Carving Out Roots
A Scholar Goes Back to the Family Farm
The Feminist Farmer is talking about brown rot. Blame the late July rain, she explains, tenderly holding a Le Grand nectarine as she considers the ugly, squishy spot on the heirloom fruit. She brainstorms ways to salvage the unaffected parts of the juicy nectarine. Brown rot is not a crisis. Just a new challenge, precisely the sort that drew the young farmer back to the family land.
Nikiko Masumoto — performance scholar, gender studies major, world traveler — has come home to the Central Valley to farm. The 25-year-old has moved …
