Masumoto Salute

Regarding the interview with David Mas Masumoto (“Survival of a Last-Chance Peach,” Aug. 27), I recall vividly the essay he penned 10 years ago and, while thinking to add my small voice of support to his efforts and philosophy, allowed the opportunity to pass. Fortunately, there were sufficient others who made the effort.

In the middle ‘20s, when I was a small boy traveling by train through the San Joaquin Valley, guide and interpreter for my mother, we made stopovers in Fresno and Bakersfield visiting friends also of Chinese descent who had settled in agrarian areas similar to their homeland. The flavor and aroma of the first peach I tasted is with me still, and I can imagine that if I were to hold one ripened from one of Masumoto’s trees, it would transport me back to my innocent childhood.

We are kindred spirits, Americans of a distinctly foreign strain bound together by an amalgamated culture. I salute his forebears who took root here and salute him for agronomy, scholarship, perseverance and tenacity. May his crusade long bear fruit.

LELAND Y. LEE

Pasadena

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Some months ago I read the little book “Epitaph for a Peach” (HarperCollins, 1995), and it reflected my sentiments exactly. My only memories of wonderful peaches are years ago somewhere in Italy, where the juice dripped all down the front of me; some peaches given to me from a neighbor’s backyard tree; and those from a truck parked on a highway near my house that I had the presence of mind to purchase and can.

I love peaches and am somewhat spoiled by having lots of other local fruit at reasonable prices. But now, being aware of the problems of picking and transporting wonderfully ripe fruit, I’m ready to pay almost any price to experience that marvelous feeling of biting into the luscious peaches I remember.

I’m writing to thank you for devoting time and space to such problems. I think too many people just let this kind of thing go. I think of the old Pippin apples that were not pretty but made the best apple pies. Now the prettier Granny Smiths have replaced most of them, but they just aren’t nearly as good. Even the Pippins being marketed today don’t appear to be the same apple.

FRAN BULWA

Ojai