NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By Cody Kitaura—On a narrow, rural street in Granite Bay, a century-old farm is adapting Japanese tradition to modern tastes and blended cultures.

Otow Orchard has gained nationwide attention for its hoshigaki, dried persimmons that take weeks to make. The orchard is flooded with holiday hoshigaki orders each year – a rush compounded this year by a delayed crop.

Tosh Kuratomi, who runs the day-to-day operations on the farm originally owned by his wife’s grandparents, credits much of its exposure to a 2007 episode of the PBS program “California’s Gold.”

“Every year we get new mail-order customers,” Kuratomi said. “I said, how does someone in Milwaukee, Wis., know about our dried persimmons?”

Cheryl Melanson, a Danville resident who makes a two-hour trip to the farm each year, learned about it from the PBS program. She said her father used to make hoshigaki, but she didn’t know where to find the fruit after his death.

“The living room was covered and there was newspaper everywhere,” Melanson said, remembering the labor-intensive process. “He covered the whole house and drove my mother crazy.”

Making the dried persimmons is time-consuming – the fruits are left to dry, squeezed and massaged by hand, trimmed and shaped. They’re moved from room to room at Otow Orchard and are checked each day, Kuratomi said.

The farm, which sells about 40 percent of its fruit by mail order this time of year, also offers other kinds of persimmons. One, vodka-infused hyakume persimmons, were popular with Issei but didn’t gain wider favor.

Kuratomi said the alcohol-infused – awasu – persimmons weren’t popular with the Nisei. He said the orchard gave away free samples for years to try to grow their popularity, but in the end all it took was removing the traditional name and calling them “vodka-infused.”

“Once we did that, word got out,” he said. “All these Japanese things – if it hadn’t been for the Caucasian community, we wouldn’t be here.”

Otow Orchard sells to an Italian restaurant, and Kuratomi has seen persimmons used for all sorts of dishes he never would have imagined.

But for visitors familiar with Japanese tradition, Otow Orchard can also be a place to recall old times.

“This place is not just selling fruit; it’s memories,” said Shoko Call, an employee of four years. “It brings back memories. Tosh’s the person who will listen and talk.”

Changes and challenges face farm

The fruit has found new uses, but it has also changed. For about six years, Otow Orchard hasn’t used any fertilizer, pesticide or other chemicals.

“It’s a lot more satisfying and doesn’t weigh nearly as heavily on us when it comes to what’s safe,” Kuratomi said.

It’s also more expensive. Kuratomi said expenses for the farm will pose a challenge in the future. Otow Orchard pays residential water rates on a water meter, and it’s becoming harder to find employees.

The farm has had to branch out. It sells other kinds of fruit year-round, now leases land to a strawberry farmer, and sells eggs and basil. It’s helped Otow Orchard persist, while other orchards and pastures on the Granite Bay street have been changed to vineyards and mansions.

“Pretty much we’re the only one that looks like it did 10 years ago,” he said.

He’s hopeful it can continue on, and there is at least one promising sign for the future: his son and daughter-in-law both work on the farm.

Otow Orchard is located at 6232 Eureka Rd. in Granite Bay. More information is available at www.OtowOrchard.com or at (916) 791-1656.