How would you like to bite into a juicy peach or its fuzzless cousin, nectarine? But first things first, have you ever wondered what keeps a farmer, a fruit grower motivated to produce the magnificent fruits we have come to appreciate all year long? For sure, it's not glamor. It's not the attraction of fabulous sums of money. It's not the immediate feedback they get from the consumers of their efforts. What is it then that keeps this strong breed of American farmers on the soil, weathering bad seasons, the prospects of poor returns and absorption of family farms by larger farming companies and many other risks?

I will let you hear the answers from the mouth of a grower of organic peaches and grapes who has become a great thinker and wonderful writer. He is none other than David Masumoto from South of Fresno, CA. For those of you who are familiar with Fresno county, the author of Harvest Son: Planting Roots In American Soil farms in the Del Rey area. Farming is valued beyond dollars and cents. In fact, participating in the act of creation can be reinvigorating.

Farming can be lonely and financially unrewarding despite all the long hours of labor, decisions and loans. Traveling up and down the floor of the Central Valley of California, I have had the opportunity to visit many family farms and commercial farms. If anything is common to all these special people is their love for creation and improvement. They don't like to give up and show proof of leadership, creativity, innovation and courage. In a way, as an urban consumer, this is my privilege to inform their efforts to produce were not for nothing. Just like David Masumoto eloquently writes, "we farmers don't often enough experience the end of the journey; we rarely see how our produce is utilized; we infrequently meet those who enjoy the fruits of our labor." Now once for all, here we are the people, the consumers of these gorgeous fruits.

How did David arrive on the literary scene?
Background information

He is truly a farmer who can not only farm but also write superbly. His first book, Epitaph for a Peach received wide acclaim by many reviewers and purchased by farmers as well as fruit lovers who have ever consumed produce from the Central Valley. In that book, he shows his literary skills when describing the joys and frustrations of raising and tending peaches and grapes. As consumers, all we see is the fruit we bought from the shelves of the local store. Many of us who don't have a farming background may not realize what goes into farming. In the case of peaches and grapes, there is the thinning, the application of composts and other nutrients to the soil, the pruning and fertilizing, tilling and harvesting etc. Workers must be hired to cover all these acres.

In Epitaph for a Peach, David Masumoto writes about his efforts to save his family's orchard of great but hard-to-market Suncrest peaches. He writes about how the market for tree-ripened peaches is almost gone. New kinds of peaches are bred and farmed to meet the various demands of the market. In his humor-filled essays, Mas shows that he is a true chronicler of agricultural farming. He doesn't hesitate to mention all the problems faced by farmers and the quasi-disappearance of family farms that are quickly absorbed by larger commercial farm corporations. He managed to find a buyer for his organic produce in a baby manufacturing company.

What's Harvest Son all about?

In this book, Mas pays his tribute to family, farm and the community at large. Some of the themes of his essays are universal. They don't solely address the issues that most Japanese American farmers face. They address all farmers' problems. Almost, step-by-step, the author walks you through the book while telling you stories of how he learned to prune vines and survive a storm. With a combination of 25 black and white photographs, Mas tells stories that focus on family and place. Harvest Son started as an inquiry into his grandparents' stories. That search took him to Japan where he had to learn the Japanese language. It was an eye-opener for the author as he saw the difference between the rest of the family in Japan and his family in CA. Upon returning to the US, he decided to join his parents until he took over the farm. It was about the same time he started his own family. With 20 acres of peaches, 60 acres of grapes, he had his hands full. Raising a family can take a toll on anybody. When you are a farmer, it is even worse as you have to put in numerous hours of labor. Just like any employment, the farmer had to try to link all these aspects of his life: family, farming and continuity of traditions.

In Harvest Son.., you will have the opportunity to have a sense of the physical aspect of all the work that goes into farming peaches and grapes. Using photographs about old shovels and pruning shears, the author discovers his sense of place. He finally finds home.

I will let you discover the gems that lay hidden among the pages and chapters of Harvest Son.

This is a very interesting book that you will enjoy reading. If you are looking for a book on farming, you can pick this one.

Great reading!


Recommended: Yes