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Agave cultivation is emerging as a promising alternative for dryland farming in California. This resilient crop thrives under low water conditions and contains valuable compounds—fructans, saponins, flavonoids, and terpenes—linked to health benefits and multiple industrial uses, including beverages, biofuels…

After Fire in Avocado Orchards, Stop!Avocado orchards are often right in the thick of fire because of their location near wildlands. Every year many trees are fire damaged, but most trees don’t die, they get toasted. That’s because a fast-moving fire often only heats up the canopy and low hanging fruit…

The destruction after a fire can be pretty gruesome and sad. Many times, though the fire moves through the orchard so fast that, even though the canopy has turned brown, there is a good chance the trees can come back. It all depends on how much damage has been done to the trunk. If the fire has substantially…

And even more information:https://ucanr.edu/county/cooperative-extension-ventura-county/fire-information 

This month, the California Department of Public Health reported that Valley fever cases are on track to surpass last year’s record number of over 12,500 cases.The infection, caused when people inhale spores of the naturally occurring Coccidioides fungus, made up fewer than 1,000 cases back in 2000 in…