Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm

"Epitaph" is a gem and a masterpiece. Masumoto is a good farmer, a truly dedicated family man and a gifted writer. The story is in part about his love affair with a wonderful variety of peach.City people will know why supermarket peaches disappoint and country people will recognize the sad story of a farmer who, the harder he tries the more frustration he finds. The peaches you find in the supermarket are there because the consumer/supermarket/broker/ value "shelf life" more than flavor.Peaches don't travel well and they don't last long. The farmer must choose the right variety, prune it exactly the right way at exactly the right time, fertilize and water at the right time, pray fervently for the right weather conditions.Only then, if the peach absorbs enough sun to fully mature, will it have the full bursting ambrosial flavor a peach should have. Only the sun can make a peach sweet and flavorful. Most really delicious peaches won't last more than three or four days after they are picked.A good peach should be eaten as it is right out of hand. Not put in a pie or jam or cake. Only a good farmer can grow a perfect peach and no supermarket want them. Where is the answer?You'll fall in love with farming and weep a bit as you read the Masumoto family story. Perhaps you won't fully appreciate what today's farmers are up against, but this book will give you more insight than you ever had before.If you are from a farming family you will fully appreciate every word of this beautiful story of a San Joaquin Valley farm.

This is a wonderful story of a man and his family who are in harmony with the land. This is a story of personal feelings. Mr. Masumoto writes in a poetic style, which makes you not only feel the peach juices running down your chin, but if you close your eyes you can taste the sweetness of the juice.He also presents his life as a child working with his dad on the farm. He shares his experiences on the farm as a young man who shoots his first bird, a giant barn owl that he regrets to this day. Later, he experiences an egret being shot by a cousin, which also saddens him. While I never grew up on a farm, I also remember the jack rabbit that I shot as a kid, which I still remember to this day (I am 72 years old). I also remember being with a friend who shot a red tailed hawk and I thought at the time, what a terrible waste for such a momentary pleasure.The author projects his inner feelings about life. He reflects on his own life and that of those who surround him, family, friends, laborers and the public that consumes his produce. He contemplates the life of his peach trees and vineyards, which he nurtures from small plants, to maturity and at their end of life. He thinks of the life of the weeds and insects that he has to compete with to allow his crops to survive.This short story is full of life experiences that any reader can relate to. This is a book to read during the quite moments when you want to reflect upon your personal life and contemplate what experiences have given meaning to your own life destiny. A destiny that none of us travel alone.

I read this book for a class on sustainable agriculture. I am glad it was assigned to me, because I would not have read it otherwise! It was fascinating to read this from the point of view of a farmer, as it offered many interesting perspectives on farming, sustainable agriculture, and more!

I feel a connection with David Masumoto. Not that I've met him or anything - in fact, there's a good chance I never will (although I keep hoping that one summer day I can make it over to his farm to pick peaches). No, this feeling is based on an impression that we have both fought the same fight over different things, for the same reasons. It is also because he writes so poignantly about a landscape I grew up in. Mr. Masumoto is an organic farmer in the valley of California, and his story is becoming more and more familiar to me as I see this way of life disappearing across the country.A third generation Japanese American peach and grape farmer, David Masumoto inherited the family orchard from his father. He also had the heritage of his childhood memories of how that particular peach variety, Sun Crest, tasted and ran with juice unlike the pretty red baseballs that have passed for today's supermarket peach varieties. Mr. M wanted to show the world how delightful an old-fashioned peach could be.When he took over his father's farm, he resolved to not only continue growing his Sun Crests, but to do it organically. This would prove challenging in our day and age of cheap, quick fixes; moreover, it would test his strongly felt ideals. The land needed to heal and replenish itself after years of chemical fertilizers and toxic pest control methods. Masumoto had to take his example from research on other organic farming practices, planting wildflowers to encourage beneficial insect life and sowing "green manure" crops to act as natural mulch and compost. All this took time, patience, and faith that his hard work would eventually pay off.Epitaph for a Peach is rich in sensory descriptions, philosophy, and nostalgic flashbacks. It is a picture of the way a farmer's life is connected to the seasons, capricious weather patterns, and changing market conditions. Not incidentally, Masumoto also teaches about the obscure history of Japanese farmers in the Valley - something that even I, native to Fresno, had little idea of. Reading this book was a slow, thoughtful experience much in the same manner that one slows down to savor a rich fruit. Recommended to anybody interested in history, growing food, or the vanishing California landscape.-Andrea, aka Merribelle