Don’t be afraid to preserve your garden crops…if you have any

• benketaro
• Admit it, you want to learn to put up your vegetables.

Those poor, parched squirrels running around my neighborhood devoured every tomato plant in my backyard — the few plump red ones and even all the green ones — a couple of sweltering weeks ago. No tears were shed by me: It became one less area to have to water every morning. And, frankly, the squirrels probably needed those tomatoes a lot more than I did.

Someday, I’ve promised myself to learn how to “put up” any vegetables I grow (or, more likely, buy at a local farmers market) and make my own pickles. I have made jelly before, but sealing those jars doesn’t seem as complicated as the summer vegetables, which require boiling water baths or pressure cookers. Canning and preserving food have always seem terrifying to me. You know, the possibility of botulism and death and all that. Those fears have always made me appreciate the easy availability of Heinz products.

But, wait! Chef Matt Chatfield at the Culinary Center of Kansas City is once again offering his popular “Preserving the Flavors of Summer” class on Tuesday, August 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Culinary Center facility (7920 Santa Fe Drive, Overland Park, 913-341-4455). There are, currently, just six slots left open for the class.