Yes! Exactly how I'm feeling right now. My freezers are completely full now, and since I haven't learned how to can yet (on my list), I'm feeling a bit frantic. I hate to waste food. Everything is still producing here (Portland, OR) & I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed--even the zucchini is still going strong! Crazy weather here this year...

Guess I feel more like a vole, harvesting the last of my bean seed before frost. Didn't get as many seed crops in as usual, but what got planted has produced well. Got two soybeans just beginning to turn color, I'll probably need to cover them to get dry seed.

I blacked-out the windows in my unused back bedroom, shut off the heat in there, and spread out my potatoes on the bed. It'll stay approx. 40F-55F in there. When the air gets dry this winter, I'll put buckets of water in there and see if that keeps the humity up a bit. It's a good place for my homemade wine too!

Ah, canning!
I had yet another batch of tomato sauce cooked up yesterday and just couldn't stand the thought of any more canning, so I found this idea online -- you put a quart or two of sauce in a one gallon zip lock bag, and then lay it flat in the freezer. Each subsequent bag goes on top, and you can store a bunch of quarts in a very small space in the freezer. It worked great.

That's exactly how I'm saving most of my sauce--flat in Zip-lock bags, now that I'm out of other containers. I do freeze some whole, too, but that does take up more space. I really do need to take the plunge with canning, though, as my garden seems to get bigger every year...
I/We try to tackle something new every year: chicken keeping, worm composting, regular composting, beer making...the whole canning thing, just really scares me a little. I must lack confidence in myself!

I canned for a few years long ago, but since I took up gardening again about 12 years ago, I have only used my food saver.
I make sauce, blanch other things, freeze flat then vac them> I do this with soup in the winter also!
It's lovely to go to someone's house who is sick or having dental problems, and say "slab-o-soup?"
Actually, these days, it's just called "slab-O"
Now the FS won't do things like pickles where you have to have the liquid, but does all sorts of blanched veges and sauces. It's also great for leftovers, soups etc (I often make up single serve meals for my elderly FIL and stock up his freezer a couple times a year)
It's best to flash freeze things like berries, beans, or soft things before FSing them, so they don't get squished and get a lot of liquid going into the machine.
Love my Food Saver! Nancy

shermtheworm -- there is nothing scary about canning tomatoes or applesauce. They can be done in a hot water bath (pickles, too, I think).

It only gets scary when you go canning things like green beans or pumpkin, where you have to use a pressure canner and may just blow up the kitchen. I'm still scared of the pressure canner, and usually go to a friend's house if I've got more pumpkin than I've got freezer space for. But after Hurricane Sandy knocked out the electric for over 2 weeks and I lost stuff in the freezer, I'm determined to learn to pressure can, too.

Elisa, you go to the neighbor's house so the pressure canner will blow up in HER kitchen????? ;)

I thought I finally had the canning done , all we have left in a garden is some okra that refuses to quit, and one more picking of green beans, plus a few tomatoes from the plants we have in pots............. Yesterday DH happily lugged two bushels of apples into the kitchen. Canned one bushel today, froze the other one to make apple butter later
I have 30 jars of salsa,15 quarts of pickles, 15 of pickled beets,30 jars of tomatoes, also peach jam, tomato juice, and pickled peppers. We have plugged in the second freezer and it is full of green beans, okra, chard. and now, apples . (After that infamous fishing trip when DH wanted me can salmon in the cabin, I got rid of the pressure canner.) Oh, I forgot, we still have a lot of green peppers growing. I'll probably make a few pans of stuffed peppers and freeze them.
One of my friends told me how to make tomato puree and sauces by cooking and straining the tomatoes and putting them in the fridge overnight to settle. The next day you can scoop the water off the top.It sure saves jar or freezer space, or cooking time on sauces.

nancyjane -- LOL! I go to her house because she has a pressure canner and presumably knows how not to blow up the kitchen! I give her some jars of pumpkin in exchange for helping me with the canning. (I haven't had to nerve to buy one yet and trust myself with it.)

murkey -- WOW. I think you get squirrel of the year award!

Time to go freeze another batch of corn . . .

Yep. Been canning since the first week of July, taking a break for a couple weeks in August, when I planted my second summer garden. Now I'm picking and freezing and pickling green beans and okra and summer squash and crowder peas.....and my dear Father in Law brought me two boxes of apples from Virginia this week.... So, stayed up late last night making apple butter. Came home from dentist (I even have the fat cheeks!) and made applesauce and STILL have apples to work up. Not complaining, though. This year has been my most bountiful garden ever and I am thankful. My husband's pancreatic cancer is nearly in remission and I have a year's worth of organic food to feed him. God is Good.

Speaking of voles, they ate almost my entire maize crop this year....

Speaking of putting up tomatoes, I've been using a traditional Italian method of fermenting/straining them down to a very dry paste and then salting it, without using any heat.

Thank God. I have NOT A THING to process, can, dry, or anything. I can rest now.I am done when the maters are gone.
laziness feels good. haha

donnabaskets -- what wonderful news about your husband!! So glad to hear it. I believe that organic homegrown food is pure healing --here's to a clean slate for him very soon.

My freezer is full of 15 jars of frozen berries and some soups made from garden veggies plus stuffed garden cabbage in containers. It'll be really good in mid-winter for the cabin fever times.

We're busy picking apples and pears from any abandoned orchard around here. We have our secret places. The refrigerator is full of them now.

I meant to do something with all these cucumbers but never got to it. We're still eating autumn veggies from the garden, though. It ain't over till it's over! I have a ton of dill to freeze, come to think of it...

This post was edited by susanzone5 on Thu, Sep 26, 13 at 10:08

Here's to all you pressure canning "scaredy-cats"....after a lifetime of being afraid of pressure cookers and canning, I took the plunge in anticipation of harvesting a bounty and convinced myself that I could do it. It took some time and thought, but the internet proved once again, to be a wonderful tool for learning. Especially YouTube.

My advice is to shop around because the disparity in prices for identical products can be quite hefty.

First thing I did was purchase a weighted 8-qt pressure cooker. After using it 2x, I became comfortable with it and started using it regularly. Next, I ordered a 23-qt dial canner. Though I regret not buying one with a weight because the dial needs constant monitoring to maintain pressure at the proper level. Or maybe it's because I'm still a bit inexperienced.

But, so far, as much as it is work, I haven't regretted the experience or investment.

My biggest fear was having a long term power outage and losing a freezer full of meat. I've been able to catch a few really good sales on beef roasts and pork, so now I've got a bunch of pint-size jars to show for my effort. And a quick meal base when I need it.

I also have a food saver and dehydrator so I do have other choices for food preservation. The nice part about the pressure cooker is the speed and quality of the food that is cooked. Spare ribs cooked in 15 min? Yum!

Hopefully next year I will see a veggie harvest worth my time, investment and trouble.

Mainly into apples now, freezing cored, peeled and sliced ones for apple bread and pies and sweet/potato casseroles; pot of apple sauce going now, probably more sauce and apple butter tomorrow. Summer crops gone. Fall crops just starting, mainly lettuces for eating now, but collards and broccoli are looking good.

I think we all do a little of that.