Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons
on My Family Farm by David M.
Masumoto
The Struggle Continues
A lyrical, sensuous and thoroughly engrossing memoir of one critical year
in the life of an organic peach farmer, Epitaph for a Peach is a delightful
narrative . . . with poetic flair and a sense of humor (Library Journal). Line
drawings.
Personal Review: Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My
Family Farm by David M. Masumoto
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
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