This was from last summer. I never did complete what I was going to do here:
i know all our readers have been clamoring for another one of my posts. in between studying analytic philosophy and relearning german again i’ve been reading Epitaph For A Peach which i picked up at the salvo for a song. its about a third generation japanese peach farmer whose old-fashioned peach farm can’t break even.
just as the bulldozers are about to do what bulldozers do (bull? doze?) he decides to give it another go. he farms less for profit than family, the land, and deliciousness, but as my father would say “we aren’t running a charity here.” since getting big or out have been eliminated as options the plan is to get small and get better. he has been slowly incorporating organic techniques for years and he hopes he can find a niche for his Sun Crest peaches with a short shelf-life, but (apparently) great taste. i’m not sure if i have ever had a great tasting peach, but now i think i’d like to.
another farm journal/book i’ve been leafing through was written by a conventional beet and small grains farmer from the red reiver valley during, i think, 1987 (bad drought year). quite a contrast between the two. the organic peach farmer talks philosophy with entomologists and the beet fella eats free steaks from pesticide salesmen. one thinks like an artist and majored in sociology and rural studies and ones a scientist (thats not to say there isn’t a lot of common ground either). i’m about halfway through both. i hope it all turns out ok.
