By David M. Masumoto
A lyrical, sensuous and punctiliously engrossing memoir of 1 severe yr within the lifetime of an natural peach farmer, Epitaph for a Peach is "a pleasant narrative . . . with poetic aptitude and a feeling of humor" (Library Journal).
Read Online or Download Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm PDF
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Extra resources for Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm
Sample text
Even if BT lasts only for a few days, the borers keep grazing, slowly feasting on a suicidal diet. “They kill themselves,” I claim. I grin at Pat and raise my eyebrows. He blinks, surprised at the look in my eyes. “It’s the perfect crime,” I conclude. chapter five learning to fail Shovel of Earth The blade slices into the soil. My muscles tense and push the shovel into the moist ground. Dark and damp, the sweet warm smell of wet earth. The tool eases through a mat of weeds, the ground flush with activity.
But that would not alter the hysteria. I still had worms. 50 / Epitaph for a Peach Most worms usually are taken care of by spraying. Many farmers use a chemical in the winter that provides control for months, a worm toxin that destroys eggs and caterpillars during the cold temperatures. The spray also kills most everything else in the field. By early spring those orchards are sterile of life; lady beetles and lacewings avoid the area, repulsed by a natural quarantine of residues and the fact that there is no food for their hungry appetites.
Each day I accumulate impressions more than lessons, as I develop the instincts of those two old farmers. I used to farm with a strategy of un-chaos. I was looking for regularity, less variability, ignoring the uniqueness of each farm year. But now my farm resembles the old pine at the Del Rey Hall; wildness is tolerated, even promoted. The farm becomes a test of the unconventional, a continuous experiment, a journey of adaptation and living with change. I’ve even had to change my ways of counting.