Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm

Rating:
Summary: Moving account of an ordinary farmer
Review: This book moves me in ways I find hard to describe. I'm from a farming family in the San Joaquin Valley in California. My father still grows grapes not terribly far from Mr. Masumoto's farm. When you grow up near the earth and smell, hear, see and touch its produce nearly every day, especially when the fruit is ripe, you can't help but be awed by nature's (and God's) miracles. Living now in a city I long for my children and my friends to understand how deeply tied we really are to the earth and what it produces for us, and how vital it is for us all to take care of our fragile earth. Organic farming requires all of us, farmers and consumers, to think a bit differently about how to grow and shop for our food. Mr. Masumoto brilliantly captured the ordinary, everyday life of a farmer. This book will be going to everyone I know for Christmas this year.

Rating:
Summary: a peach of a book...
Review: This is a wonderful, lyrical book, that makes you care passionately about the outcome--not just of the farmers, but of the peaches themselves

Rating:
Summary: Poetic pictures
Review: When David Mas Masumoto describes how his "old-fashioned" Sun Crest peaches look and taste, the reader's mouth waters and the grocery store peaches of today become flavorless by comparison. When Masumoto is unable to find buyers for his peaches he describes them as "homeless" and the reader's heart grieves. This book strongly conveys the small family farmer's ties to the land and his crops, his lack of control before the forces of nature and the whims of market dynamics. It also taught me a few things about the hard work involved in farming. However, when I look back for a "soundbite" impression of this book, I get a series of poetic pictures: Masumoto's obaachan (grandmother) walking through the farm at sunset, cruel bulldozers ripping out an orchard, graceful egrets fishing in the irrigation canals. A great read for a taste of connection to the land!

Rating:
Summary: Poetic pictures
Review: When David Mas Masumoto describes how his "old-fashioned" Sun Crest peaches look and taste, the reader's mouth waters and the grocery store peaches of today become flavorless by comparison. When Masumoto is unable to find buyers for his peaches he describes them as "homeless" and the reader's heart grieves. This book strongly conveys the small family farmer's ties to the land and his crops, his lack of control before the forces of nature and the whims of market dynamics. It also taught me a few things about the hard work involved in farming. However, when I look back for a "soundbite" impression of this book, I get a series of poetic pictures: Masumoto's obaachan (grandmother) walking through the farm at sunset, cruel bulldozers ripping out an orchard, graceful egrets fishing in the irrigation canals. A great read for a taste of connection to the land!