It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. We had several mild family emergencies over the summer that caused a shift in our scheduling and lives. July is a normally a wash anyway, since both babies have birthdays that month. Then we’ve been getting our eldest settled in school, and settling into our new schedule. During all that we began selling our produce and products at the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market. At the market we sell our seeds. One day a woman came and bought a variety of seeds. She then planted them at the African American garden at Mission Garden. Well they took off and grew up beautifully. So then we were contacted to discuss our work, our seeds, and to take a tour of the garden. It was VERY exciting for us. So I thought I’d share some of the highlights with you.

Throughout the garden they have mailboxes that are filled with books in various languages (relevant to the cultures of Tucson) for children/ people to read.

The first one, she wasn’t too sure about, but she eventually got excited and would make us go to each one as she found them.

Beautiful little spicy peppers, that I’ll have to start growing.

Squash, gourds, beans, sweet potatoes, etc.

We found out that the fibers in agave can be used for textiles. So that means eventually I’m going to have to try that. This year I have some other plants I want to try first.

This mailbox was really suspicious, but eventually another child went in so she happily followed, because she REALLY wanted to see what was in the mailbox.

The African American garden (There are several gardens dedicated to the food history and cultures of Tucson, showing the foods that were here and which were brought and by whom.) was sooo lush and full. There was three okra varieties (courtesy of seeds bought from us), basil, eggplant, moringa, squash, melons, sorghum, millet, and flowers. I’m sure there was more, but those are the things I remember off the top of my head. There was also a chicken hutch, which the toddler found to be exciting. That’s also one of the things she loves to visit at the garden we grow at.

My favorite, non plant related part, was the bottle tree in the center of the garden. This is a hoodoo tradition from the South. Traditionally blue bottles are used (Blue is used around the house to confuse potentially malevolent spirits so that they get trapped in the bottle and not in your home. The blue is meant to mimic the sky.) Some of the bottles featured prominent Black ancestors from Tucson’s history.

It was a beautiful day and the wind was blowing, and the clouds were gently covering. It gave me lots of inspiration and hope for some future plans I have in the works. I can’t wait to go back. I also can’t wait until I have my own property so I can go get some seedlings and baby trees from the garden.

If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. But make sure you get a tour so you can hear about all the amazing food history here in Tucson. ALSO, the garden was featured on Top Chef last season, as well as a PBS docuseries (I believe).

Mission Gardens Tour