Uncommon Exchange

Grower Delia Carroll indtroduces Reil to the perennial herb lovage.

Twenty minutes later, Reil walks into Cafeína toting his produce. The neighborly feeling is evident at this six-year-old café, where owner Maria Myers is busy chatting with customers waiting for an espresso or a cup of tea.

“Oh, perfect!” says Myers as she greets Reil with a hug. “I love lovage! I’ll use it in a soup.” The chocolate mint, she explains, will go well in a chocolate dessert.

True to her word, Myers later adds the carrots, zucchini, and lovage to a chicken soup she prepares with brown basmati rice and shitake mushrooms. She garnishes her divine chocolate-strawberry shortcake with the mint.

Cafeína was the first restaurant to sign on to Garden to Table when Reil launched it in 2011. To allay any concerns Myers might have had about the produce, Reil took her out on a tour of the gardens. “The food is grown without pesticides; it’s loved and nurtured,” she says. “And it’s nice to have a connection with your growers.”

Myers’ way of thanking the growers has been with café gift certificates and an occasional jar of “worm tea,” a fertilizer her husband makes from worm castings and the restaurant’s composted veggies. Taking part in Garden to Table has also prompted Myers to deepen her ties to the community. During last summer’s Albany Local Week, she offered a daily “grown in Albany” special using produce that Reil delivered.  He recalls that it was a good time for beans and tomatoes and that by putting out a plea to his regular growers and other community members, he was able to ramp up his delivery to Cafeína from weekly to daily during that week. Myers, in turn, could offer a different special each day at a lower cost than her usual fare.

“How can we highlight the gift exchange to better a lot of things and to show a different way?” Reil asks. He notes that in some cultures, the people most highly regarded are those who are most generous.

Giving produce to local restaurants may seem like a surprising choice when so many people don’t have fresh food to eat. But Reil is not just donating food; he’s arguing for a profound shift in our society, from a competitive model to a cooperative one. “This is the heart of sustainability,” he says, adding that it’s also a response to real future challenges. Although his focus is on highlighting a new type of local economy, he also has plans for donating produce to food banks and for building partnerships with school and community gardens.

SHARING MORE AND GROWING MORE TO SHARE

Reil is a member of the Transition movement, an international group that advocates the creation of self-reliant neighborhoods where people grow their own food, cooperate with neighbors, and decrease their dependence on oil. (See Edible East Bay’s Harvest 2011 issue.) Through Transition Albany, Reil met retired UC Berkeley engineer Ed Fields, who became a regular Garden to Table donor.

“I really believe in this,” says Fields. “People should be sharing what they’re growing, and it shouldn’t go to waste.”

When Fields saw his neighbor’s plum tree overflowing with fruit, he asked if he could pick the extras. Once harvested, the plums got passed along to Reil.

But Reil has also been encouraging people to grow more so there will be more to share. Fields has been swept along with the idea, and his wife Maureen, an avid flower gardener, has obliged, giving up some of her tiny plot to make room for more edibles.

Reil leads by example. He moved from Albany to El Cerrito last February, and by June had about 15 crops coming up in his yard, including three kinds of heirloom pickling cucumbers. Reil’s son Cashel, age 4, helped plant watermelon, lettuce, and carrots.

                                                                                                                                  Doug Reil surveys his “farmlet”

“I think of my garden as a ‘farmlet,’” says Reil, whose grandfather was a farmer in Connecticut. “It’s for my family and the community.”                                                   

Reil’s wife, cookbook author Robin Donovan (The Lazy Gourmet) makes expert use of the produce, and during last year’s Albany Local Week the two teamed up to lead a skill-sharing session where he made pickles and she turned green beans into hot dilly beans. They also participated in an applesauce- and jam-making event at the Albany Community Center last September. “We pooled our fruit and all worked together,” Reil says of the jam-boree. “It was in the spirit of an old-fashioned barn-raising.”

Reil’s initiatives are well timed. According to the National Gardening Association (NGA), one-third of American households participated in food gardening in 2011. In addition, sales for food gardening items totaled $2.99 billion in 2010, representing the highest level of spending in that sector in more than a decade.

“If one good thing came out of our recession woes, it’s that many people have reconnected with the land and are growing their own vegetables, fruit, berries, and herbs,” says Mike Metallo, NGA’s president.

Last year’s pickles

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS . . .

For Reil, having too many lemons turns into yet another opportunity for spreading the word on the ideas of sharing and a gift economy. Under the umbrella of a larger initiative he calls Bay Food Shed, Reil engages in a small bit of activism he has dubbed “Local Lemonade.”

When the 2012 bumper crop of local lemons was at its peak in May, he set up a stand at the Albany Arts & Green Festival, bringing a batch of his simple syrup, water, and a hand juicer, along with crates of donated lemons. Throughout the afternoon, thirsty kids and adults lined up for Reil’s sweet-tart beverage, which he handed out for free in small cups along with a big message about growing food in your own backyard. The lemonade got high marks, and people also took time to chat with Reil about growing lemons, baking bread with lemons, pickling, and making kombucha. When one woman wanted to pay for her lemonade, Reil was able to explain his ideas on a gift economy, while also saying that he will accept donations for the paper cups, which he had to purchase. By the time the event ended, he had given away over 6 gallons of lemonade juiced from 55 pounds of donated lemons from eight local households, and had delivered his message to hundreds.

So indeed, when life gives you lemons, do make lemonade. But then consider emulating Doug Reil: share your lemonade, your lemons, and your knowledge about them; plant more lemon trees; and inspire those around you to do the same. 

Info:

A cuke headed for this year’s pickling.

Cafeína Organic Café, 1389 Solano Avenue,
Albany; www.cafecafeina.com

Bua Luang Thai, 1166 Solano Avenue,
Albany; www.bualuangalbany.com

Tay Tah Café, 1182 Solano Avenue,
Albany; www.themenupage.com/taytahcafe

Elevation 66 Brewing Company, 10082 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito; www.elevation66.com

Sacred Economics: www.sacred-economics.com

Bay Food Shed: www.facebook.com/bayfoodshed

Transition organizations: www.transitionus.org www.transitionalbany.org www.transitionberkeley.com