Mockingbird Gardens

Market day tomorrow,

Lee & Lee Ann look forward to seeing you in our Mockingbird Gardens booth at Farmers Market of the Ozarks tomorrow. Good news for you onion and garlic aficionados! Tomorrow we'll have a bit of a mid-summer treat for you: a very limited number of the great ancient Italian heirloom onions, the ROSSA DI TROPEA. This sweet red onion (see photo) has been highly regarded for over 500 years in southern Italy. We will only have them available this coming Saturday. Then they are gone until next year! They are to be eaten fresh [they are not a storage onion], and those of you who were lucky enough to get some last year will recall that they are spectacular grilled or roasted. ! And for our customers who have been eagerly awaiting our garlic, we'll have a limited supply of our three gourmet garlic varieties: Inchellium Red, Metechi, and Bogatyr. Come early, because these onions and garlic will go quickly!

Just heard on NPR that today is National Garlic Day! In observance of this important and beloved holiday, here is a photo of one of this year's garlic beds. This one contains two of our (and our customers') favorite varieties -- Metechi and Inchellium Red. And they are looking beautiful!

From a few years ago

Lee's Favorite Tools Part 3: Previously I have posted a photo of garden tools I particular value -- my old Broadfork, and my homemade Machete. This photo is obviously not a garden tool, but it is one of the objects in my life I greatly tr...easure. This nice little Ball Peen Hammer was made by my great-grandfather Albert Cosby (my dad's grandfather.) As a young man he was, among other things, a streetcar conductor in Dayton, Ohio (I have a lovely photo of him and my great-grandmother Lula from around 1915 or so -- he handsome in his conductor uniform and cap, she small and dark-haired in bonnet and long dress.) He spent most of his mature working life as a skilled machinist. My Dad, who is now 93, spent most of his childhood summers with his grandparents in the '20s and early '30s -- and he says this little hammer was always in the toolbox even when he (my dad) was a little kid. Apparently Grandpa Cosby machined the head sometime in the years just before WWI, and either made the handle or possibly even bought it for $.03 or so from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue It looks homemade to me: there are still toolmarks, and it is "imperfect" (meaning unique and beautiful.) My dad remembers his grandfather using this hammer in his shop, remembers using it himself for projects when he was a kid. I was fortunate to know my great grandfather (he must have been in his early 90s then; our folks live a long time!), and remember quite vividly his taking me out to his old garage in Dayton when I was little (probably 5 or 6 in the mid-1950s) whenever we would visit, putting this little hammer in my hand (it seemed big to a 5-yr-old), and letting me clang away at a small anvil he had mounted on a bit of tree stump. Some years later when Grandpa Cosby passed away, my dad came into possession of the hammer and other tools, used it for many years, and then he handed it on to me 30 years or so ago. I have over the years used it constantly for light work, and it has gently tapped many a chisel and carving tool. A fine handmade tool, nearly a hundred years old, with a handle smoothed in use by my great-grandfather's hand, my father's hand -- and by my own hand as well. It is warm and alive to the touch, and my favorite tool I have ever owned.

We are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow in our pavilion booth at Farmers Market of the Ozarks. We'll have some pretty multicolor CHARD, some fresh healthful KALE, and some bags of our popular excellent SALAD MIX. Our supplies are limited this week, so bundle up, brave the cool weather, and come early!

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow in our usual pavilion booth at Farmers Market of the Ozarks. We'll have some pretty multi-color CHARD, bags of very nice SPINACH, and some bags of our excellent popular winter SALAD MIX. It's going to be a beautiful morning, so come see us at FMO, from 8am to 1pm.