For Nikiko Masumoto, every peach has a story. And, for the fruit that comes from her family’s California farm, the story spans four generations.
Along the way, there are detours through forcible removals and a Japanese internment camp, but the tale ends up at the kitchen table with, upon it, one of California’s most coveted delicacies.
Masumoto is an organic peach farmer, performance artist and a fourth-generation Japanese-American. Her family farm, located at the base of the Sierra Nevadas, is famous for its peaches, especially the coveted Sun Crest variety.
But, the Masumotos believe that on their land they don’t only grow food, they also grow stories.
“For us they are indelibly linked,” said Masumoto. “When we think about the food we grow leaving our farm, we hope and dream that it leaves not only as an object, but as a conveyor of stories.“
Part of the Masimuto family story is embodied in a 100-year-old vineyard on their farm -- one that was likely cultivated by her great-grandparents who toiled as farm laborers upon first arriving in the United States. At the time, Masumoto explains, strict land laws prohibited Asian immigrants from owning land.
When her "geechan," or grandfather, bought their first 40 acres of land after World War II, Masumoto’s grandmother was very upset. The whole family had just gone through the trauma of being forcefully relocated and interned, and they didn’t need any more trouble.
“When he bought that land, that was his way of claiming a place here in the United States. And, saying that even though the family and all Japanese-Americans had just been publicly discriminated against, he was going to plant roots -- literally -- and make a place where he belonged," she said.
It’s that legacy that called Masumoto back to the farm after college. Her family had gone organic in the '80s -- long before it became fashionable.
"I realized it was really revolutionary what my family was doing back home. I wanted to continue that story of belonging and growing food that nourishes people’s bodies," she said
To Masumoto and her family, stories are inherent in all food but people are often not awake to them, and, as a result miss an opportunity to connect to something valuable. As a writer and story-teller, Masumoto tries to re-link food and kitchen-table stories.
More than a decade after her father, David Mas Masumoto, wrote the award-winning memoir, "Epitaph For A Peach," the family just co-wrote a new book called "The Perfect Peach: Recipes and Stories from the Masumoto Family Farm.”
“I think of farming as another form of performance art. We are absolutely involved in growing an esthetic experience. And, when we have the opportunity to make that connection though those stories with eaters, that to me is the applause at the end of a performance. That’s the power; it’s the exchange between people via the vehicle of food," she said.
