- Paperback: 270 pages
- Publisher: HarperOne (5 Feb 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0062510258
- ISBN-13: 978-0062510259
- Product Dimensions: 20.7 x 13.6 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
422,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #33 in Books > Science & Nature > Food & Farming > Organic
- #45 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Agriculture & Farming > Crop Production
- #61 in Books > Science & Nature > Food & Farming > Crop Husbandry
Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm
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Product Description
Synopsis
Drawing upon Masumoto's own experience as a Japanese American peach and grape farmer, this novel follows his attempt not just to keep his peaches alive but to farm in a new way, working with and not against nature.
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First Sentence
The challenge begins in early spring with the first work of the year. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The challenge begins in early spring with the first work of the year. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
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.
Format:Paperback
Wow. We read this book as part of an upper-division historiography class which examined, among other things, rural America through the experiences of immigrant farmers and migrant laborers. Of the 9 books we read, this one was perhaps the easiest read. Masumoto's writing style is fluid and engaging, which makes the story he tells ever so much more enjoyable. I recomment this book to historians and non-historians alike--it was one of the few I didn't sell back to the bookstore, and I recently loaned it out to my older sister!
Format:Paperback
I have lived in the San Joaquin Valley for a little less then 2 years, and currently drive by Del Rey on my daily commute from Reedley to Fresno and back. For the time being, I'm still looking at grapes and peaches rather than subdivisions and scrub. Masumoto's book has helped this refugee from the lands of corn and soybeans and those of wheat and milo start to figure out what's going on in those vineyards and orchards. There are two things I like about this book. The first is the great sense of balance between the ideal and the practical, and abstract versus work-a-day concerns. For instance, the questions such as "do I 'exploit' this worker or leave him unemployed?", and "which is worse, using pesticide, or burning more fossil fuel and smogging up the Valley more with extra tillage?". You know; the kinds of questions that seem straightforward and clear-cut to those whose experience with organic agriculture is buying food at the co-op. The seconds is that Mr. Masumoto's prose doesn't strike me as being nearly as frilly as that of most of his blurb writers. I am reminded of Aldo Leopold or Norman MacLean; guys who can express great vistas and grand ideas with relatively sparse language.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautifully Written, Throughly Enjoyable Read
From the openning paragraphs to the final page, this book was throughly enjoyable. Made me realize just what it takes to put food on the table and the lives that family farmers... Read more
Published on 7 Sep 1998
characterized by quiet appreciation for the lessons of natur
An exceptional story which weaves the tale of saving a peach variety overlayed with a respect for family, nature, and the lessons -- both physical and philospohical which nature... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 1996
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