Author With Area Ties To Speak About Home Food Preserving

Eat better food. Help save the world. Prepare for the zombie apocalypse. According to author Daniel Gasteiger, these are a few of the benefits of preserving produce at home.

Mr Gasteiger’s book, Yes, You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too (The Modern Step-By-Step Guide To Preserving Food) from Cool Springs Press introduces readers to several common methods of home food preservation. As its title implies, the book teaches canning, freezing, dehydrating, pickling, and fermenting.

The author will be visiting C.H. Booth Library on Thursday, August 30, to offer an evening program.

In contrast to many books about preserving, Yes, You Can! is loaded with color photos that show step-by-step how to complete the projects it presents. And it doesn’t stop with preserving. Mr Gasteiger has included tips to shorten kitchen chores, stories with which most cooks can relate, and recipes that incorporate home-preserved foods.

Mr Gasteiger didn’t set out to teach about home food preserving. He worked originally at Lotus Development Corporation in Boston during the earliest days of the PC industry. He moved with his family to central Pennsylvania in the early 90s but immediately landed a consulting contract with IBM in Southbury.

Mr Gasteiger commuted for several months, spending two weeks at a time in Southbury. He eventually moved into an apartment in Danbury where he lived for nearly 18 months. By the time he settled back in Pennsylvania, he felt connected to western Connecticut, and still visits friends here whenever he can.

In Pennsylvania, Mr Gasteiger doubled the size of a planting bed that had come with the house, and he reclaimed fruit trees that had become “wild” in his yard. While he continued to work in technology, his interest shifted from programming and systems design to building presence on the Internet.

He started a blog called Your Small Kitchen Garden in which he teaches how to grow, cook, and preserve fruits and vegetables, and he occasionally posts similarly-themed videos on YouTube. The blog draws about 14,000 monthly visitors, and Mr Gasteiger’s gardening and preserving videos on YouTube have been watched more than 175,000 times. Through social networking, Mr Gasteiger got to know garden writers, publishers, editors, and even television personalities. The blogging and social networking led to a book contract, and Yes, You Can! debuted to high praise.

When an upcoming trip east provided an opportunity to speak at Booth Library in Newtown, Mr Gasteiger was delighted. His 90-minute presentation will begin at 7 pm Thursday, and will examine reasons to preserve produce. He’ll explain benefits and liabilities of various methods of preservation, and he’ll share tips and insights from his experiences and from readers he’s come to know through Facebook and Twitter.

Mr Gasteiger’s presentations are usually lively and engaging. He speaks with high energy and enthusiasm and inspires listeners to get started on — or to extend — their own home preserving skills.

Additional information is available by calling the library, 203-426-4533; registration can be done online at CHBoothLibrary.org.