Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm - A Memoir

“Paired with artist Patricia Wakida’s haunting illustrations, the book’s rich, lyrical language evokes both cultural eloquence & California’s seasonal beauty. Poignant & reflective, Secret Harvests is a family saga of quiet endurance & bittersweet triumphs.” — Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews

I discover a "lost" aunt, separated from our
family due to racism & discrimination against the disabled. She had a mental disability due to childhood meningitis. She was taken away in 1942 when all Japanese Americans were considered the enemy & imprisoned. She then became a "ward" of the state. 

We believed she had died, but 70 years later found her alive & living a few miles from our family farm. How did she survive? Why was she kept hidden? How did both shame & resilience empower my family to forge forward in a land that did not want them? I am haunted & driven to explore my identity & the meaning of family—especially as farmers tied to the land. 

I uncover family secrets that bind us to a sense of history buried in the earth that we work & a sense of place that defines us. 

David Mas Masumoto is an organic farmer, author, & activist. His book Epitaph for a Peach won the Julia Child Cookbook award & was a finalist for a James Beard award. His writing has been awarded a Commonwealth Club of California silver medal & the Independent Publisher Books bronze medal. Rodale Institute honored him as an “Organic Pioneer.” He farms with his wife Marcy & adult children, Nikiko & Koro. They reside in a 100-year-old farmhouse surrounded by their 80-acre organic peach, nectarine, apricot, & raisin farm near Fresno.

Patricia Wakida is a writer, artist & bibliophile. Her work spans many mediums & genres: from book editing & essay writing, to oral histories & printing: linoleum blocks, wood & metal type, & 100 year old letterpress. She is a 4th-generation (yonsei) Japanese American.