I have had this mortar (on the left) and pestle (in bowl on right) for a good 20 years. it has served me faithfully and unobtrusively. I use it nearly every single day. I never really think too much about it. I don’t even recall when or where I got it. But I do use this thing every single time I cook. I prefer the grind of this to the grind of a pepper mill so I grind all my pepper by hand, and I grind a lot of it. I know. This is completely insane.
So when a jar of oregano dropped on it and broke it clean in half I nearly passed out. Frantically I ran to my computer and googled “hand made mortar” and about 50 variations on that theme. I searched well into the 6th and 7th pages of each search. Nothing. I finally did an image search and saw something like this lovely mortar on the right. The work was by Jeanie Daves, a potter in the south somewhere, Georgia, I think, and I emailed her. A few weeks later it arrived (along with a nice pestle but I prefer my wood one). The interior is grittier so the pepper grinds faster. It is also more stable than my former mortar.
In the meantime the Royal Indian Mounted Food Control Police super-glued the old one back together. It seems fine and I used it once but am concerned about its fragility. Poor little thing.
