In October, Branden Orchard, an almond farm, was covered in golden dust. Along the endless avenues of almond trees stretching beyond the horizon, enormous vibrating harvesters—Shakers—let out bizarre roars as they seized the trunks and shook them.
With a “du-du-du-du” vibration, ripe almonds poured to the ground like a shower, and behind them, collection machines swept up the fallen nuts, raising clouds of pale dust.
For Frederick, this year was nothing short of a miracle. When he thought of last year’s terrible frost damage and the scorching heat waves that had seemed as if they would dry the trees to death, the fruit now piled high enough to cover his feet was surely a reward from God.
“Dad! This section’s a jackpot too! We’ll easily get more than four times last year’s yield!”
Brandon, his son, shouted from inside the pit of dust, his teeth flashing white. The boy climbed down from the harvester, cracked open an almond with dust-stained hands, and beamed like a child. At the sight, a corner of Frederick’s heart warmed.
Not long ago, he had been the sort of boy who wouldn’t even glance at farming, but now he managed beehives without fear of getting stung and had ultimately made the farm succeed. Now farming came before hanging out with friends, and the results of the farm mattered more to him than the results of his baseball team. That alone was moving enough.
Especially last year, when the trees had been withering from disease, Frederick had felt pained watching him lose sleep spraying medicine and pruning branches. Under any other circumstances, he surely would have smiled brightly and rejoiced with him.
“Haa...”
But Frederick could not smile like his son. The ledger in his hand and the fax he had received from the distributor that morning were strangling him.
$1.45 per pound....
Just thinking of the number left a bitter taste in his mouth. If the price fell that low, then once he calculated the daily wages of the short-term laborers hired for the harvest, the trucking costs, the warehouse storage fees, and even the installments on the farm machinery, they would actually be taking a loss.
Only then did he realize it. They said it was a record-breaking bumper crop, but it wasn’t just them who had done well. All of California was drowning in almonds.
On top of that, news had come in that after the Lehman crisis, people all over the world had begun saving even the money they would have spent on a bag of almonds.
“Dad, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”
Looking at Brandon’s worried face as he approached, Frederick could not bring himself to speak. The boy was already suffering inside from being compared to his younger sister; Frederick worried that if he told him this as well, his son might go astray again.
Frederick forced a smile as he brushed off the dust.
“It’s nothing. There’s just too much dust, so my eyes are stinging a little. Keep harvesting.”
“Yes, sir!”
Frederick turned his back and headed for the house. Each step he took felt heavier than a mound of tens of thousands of pounds of almonds, sinking into the dirt beneath him.
A winery was at its most frantic once the harvest was over. In Redwood’s case especially, all kinds of grapes scattered everywhere came flooding in here, making it an even more chaotic and hectic time.
Silver Oak’s grapes were the core, of course, but there were also Redwood’s grapes, Ironwood Cellars’ Cabernet Sauvignon, Lapis Lazuli’s Merlot, and even Pinot Noir from two farms in the Russian River Valley...
All those grapes had gathered in Redwood’s aging rooms, so if even the slightest mistake was made, the entire year’s wine could be ruined. Naturally, I couldn’t easily leave my post. And there was someone going through this crucial period with me. Chloe.
By now, Chloe had been doing fermentation and aging work for a while, so she had grown quite used to it. At some point, we often found ourselves moving only our hands without saying a word to each other. You could say we were almost turning into machines.
But she, who was always full of energy while working, looked gloomy all day today, so I couldn’t help asking.
“Did something happen?”
She furrowed her brow slightly, hesitated while working her lips, and finally opened her mouth.
“The truth is... Dad’s been having a really hard time lately. My brother looks happy because this year’s harvest is great, but Dad’s expression isn’t good. I think the almond price must not be good.”
“Ah...”
I felt like I understood. In fact, I knew for certain that almond prices would rise significantly, but I didn’t know exactly when they would start soaring. So I had recommended the almond farm for the time being, but it seemed the timing was bad and they had taken a big loss this year.
What was certain was that even if this year was bad, the hardship wouldn’t last long. There was a high probability this year was the bottom, and almond prices were sure to spike soon. And that meant now was the perfect time to stockpile almonds.
But that was only from my perspective. Frederick and Brandon had already had a ruined crop last year because of frost damage and scorching heat, and if they ended up taking a loss this year despite a bumper crop, the emotional blow would surely be huge.
“I feel bad.”
“It’s not something you need to feel bad about. You fixed the Verticillium wilt for them this time too.”
“Still, I’m the one who recommended they start farming almonds... They must have gone into it expecting good results, so if the results aren’t good, I can’t feel good about it.”
“But it’s fine. The cherry farm hit it big.”
Though it had been decided that the cherry farm would be Chloe’s, that didn’t mean Frederick was dead, so she hadn’t completely taken over the farm. The farm she had properly paid her father to acquire was the farm in Lodi where Shingo pears were now being grown. It was more accurate to view the cherry farm as one that would pass to his daughter after his death.
Of course, that didn’t mean she couldn’t use the profits from the cherry farm. It was only under her father’s name on paper; in reality, she was the one managing the cherry farm. So there was no problem even if she gave a substantial portion of the profits from the cherry farm to her father.
The problem was that this was by no means pleasant from Frederick’s point of view. The very fact that he couldn’t maintain the almond farm unless he received profits from the farm he had handed over to his daughter was not good, either as a father or as a senior farmer with many years of experience.
“Hmm... Then let’s go to your house after work today.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. I can’t say I have no responsibility in this. I should go and talk to him.”
“I’d be grateful if you did.”
Only then did a smile appear on Chloe’s face.
After work, I drove Chloe to Deer Ridge Country Club. It was around the time it was getting dark outside, and dinner had been laid out in abundance as if timed perfectly for our arrival.
“Brian~ You get more handsome every time I see you. Come in.”
Chloe’s mother, Amelia, was the first to greet me, followed by Frederick. Brandon merely raised a hand in greeting, but the fact that he didn’t frown even when he saw me showed he had changed a lot from before.
Looking at the dining table, I saw that a bottle of wine had already been opened and the glasses were half full, so Frederick had clearly already had a drink.
“Insignia?”
“Yes. I heard you were coming today, so I opened something a little expensive. Sit down.”
It wasn’t as if I had only been here once or twice, so the meal proceeded naturally. As I cut into the barbecue with my knife, I asked,
“How are almond prices looking?”
Perhaps because I had asked so directly right away, Frederick glanced briefly at his son’s expression before speaking.
“To be honest, not very good.”
“Hmm... I see.”
At that, Brandon immediately cut in and asked his father,
“Are they that bad?”
“They are.”
“Haa...”
As if his mood had soured at once, Brandon immediately put down his fork and knife. Then he picked up the wine on the table and filled his glass. Seeing that he intended to drink, I turned my head and looked at Frederick.
“How bad are they?”
Frederick got up from his seat, went somewhere, and came back. In his hand was a sample bag of almonds with plump, full kernels. Frederick set it down on the table and said with a hollow expression,
“They’ve fallen to $1.40 a pound. Even with quality this good. Whew... So I’m worried. I don’t know what to do...”
I examined the almonds Frederick had set out carefully. Then I asked Brandon, who looked full of irritation,
“How was the farming?”
For a moment, Brandon flinched. Since conversations about work had always been with his father, he probably hadn’t expected me to ask him.
“Me? Well... I worked hard.”
I had already heard from Frederick that he had farmed diligently.
“Was it manageable?”
“...”
It could never have been easy. Since bees were essential for an almond farm, just managing the bees was practically no different from beekeeping, and there must have been a lot to pay attention to. Because of the Verticillium wilt, he must have walked around the farm countless times checking the trees too.
Even so, the fact that he considered it manageable made me feel that he had definitely changed from before.
“What do you think about selling at this price?”
“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t want to... but that’s farming, isn’t it? Sometimes you don’t have a choice.”
It seemed his resolve had grown quite firm too. Accepting reality and seeking a solution was also one of the basics of being a farmer.
“Do you feel the same way, sir?”
Frederick spoke with a dark expression.
“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t want to sell, but I’m thinking we have to accept the damage in order to farm next year. Do you happen to have a way?”
Seeing me ask one thing after another, he looked at me with a hint of expectation in his eyes.
“Hmm... It’s not as if there isn’t a way... To be honest, I think I bear some responsibility for this collapse in almond prices too. After all, I was the one who recommended you get into almond farming.”
“I’m the one who made the decision.”
“But my opinion played a big part in that decision. So I’m cautious about saying this.”
At my words that I was cautious about mentioning a solution, Frederick’s expression stiffened slightly. He must have sensed that this so-called solution was by no means simple or easy.
“If it’s hard enough to say, then I suppose your proposal isn’t something anyone could easily accept?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, now... But you’ve already had me tear up the entire cherry farm. You made me change all the varieties, you had Chloe start a pear farm, and we ended up buying an almond farm too. Is this solution you’re proposing now perhaps even more difficult than those?”
I tilted my head slightly before answering.
“In a way, it could be. Up until now, you were still continuing the farming you had been doing, so you probably didn’t feel too much resistance. Changing varieties is part of farming, and whether it was pear farming or almond farming, they both remained within the broad framework of farming.”
At this point, unless he was a fool, he would be able to tell that what I intended to propose was at least not farming.
“Haha, this is... My heart’s trembling from fear. So it’s not farming?”
“No. What I’m proposing is not farming. Farming is fundamentally a structure where prices are determined according to market conditions. So when prices collapse like they have now, it’s no exaggeration to say there are almost no ways to respond. But manufactured goods are a little different.”
“Processing? So... you mean a business that operates a factory?”
“That’s right. If anything, I think a time like this, when almond prices have fallen, is the best time to jump into the almond processing business.”
The family fell into confusion, as if the words were too shocking. Amelia spoke first.
“My husband has never run a business. The same goes for anything like a factory.”
But the answer came not from me, but from Frederick.
“Farming at our scale is practically a business. Just how many workers do we employ? Besides, when the fruit comes in, it’s not as if we don’t already have facilities that sort it and make it marketable.”
“Honey!”
“Wait a moment.”
After calming the agitated Amelia, he asked me,
“Since you have experience growing grapes and making wine, you may not fully understand how difficult this decision is.”
“That’s true. But there is one thing I know for certain. If you sell grapes as they are, they’re only worth a few dollars, but if you make them into wine under the Redwood name and sell them, they become tens or hundreds of dollars per bottle. Almonds are the same, actually. What do you think the distributors will do after buying your almonds for a pittance? They’ll send them to processing plants and sell them as raw material for ‘sliced almonds’ or ‘almond milk,’ making several times the profit.”
The large house fell into silence.