David Mas Masumoto

sansei / 3rd generation farmer

Mas Masumoto grows organic peaches, nectarines, and raisins on an 80-acre family farm south of Fresno. He is also the author of 15 books, including Epitaph for a Peach, Changing Season, Wisdom of the Last Farmer, Four Seasons in Five Senses, A Sense of Yosemite, and Harvest Son. Along with his wife, Marcy, and his daughter, Nikiko, he published a family farm cookbook, The Perfect Peach.

Changing Season, a documentary about the theme of succession on the Masumoto family farm, was nationally broadcast by PBS in May 2016. A recent book, Secret Harvests, was featured on NPR Unsung Hero, Milk Street Radio and Snap Judgment. Another recent book, Shadow Music, was transformed into a musical composition and performed by the Fresno Philharmonic in 2025. He, along with daughter Nikiko, published a children's book, Every Peach Is a Story, in 2025.

His writing awards include Commonwealth Club Silver Medal, Julia Child Cookbook Award, the James Clavell Literacy Award; he was a finalist for a James Beard Foundation Award and 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award. The National Resources Defense Council recognized Wisdom of the Last Farmer as the Best Environmental Writing in 2009. In 2024, Secret Harvests was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

He currently serves on the board of CalMatters and the Central Valley Community Foundation.

He was a Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellow and served on Public Policy Institute board from 2009 to 2023 and was board chair from 2016 to 2018 and currently serves on the PPIC Statewide Leadership Council. He previously served on the James Irvine Foundation board; he also chaired the California Council for the Humanities board. In 2013 President Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Arts, the board for the National Endowment for the Arts and served until 2022.

Masumoto and his wife, Marcy Masumoto, EdD., have two children, Nikiko and Korio. They reside in a 100-year-old farmhouse surrounded by their organic orchards and vineyards. He is currently a columnist for the Fresno Bee. One final note, he goes by the name "Mas."

Nikiko Masumoto

yonsei / 4th generation farmer + artist + cultural organizer

Nikiko Masumoto (she/her) is an organic farmer and artist. She is Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American, and stewards the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic peaches, nectarines, apricots and grapes for raisins. She’s co-written a new children’s book, Every Peach is a Story, with her father David Mas Masumoto.

Nikiko is an arts-leader and co-founder of Yonsei Memory Project, an arts-based initiative to activate Japanese American history in the Central Valley. She served on USDA’s State Committee, and volunteers on various non-profit boards.

Her most cherished value is courage and most important practice is listening.

Photo: Korio Masumoto (left) and Dr. Marcy Masumoto (right)

Dr. Marcy Masumoto & Korio Masumoto

project coordinator & field leader

Marcy: As co-owner of Masumoto Family Farm for over 40 years, Marcy Masumoto has been responsible for the selection of peach varieties, and the development of recipes and peach products. She is actively involved with management, communications, event planning, and seasonal fieldwork. Every summer, she hand-packs specialty peaches, nectarines and apricots with Nikiko and Korio. She grew up on a family goat dairy and learned how to cook, bake and preserve foods at an early age. Over the years, Marcy has cooked with many varieties of peaches and nectarines, perfecting recipes and methods of working with fresh, tree-ripened peaches and nectarines. A collection of her and Nikiko’s recipes are available in book form in The Perfect Peach: Recipes and Stories from the Masumoto Family Farm (Ten Speed Press, June, 2013). See Marcy’s recipes at this link.

Off the farm, Marcy was honored as 2023 Top Dog Alumna for the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at Fresno State University. She has worked in the health and education fields, first starting as a nutrition advisor and advancing through management and leadership positions in public and nonprofit organizations. She currently works as an Education and Community Engagement consultant. Her most recent employment (2005-15) was as Project Director at the Welty Center for Educational Policy and Leadership at Fresno State University, focusing on improving education in Central and rural California. December 1, 2012, Marcy began her first term as a Trustee on the board of the Sanger Unified School District where she served for 6 years, and moved over to the Fresno County Board of Education in 2018. She is in her second term on the Fresno County Board of Education and is active in one county and two state-wide school board organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in public health education with a minor in nutrition from Loma Linda University, a master’s degree in Community Development from UC Davis, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from UC Davis and CSU Fresno. Read about her doctoral research.

KORIO: Korio is a graduate student at California State University, Fresno, working on a certificate in Gerontology. He has a BA degree in Sociology from Fresno State and certificate of completion in the Humanics Program. His favorite part of school is meeting new people and socializing. He has learned to appreciate and support cultural diversity beyond is own multi-faceted identities. Korio has always helped on the farm, especially during the summer. In his free time, Korio volunteers at Vintage Gardens Assisted Living facility in Fresno. He is known to be the family jokester and is passionate about equity, community, and volunteerism.