The poet with a ring in her right nostril and left eyebrow asked the owner of Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café in Boulder back in November to let her bring more poetry to the place through food.
Lily Carlisle-Reske, 22, already knew the open mic regulars at the venue, which is kitty-corner from The Sink, the iconic bar in the University Hill neighborhood.
“Countless times I’ve read my poetry here and have listened to other people read their poetry here,” she said, while chopping vegetables in the cafe’s back kitchen Monday. “It’s like cooking for family.”
By making vegan soups and baking rustic breads from scratch with some seasonally available ingredients harvested locally when possible, she hoped to nourish that community.
Brian Buckley, who has co-owned Innisfree with his wife, Kate Hunter, for about eight years — the last two years at the current 1301 Pennsylvania Ave. location — liked her proposal so much that he created a chef position and hired her almost on the spot. By giving Carlisle-Reske a chance, he upgraded Innisfree’s previous menu from prebaked pastries, premade burritos and bagel sandwiches to match the quality of its organic, fair-trade, locally roasted coffee, Buckley said.
“We are a family owned business competing with a Starbucks to the north and to the south and now one on campus at CU,” he said. “But after Lily started here, our lunch crowd has grown and more people are stopping in between 4 and 5 in the afternoon for an early dinner.”
“We see habits shifting,” Buckley continued. “Now, they can smell Moroccan chickpea soup, and they can see Lily making it in the back. It’s been nice to watch the community linger longer because of that.”
Though Carlisle-Reske lacks culinary school education, she has worked in kitchens and bakeries since age 15. She also spent 10 months studying food and agriculture near Florence, Italy, and in May graduated from the prestigious Smith College in Massachusetts after majoring in environmental science with an emphasis on sustainable food and agriculture.
Before moving to Boulder last summer, she already had worked stints in the area as an environmental educator, organic farmer and as an intern for Boulder Food Rescue — a nonprofit that delivers perishable foods “just in time” to low income families.
But the bountiful poetic expression she brings to paper, soups and breads comes from personally being touched by scarcity, Carlisle-Reske said. After her dad got laid off and her mom started working 70 hours a week to make ends meet, she at 11 earned a good reputation with her older sister and brother for converting the sparest of fixings into good eats.
“My mom, she did a really amazing job trying to put food on the table for us. But sometimes it just wouldn’t happen, and we had some food scarcity then. She would be gone at work or she needed to stretch the chicken for seven days, and it was the eighth day,” Carlisle-Reske, who grew up in Alexandria, Va., said. “My sister still remembers the chocolate cake I made with cornmeal for our dinner one night. And it was all right. It filled our bellies.”
Now, Carlisle-Reske works in a well-stocked kitchen. But she still funnels feelings of hunger and satisfaction into the poetry of her food preparations, she said.
To capture something of what moves her to cook and bake this way, she wrote the following poem in a chapbook of her work titled “A Bend in the Knee.”
Home 1.7
there is a slump in your
shoulders
a mist swarming your eyes
and they seem like questions
to which
there are no answers.
so here, in front of you
is something
not an answer, not a solution
but a dozen different things
you don’t have to carry with you.
a few ways someone
maybe many someones-
told you
they loved you
a way you told someone
maybe many someones-
you loved them
a trip you once took
a trip you’ve always wished to take.
the slump remains
your eyes are still crowded
but now you are full
and ready to move,
just a little.
Carrot Soup With Fennel
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bulb fennel, diced (reserve fronds)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 pounds carrots, peeled and diced
16 Castelvetrano olives, pitted and minced
5 cups vegetable broth (water may be substituted)
2 slices stale sourdough bread, chopped (use an equal amount of squash to substitute a gluten-free thickener)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Apple cider vinegar, to taste (lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice or vinegar may be substituted)
Directions: Heat extra virgin olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed stock pot. Sauté fennel and onion until translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Then, stir in carrots and saute until softened, another 5-7 minutes. Add vegetable broth, salt, olives and sourdough. Stir again, and bring to a boil. Then, simmer about 20 minutes.
Emulsify the soup -— or purée it in a food processor or blender after cooling -— until the soup is smooth and easily drips off the spoon. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
For more acidic flavoring than what the sourdough bread adds, season to taste beginning with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, orange or lemon juice, and adding a teaspoon more until desired acidity is achieved.
Garnish with either fennel bulb sprigs or dill sprigs and serve with a crusty french bread and dry white wine.
Makes about 6 servings.
Source: Lily Carlisle-Reske, Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe.
Pam Mellskog can be reached at p.mellskog@gmail.com or at 303-746-0942.
