Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil

by David Mas Masumoto

"[E]vocative and lyrical. . . . Masumoto writes with a keen sense of indebtedness and gratitude to the many individuals who make up the entity he calls his family."― Publishers Weekly , starred review David Mas Masumoto, best-selling author of Epitaph for a Peach , returns to the same ground but digs even deeper in a new, "more ambitious book" in which "he lets his philosophy about man and nature emerge from an absorbing chronicle of his life and that of his Japanese antecedents" ( The Economist ). This is a book about working alongside the ghosts of generations past, about the search for roots in the tragic history of internment camps and in the rural culture of Japan. It is equally about renewal-reinvigorating the farm with organic techniques, teaching his children how to carry on the work that eighty acres of peaches and grapes demand. Masumoto knits past and present to achieve a rare and essential harmony: holding on to what matters, despite the pressures of time and change. "Take your time, linger" with the book, counsels the San Diego Union-Tribune , "Masumoto's serene tales . . . are like a balm." He is a "remarkable" author, sums up The Atlantic , "with a field, and a sensibility, peculiarly his own."

Genres: Food, Memoir, School, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

David "Mas" Masumoto is an organic peach and grape farmer and author of Epitaph for a Peach (1995), which offers a glimpse of life on a family farm in Central California, Letters to the Valley, A Harvest of Memories (2004), Four Seasons in Five Senses, Things Worth Savoring (2003), and Harvest Son, Planting Roots in American Soil (1998). His organic farming techniques have been employed by farmers across the nation.

Masumoto earned his B.A. in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.S. in community development 1982 from the University of California, Davis. He is the winner of the UC Davis “Award of Distinction” from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2003. He was a founding member of California Association of Family Farmers. He has served on the California Tree Fruit Agreement research board and has been a member of the Raisin Advisory Committee research board.

Masumoto and his wife have two children. They reside in an 90 year old farmhouse surrounded by their vineyards and orchards just outside of Del Rey, California which is 20 miles south of Fresno.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[David Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every book that Mas Masumoto writes has deep roots - to family, his ethnicity, the soil. Every book that Mas Masumoto writes is done in prose that makes you turn the page, not just for what he says, but how he says it. And every book Mas writes takes you to his next book, and brings you back to re-read his earlier works. His books make you feel good about being human. Highest recommendations.

[Dree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masumoto examines his family's history farming near Fresno. His immigrant grandparents rented land and were interred during World War 2. His father purchased land as an adult, and Masumoto still farms that land, and still has most of the vines and peach trees his father planted. He discusses the strong Japanese community he grew up in, and how it has slowly shrunk as the immigrants have died and so many of the third generation have moved to cities, including his brother and sister.

As a young man he went to college and then to Japan, where he took an intensive language course and then lived with his great uncle for some time, helping him with his farm of rice and buckwheat. Upon returning home he decided he wanted to farm, and that he was interested in organic methods. When he wrote this book, he was raising his own two kids on his farm, with his father still there to help.

This book is over 20 years old now, and I wonder what his own kids are now doing. Is either interested in continuing the tradition?

[Mason Rye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orchards know time "un-chaptered".

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Added extra layers heart break and beauty.

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

In most ways, David Mas Masumoto writes in the same vein as Wendell Berry. He is a Japanese American farmer, sansei, who returns home with his college degree to work his family's farm in California.

Masumoto's second book delves deeper into his family's history, his childhood, and a pilgrimage he took to Japan. I found this book more powerfully written than Epitaph for a Peach and richer in its insights. He writes, "I take for granted my family's history. I never had to dream of a Masumoto farm; no land or property was ever taken away from me. I've never gone to sleep hungry. Yet my family's ghosts walk with me and whisper about a legacy."

Things to watch for when you read this book: his family's attitude towards farm workers and the UFW, his visit to Japan, and the effect of internment on rural Japanese Americans.

Some parts of the book echoed Epitaph for a Peach too closely. Others started stories that never concluded. The book is cluster of thoughts and memories. Some powerfully come full circle (like the discussion of stingy nettle) but too often I found myself wondering, "but happened next? How did you get there? How did you leave? What happened to that person?" To be generous, perhaps this was one purpose. Many of the stories are told when asks his father the right question and learns something new. We too are listening in and we can only hear the stories as answers to questions that we did not ourselves ask.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't the unique affecting experience that I found "Epitaph for a Peach" to be, perhaps because so much of it was familar ground. But also, the drama of progress versus retaining the best of the path combined with the struggle to craft a life as well as a living made the previous book a fundamentally more compelling story. But the familiarity and reminders of the previous book was what I found appealing in this one; a chance to revisit the peach and raisin farm and its challenges -- and a chance to get to know Masumoto a bit better. I liked him a bit better as the idealized struggling farmer, but he comes off well even under this closer scrutiny. In addition, the stories off of the farm did hold my interest -- bathing in a metal tub over a wood fire in Japan and crafting eulogies for his community members in California are all bits that I'm sure will stick with me into the future.

[Marleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Masumoto describes the life of a farmer, at the mercy of the weather and rising and falling crop prices. David is a Sansei, third-generation Japanese Americans who takes over his grandfather's peach and grape farm. His story provides a window into the life of a working farmer and what he learns about his father as he toils to make the farm profitable.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

David and I both grew up in the Central Valley of California. We never crossed paths that I know of, yet I became very connected to this story, as he learned more about his JiiChan he comes to know so much more about himself, and his connection with the land they farm.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for Asian Lit. and enjoyed it.

[CFAITC]

In his second book based on his life as a California farmer/philosopher, Mas Masumoto creates a tribute to family, farm, and community using prose described as having zen-like calm and clarity.

[Holly Fortune · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much raisins.