<Begin Segment 5>

MN: Now, your parents have a big farm, but did they have a separate smaller patch where they grew Japanese vegetables?

TM: In your forty, fifty acres, you usually take a small area and plant your daikon and those things right there, yeah.

MN: So when your mother made tsukemono from these vegetables, did she just salt it or did she use the nuka miso?

TM: No, we didn't have too much miso, it was too expensive. The only thing we had is salt, and they were usually rock salt, I think it's cheaper.

MN: So what kind of vegetables did your mother pickle?

TM: Nappa, daikon, that's about it. They have a lot of that.

MN: So not carrots or cucumbers?

TM: Well, very few cucumbers. Because cucumbers are a little bit harder to grow. You're working too hard trying to grow the cantaloupe, and both of 'em is a vine, so you try to keep away from things that's gonna take too long. Because nappa and daikon, the leaves like that, we used to feed it to the chickens for their feed, chicken corn and all the green leaves from the veggies, we used to feed it to the chicken.

MN: So where did your family purchase the other Japanese grocery goods like the rice?

MT: Oh, we went to (San Diego), you know Okamura? They had a grocery store there and we used to buy there. We didn't go to Calexico to buy it; it was too high. He was the one that used to take advantage of all the Japanese farmers there. He would always tell the people, "Yeah, you can come to my place, and even if you don't have enough money to buy your, pay for your vegetables or groceries, so you could just charge it. But when it's time for your crop to come in, you have to bring your crop to my company and let my company sell it." You can't take it to Friedman, he was one of the biggest one in El Centro. And my father always went to Friedman, because he got a better deal from his. I'm not going to say the name of the Japanese, but his father was very sharp business-wise.

MN: Now, when you were living in Imperial Valley, were you able to purchase perishable foods like tofu?

MT: Once in a while we used to get tofu. Because it used to come from Los Angeles, and whenever he gets it in, we'd be going, because we know what day he's going to come in. I don't remember exact day, what day it is, but usually around Thursday or something like that he used to come in, because that'd be close to the weekend. And some of the farmers don't work too much on weekends, so he would get the tofu and miso and things like that on Thursday. Because he used to just bring a truck in, it's gone right away. So you have to get there early and make sure you get your pick early.

MN: So your parents are working on the farm five days a week?

MT: Oh, no. Seven days a week when you're doing this kind of work. You have to work, keep working, because you have to finish it. Anytime you're planting and trying to make it grow, you got to make it grow as fast as you can. Because you want to be the first one out with your cantaloupe. My father was always around one of the first ones to get it out. If you don't, you don't get the best price. If you're the first one, your name is up there in the, like Friedman, he'll say, "Oh, yeah, he got the good crop," and then he'll send it to New York or anywhere that he can get the best price. That's when you get the best price. So you got to work it that way and try to get the best price by being the first. You have to be the first.

[Interruption]

MN: So let me ask you, your parents are working very hard. When did your mother do the laundry and handwashing?

MT: On the weekends when there's not too much work. She did it all by hand. In those days, you didn't have a washing machine, so you use a washboard. And that's why I say, like I say, my mother had to work very hard.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.