Book Description from Front Cover Flap

Rushing from one thing to another, we lose sight of the art of living, which for California farmer David Mas Masumoto is also the art of farming. Not fast farming, of the kind that produces fast food, but slow farming, the kind that notices each change of light and temperature and produces peaches with juice that runs down your chin.

On the farm, appreciating the fruits of one's own labor requires all the senses: smell that knows when a peach is ready to be picked; sight that observes the health of a season's crop; touch that measures the weight of a fruit; hearing that recognizes each voice that calls out across the fields; and taste that savors the refreshing tang of a fruit at that perfect moment of ripeness. "I see with my senses, aware," Masumoto writes, "the red blush glowing in the late-afternoon sun, a tree with peach lights in it, a siren of harvest time...I can almost breath in the aroma."

Taking us into his fields to witness the cycle of the harvest, Masumoto reminds us that we must stop living and eating on the run in order to reap-and savor-the finest fruits of life.

Comments from Back Cover

"Masumoto brings me to tears just describing a walk through his orchard. What does he treasure most? The peach, his familiy memories, or the written word? He treats all three with eloquent compassion. Profound stuff!"
-JEFF SMITH, The Frugal Gourmet

"David Masumoto's gentle and occasionally angry ode to his peaches remind us that great food does not come from trends or hot new chefs, but from elemental things such as a farmer's love for the land, human dignity, pride in craftsmanship, and a sense of family. Reassuring...[a] lyric little book."
-MARK KURLANSKY, author of Cod and Salt

"Without romanticizing farmwork, Masumoto paints a portrait of the relationships needed to produce a ripe peach and deliver it to a supermarket 3000 miles away. Even as he inveighs against all the economic disincentives to grow foods with taste, Mas still finds beauty, purpose, and connection in the daily task of raising peaches. We are left aching for the sweetness of real work but knowing its harsh side as well. A peach will never slurp the same."
-PETER HOFFMAN,
Savoy Restaurant; national chair of Chefs Collaborative

Background on David Mas Masumoto