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Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm |
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Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm |
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Dewey Decimal Number: 634.2584092 EAN: 9780062510259 ISBN: 0062510258 Label: HarperOne Languages: Manufacturer: HarperOne Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: May 31, 1996 Publisher: HarperOne Release Date: April 26, 1996 Studio: HarperOne Editorial Review: Product Description: 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. Related Items:
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A slight bookThis book doesn't quite live up to its promise. I found the concept of his quest to save his heirloom peaches inspiring, but the book lacks the focus and drama I expected. Instead it meanders through the agricultural seasons, without much explanation of, say, the marketing and distribution process, which is apparently the challenge with the kind of peaches he's growing. The book has a nice mood, but after a while I began to feel that he was saying the same things over and over again. I didn't finish the book, which is rare for me. Rating:  - A year in the life of a peach farmerEpitaph for a Peach chronicles a year on Mas Masumoto's farm in the great Central Valley of California. If you are not familar with his work, Mas is a third generation Japanese American (Sansei) farmer, a disappearing breed. If you were raised on a family farm, Mas nails the experience right on the head. His writing is accessible; doesn't require that you have a degree in Literature to understand. He weaves a tale that keeps one engaged. The book opens with a prologue written by Mas that was published in the Los Angeles Times. Mas laments having to bulldoze his Sun Crest peach orchard in order to plant a more "popular" and profitable variety. (The article was syndicated nationally - I don't know how I missed it.) This sets the stage for Mas' effort to find a market for his peaches as well as tell his story of life on the farm. Each season brings work and change. He disputes the notion that a farmer's life is unchanging. It is also filled with symbolism - egrets, owls, ghosts - and optimism. The end leaves you with an unanswered question - does the peach orchard survive beyond the year chronicled in the book? If you are a refugee from a family farm, have spent time on a family farm or want a vignette into the life of a Sansei farmer, I highly recommend Epitaph for a Peach. Rating: - An excellent view into the life of a small-scale family farmAuthor David Masumoto has written an excellent vignette into the year in a life of a small-scale, family farmer. His passion for his life's work, his connection to the land, and his strong family values are so clearly evident in his writing. I think a lot of readers will be envious of the life he describes. I share many of his views on the value of small family farms and the need to focus on how food should taste. Masumoto's book will reonsate deeply with those of us who know what it means to be curious about how something grows, who look forward to the first ripe peach or melon of the year, who prefer to make things from scratch and sit down with all our kids at dinner. Rating: - Not so much an epitaph, but a love letter to the landI 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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