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You’ve heard of adopting babies, adopting puppies, and even adopting highways. But have you heard of adopting peach trees?
Each January, farmer David Mas Masumoto opens up the application process for peach-lovers to adopt his Elberta peach trees, which are famous around California, and the nation, for their quality and flavor. For a cool $500 fee, accepted applicants will have the right to traipse to his family’s certified organic farm outside Fresno, California over the course of two summer weekends to harvest their tree’s loot, a yield that generally weighs between 400 and 500 pounds. That’s a lot of peaches.
I’ve known about this program for years, and each year, I promise myself that this will be the year I will apply. This past January, I realized with crushing disappointment that the harvest dates would conflict with my summer travel plans, and so another year has passed without my becoming an adoptive peach parent.
Even without Masumoto’s peaches in my life, though, I can still console myself with his presence. The farmer, beloved in food circles for his lyricism and stories of his family’s agricultural roots, has penned several books, including Epitaph for a Peach, Wisdom of the Last Farmer, and Heirlooms: Letters from a Peach Farmer. If you’ve never cried reading about peaches, or farming: steel yourself. He’s a widely sought spokesperson and sustainable foods advocate, and his words may move you to tears.
What would you do with 400 pounds of peaches? Chime in below!
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Cheryl Sternman Rule is a widely-published food writer and the voice behind the blog 5 Second Rule. Read all of Cheryl's iVillage posts here.
