Trending Topics
Mushroom Madness 
Fungi can cure or kill, nourish life, and also decompose it back into soil. Fossil evidence for fungi is limited, but the ability to analyze molecular data has led to revelations about the evolution of this extraordinary family of...
Fool’s Gold: The Myth of Tiburcio Vasquez 
“And still of a winter’s night, they say,  when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon  tossed upon cloudy seas,    When the road is a ribbon of moonlight  over the purple moor,    A...
Billions in Flight: Migratory Birds 
Autumn doesn’t officially begin until the equinox on September 22, but all across North America birds are already on the wing—billions of them. Migration times and destinations vary based on the species and variables like weather and food sources—some...
One-Room Schoolhouse 
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road.  Public education in California was still relatively...
E-Issues

Earth Day 2022 

April 22 is Earth Day. This year marks the 52nd anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. It’s a movement that was in part ignited by one of California’s worst ecological disasters: the catastrophic Union...
E-Issues

Tomato Mania 

Easter is on April 17 this year, closely following the start of Passover, on April 15. These two holidays, so deeply rooted in the miraculous, invite us to reflect on death without fear. They are a profound reaffirmation of...
Feature

Growing Tomatoes 

During the height of the Coronavirus quarantine, garden seeds were in short supply. Things are back to normal this year, and it’s tempting to run wild. Master gardener Wendi Dunn suggests starting with tomatoes. “Heirloom tomatoes are great,” she...