Winding up the canning season

I made ketchup today for the first time.  I used the recipe in "Putting Food By" and it turned out really well.  Quite spicy, not hot, but had cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and celery seed.  I didn't add any sugar or sweetener at all, and it was plenty sweet without any addition.  I started with 24 cups of tomatoes and ended up with 8 cups of ketchup.  The directions said to simmer until reduced by half.  I simmered all night and it had reduced by 2/3s, but it was the right consistency, so I left it as it was.  That's probably why is was sweet enough without added sugar.  If I get enough tomatoes, I may make another batch, but make it more like barbecue sauce.  I don't eat a whole lot of ketchup, but I do eat it on my homemade bratwurst and fried smelt.  I had been buying the Heinz reduced sugar ketchup, but it's expensive and only sold in 13 oz. bottles.  My homemade ketchup still probably has more carbs than I would like, but it all comes from the tomatoes and not added HFCS, sugar, or sucralose.  The spiciness turned out to be a good thing for my taste buds. 
I had already canned 60 pints of pickled string beans.  Sounds like a lot, but I eat a pint a week, mostly on salads, and I use the juice to make my own salad dressing.  This year I canned 30 pints of salsa, and 24 half-pints of pizza sauce.  I don't eat pizza crust anymore, but make my own pizza by baking Mama Lupa's low-carb tortillas in the oven, and then using that as the crust.  I eat those for breakfast a lot.  I made 5 quarts of dill pickles, and 7 pints of mini-dill pickles.  I had tried to make currant jelly this year, but it didn't set properly, probably because I used too little sugar.  But it is still very good as a syrup for ice cream or pancakes.  I even used it in making lamb bratwurst.  The recipe called for pomegranate juice, which was $10 a quart (for organic at the local food co-op).  I thought my own currant syrup would be a good substitute, and it was.  I still had 24 pints of plain canned tomatoes from last summer, so that should be enough to get me through until next summer.  Last summer I had tons of tomatoes and canned a lot of them.  I didn't make any pasta sauce this year because I still have enough from last year.  I'll eat things I canned for two years after I canned them without any worries.
I froze a lot of raspberries from my first crop a month ago.  My second crop isn't very big, and what is there is being consumed by yellow jackets.  Since I'm moderately allergic to bee stings, I haven't been fighting the hornets for the raspberries too aggressively.  Lucy, my dog, has been eating both the raspberries and the hornets.  I know she gets stung, but it doesn't stop her from snapping at the bees and hornets.  I was going to make some raspberry jam from my second crop, but I'm not sure I'll get enough.  I give the jam away and don't eat it myself because of the sugar content, so my brother-in-law will miss it, but I won't.  I'll use the frozen raspberries in smoothies.
The weeds took over a lot of the garden by mid-summer.  I just haven't kept up with the weeding.  I'm hoping a new friend I made, Billy, will help me out by working a couple days a week for me. 
I've been eating a lot of bratwurst this summer, and I ran out of sauerkraut!  After I made the last batch and it was done at the end of June, I was lazy and didn't get a new crock going until August.  I usually get about 5 quarts of sauerkraut from the crock, and I've never run out before, since it only takes 4-6 weeks to ferment.  But since I didn't make it, it didn't ferment.  I had to buy some from the grocery store a couple days ago to get me through the next two weeks, and the stuff I bought tasted terrible!!  And it was a good brand in the refrigerator section!  People have raved about my kraut, and I guess I've always taken it for granted because I don't eat any other.  But after tasting some commercial kraut, I really appreciate own.