Family Farmers Otow Orchard extends its family farm in Granite Bay to the community
BY Shoka | PHOTOS BY Hector Amezcua
First , the skin is peeled , then the fruit is strung and hung to dry , and each one gets massaged by hand several times a week for up to six weeks . They are hoshigaki , a Japanese style of dried persimmon , and they are Otow Orchard ’ s claim to fame — Huell Howser even filmed an episode of “ California ’ s Gold ” featuring the orchard in 2007 .
The Granite Bay farm has been around long before Howser ’ s visit , though . In 1911 , Kitchitaro Kawano , a Japanese immigrant , bought the land with his wife , Momi . Kawano died in 1939 , and his and Momi ’ s daughter , Helen Otow , and husband , Seiichi Otow , took over farm operations in the 1940s after their incarceration at the Tule Lake internment camp during World War II and a brief stay in Chicago . These days , their daughter , Chris Otow Kuratomi , and son-in-law , Tosh Kuratomi , run operations — although , at 104 , Helen still does some work on the farm , like tying and massaging the persimmons . Some of the persimmon trees are about 100 years old , but the Otows began making hoshigaki around the 1960s . In addition to 11 varieties of persimmons on 5-6 acres of the 20-acre orchard , the Otows grow multiple varieties of peaches , Asian pears , quince , figs , apples , nectarines , pomegranates , olives and mandarins , as well as jujubes and wild blackberries , all of which are sold at Otow Orchard ’ s year-round , on-site farm stand . The family owns about 40 acres total and rents a portion of the land to a strawberry farmer , firewood harvester and apiarist . They sell honey from the latter as well as eggs , vegetables and fruit from other local producers at the stand . that it ’ s to our advantage , I think , to promote each other versus trying to put each other out of business .”
Other than diversifying the produce the farm stand offers , buying from local growers creates a community , and that becomes crucial if the Otows ’ persimmon harvest is low . “ There are years where you hardly have any persimmons ,” Tosh says . “ We really need these other guys . … In a sense , we ’ re helping them out , but … when we get in a pinch , it ’ s really nice to
have that backup .” He says having an agricultural community is “ more important than just a few successful farms .”
Beyond the farm stand , Otow Orchard sells its fresh and dried persimmons by mail order through its website . “ I would guess we send the persimmons to some 30 states ,” Tosh says , with California , Hawaii , New York and New Jersey as the top buyers . The family has high standards for the quality of its labor-intensive hoshi-
“ These guys don ’ t have markets ,” gaki , which cost up to $ 50 a pound . The PHOTO BY KYLE JEFFERS Tosh says . “ Placer County agriculture fruit is harvested in the fall , and “ we ’ re
( for ) fruits and vegetables is so small working until 12 o ’ clock or 1 o ’ clock in the morning every night until New Year ’ s , and we ’ re making 2,000 pounds at the most ,” he says . “ Why would we want to make 10,000 pounds ? We kind of figure what we need to survive , and that ’ s what we charge . We apologize — I think we ’ re at the point where if we have to give it up , we ’ ll give it up . ( But people say ,) ‘ Oh no , don ’ t do that .’”
Although Tosh married into a farming family and spent 25 years as a teacher for Sacramento City Unified School District , his lineage also has farmers — his grandfather farmed in Loomis . He and Chris , who worked as a speech language pathologist and English as a second language teacher , started helping out on the farm during summers and weekends in the 1970s and took over farm operations when they retired in 1999 and 2005 , respectively . They have been married for 47 years and have three adult children , and their daughter-in-law , Christy Kuratomi , works at the farm stand . Tosh says he ’ s not sure who is going to take over next , though he ’ d like to see one of his part-time employees take over until one of the children retire and is ready to continue the orchard ’ s legacy .
“ We try to draw everybody into the family , so to speak , whether it ’ s the workers , … the other farmers ,” Tosh says . “ One year , ( the strawberry farmer ) had a real hard time , and I said , ‘ I ’ ll refund you your rent money . I ’ d do the same thing for my kids .’”
Shoka is associate editor for Comstock ’ s magazine . She has worked as a journalist , copy editor and photojournalist for more than 10 years . She specializes in writing about the arts , culture , animal rights and sustainability .
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