh pomegranates, don’t worry; you can make some delicious jelly from store-bought pomegranate juice.

I also love using juice to make pomegranate wine. It’s delicious and festive for the holidays!

Pomegranate Jelly

Prickly Pear

Prickly pear is another one of my childhood favorites. While it doesn’t grow where I live now in Vermont, it was a staple in the California landscape of my childhood. I always harvested prickly pears in my grandfather’s backyard as a kid.

It isn’t safe to can prickly pear on its own, it isn’t quite acidic enough. Ensure you use a recipe with a good bit of lemon juice.

Prickly Pear Jam

Quince

Quince definitely won’t win any prizes for the most beautiful fruit on this list, but don’t let their appearance turn you away! They look like hard, lumpy pears but taste like sweet roses, especially after slowly cooking.

You must simmer quince for about 45 minutes to attain its delicious flavor. Thankfully, quince has a built-in indicator. When your simmering quince turns bright pink, you’ll know it has achieved its sweet, rose-like flavor.

This extended cooking period is perfect for canning. You can use your quince harvest to make excellent canned sliced quince, jam, or jelly.

Raspberry (or Black Raspberry)

Who doesn’t love fresh raspberries? Raspberries are often abundant, but they don’t keep well. Thankfully, they do make excellent jam and jelly.

It often surprises people, but you can safely can whole raspberries. It’s one of my favorite ways to preserve them. They’re perfect for pouring over ice cream, yogurt, or oatmeal or adding to baked goods.

If you pick your raspberries fresh and process them right away, they hold up surprisingly well during canning.

Redcurrant

Redcurrants are another excellent underrated fruit. I love them for canning jam because they’re so high in pectin. They’re wonderful additions to strawberry or cherry jam, adding a hint of their tart flavor and helping them to set up properly.

Of course, redcurrants are delicious on their own, too! I love redcurrant jelly and chunky, redcurrant jam. They’re both pantry staples for my family.

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is technically a vegetable, but most of us treat it like a fruit. When the famous author Barbara Kingsolver and her family, embarked on a year of local eating, she called it “the April fruit.” It’s often the earliest fruit-like crop you’ll enjoy from your homestead in spring.

I love spring rhubarb for making crisps and tarts, but it’s also very acidic and perfect for water bath canning. There are many rhubarb canning recipes available. You can put up toppings like rhubarb jelly and jam or plain stewed rhubarb and pie filling perfect for desserts and other dishes later in the year.

Strawberry

After rhubarb, comes strawberries. Every spring, I’m thrilled to see these red jewels starting to ripen in the garden. We eat as much as possible and then begin eagerly restocking the pantry. Maybe because we’ve just made it through the long winter, but I tend to go a bit overboard. Thankfully, I have plenty of strawberry canning recipes.

Strawberry jam and jelly are classic favorites for spreading on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, biscuits, and toast. Strawberries also preserve beautifully as whole fruit perfect for baked goods or pouring over waffles, oatmeal, or yogurt.

Strawberry Canning Recipes, including strawberry jam and pickled strawberries

Watermelon

Watermelon is one of the most beloved fruits of summer. Unfortunately, it’s not acidic enough to can on its own. I’ve searched for recipes for years and have yet to find any safe approved recipe for canning watermelon, jam, or jelly that tastes good.

To can watermelon safely, you need to add plenty of acidity. If you have an abundance of watermelon from the garden, it is safe to can a watermelon lemonade concentrate. The lemon juice makes it safe for canning. Watermelon rind pickles are also safe as the vinegar adds acidity.