Epitaph for a Peach by David M. Masumoto

Author:David M. Masumoto [David Mas Masumoto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061741739
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

chapter nine

harvests

Finding a Home

In the early morning sunrise, I stand out on the porch. Despite the heat of summer, a chill greets me as the sun peeks over the Sierras, but the coolness quickly retreats with the heat of the first rays. I can hear a neighbor’s tractor and his workers beginning their day. I’m excited and relieved that harvest will soon begin. Is this what it’s like to start labor and birth? Impatient to end the nine-month ordeal, yet anxious about beginning a new life as a parent, knowing nothing may ever be the same?

With the aroma of ripening fruit at harvest, my senses detect a subtle fragrance lingering in the air, much like the delicate perfume of a passing woman, tantalizing the imagination long after she has departed.

A week earlier the fragrance caught my attention. I stopped to examine peaches from the outside trees, which ripen before the rest of the field because of their extra helping of unfiltered sunlight. I squeeze one with an amber hue. It has a slight give, telling me it is almost ready and that the majority of the field will soon follow. Unable to resist the scent, I pick and bite a crunchy peach. Immediately the taste jumps out and dances on my tongue. This is why I work to save this peach: Sun Crests have flavor!

As the day unfolds, temperatures rocket into the 90s, then even higher. Plants wilt as the thermometer pushes near 100. Heat rises off the earth’s surface in visible ripples. Radio talk shows advertise contests, listeners guessing which day we will break 100. I do my best to remain cool, knowing dozens of 100-degree days will arrive and scorch the valley. But peaches love the dry heat. They gulp water, double in size, and break color with tinges of red showing like a blush. Harvest is near.

When I walk through my fields of Sun Crest, adrenaline starts to flow. Harvesttime approaches with excitement and the spirit of a chase. I have succeeded in finding a new way to grow these peaches; now my quest remains—to find a home for them.

I devise two strategies. First I will personally choose the best fruit and ship it to specialty markets, where buyers are willing to pay for the quality. The second strategy rests with a new baby food company I hear about from some farmer friends. This company’s buyer claims to want my peaches. I begin both with a farmer’s skepticism.

Peaches are picked in “rounds,” beginning at the top of the tree, where the fruit ripens first. Pickers work their way down a tree with each round. Three to four times we will enter a field, glean the best, and leave the rest to mature and grow. It may take up to two weeks to complete the harvest. The first round produces some of the best fruit, though it’s expensive for a large crew to harvest them. Most of a laborer’s time is spent moving from branch to branch and tree to tree, searching for the ripe fruit.

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