What is the difference between the Gerber and home-made stage 1 baby food?

gerber food is processed like a can of veggies, homemade food is better because it has more nutrients (only fresh foods though) well as far as the cooking depends on what you are wanting to make like of course bananas just can be blended, like carrots,broccoli, or hard veggies they can be cooked or steamed if you can pick it up and smash it with your fingers(take about 20 or so mins.) then its ok. the key is you have to use fresh fruits and veggies if you want to use caned then its the same as gerber. as far as meats you should wait until they are older. you will know when things are ready for your baby by just cooking it a little longer than you would for yourself so it gets a little softer. with my 2 kids i used both and actually they loved the fresh stuff.