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Making jam doesn’t have to start with a giant bushel of peaches. And your pickles definite- ly won’t kill anyone with botulism. This talk is to encourage anyone and everyone to take up small-batch preserving. Saving the season takes less time and effort than you think. (Kevin once made a year’s supply of cocktail onions while on a phone call with a friend.)

Kevin will cover the basics of food safety to put your mind at ease about botulism, then share his Universal Recipes for jam and for pickles. Both are so easy you won’t have to write them down. He’ll also touch on freezing and drying as useful techniques to put up abundant summer produce—especially backyard vegetables and berries.

If you can get dinner on the table and if, now and then, you enjoy a kitchen project such as baking a pie or a cake, then you have all the skills you need to make small-batch pre- serves and pickles. Additional advice on preserving and further thoughts on freezing, drying, and canning will be geared to the kitchen curious.

Kevin West is a journalist and author of Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Canning, Pick- ling, and Preserving and the upcoming The Flavor Garden: A Cook’s Guide to Selecting, Growing, and Preparing a World of Delicious Vegetables and Herbs. I have lived, gardened, and cooked in the Berkshires since 2016.