Recommended by Alice Waters and “The Future of Food”.

Just started this one (for the second time, having abortively begun it a few years ago), and it’s pretty cool—the story of one year trying to keep a small farm raising Sun Crest peaches in operation. “Sun Crest,” according to Masumoto, “tastes like a peach is supposed to. As with many of the older varieties, the flesh is so juicy that it oozes down your chin. The nectar explodes in your mouth and the fragrance enchants your nose.” But Sun Crests have problems: they’re “amber gold” rather than “lipstick red,” the color we’ve been trained to expect from peaches, amd they don’t last as long in storage as the varieties you get at Publix. Will he manage to create a niche market for his peaches? Will he save his family farm? And what does all this mean for the ways in which we work the land and consume our food?