While you share many meals among loved ones this holiday season, consider this poem: a meditation and reflection on the stewards of the land from which our food grows, those who pick, cut, chop, slice, pull up from the ground the vital ingredients that nourish our bodies and spirits.

Written by a steward herself, Nikiko Masumoto, fourth-generation peach farmer, and one of our storytellers.

Consider sharing this poem around your holiday dinner table.

Happy Holidays from Real Food Real Stories.

Handmade

by Nikiko Masumoto

We still need hands
to pick a peach
to search the tree
not too green
not too hard
peach fuzz dancing in all directions
with the right amount of give

We still need hands
that know the feeling
to pick a bunch of grapes
heavy with sugars
laid to rest in the sun
while waiting, they make raisins

Give me your hand
I know how to pick a peach
to cradle them between fingertips
not too green
not too hard
I know the feeling

Hold my hand
Feel the calluses and rough spots from work
Feel the warmth

Close your eyes
We still need hands
to feed us
Can you imagine all the hands that made your last meal?
What are the names of the people who feed us?
How are they?
bring them to the light
the people that work the fields
to feed us
their hands carrying fruit to the temple of our bodies