Agave & Cactus Talk
Talking about Agave & Cactus from farms to products. I will cover using permaculture practices on farms for the new industry of California Agave & Cactus, such as the use of animals & biomimicry. California Agave today is mainly being used for spirits, and cactus fruit is mainly being used for consumption or wine. I farm both agave & cactus in Hi Vista & Lancaster, which are cities in Northeast Los Angeles County, & in the Western Mojave Desert. I will talk about my experiences, observations, opinions & tips on Agave & Cactus farming in California. I will cover what i believe the future is for these 2 plant families in california, what products i believe they most will be used for, and exciting plants. Some examples of agave products can include fiber, food, inulin, spirits, or syrup. Cactus products can be animal forage, fruit, jams, juices, & wine. Both agave and Cactus can be great plants to add for fire protection as their leaves are full of water. I will also cover the use of animals such as goats on my farms, and various systems i use to improve it, such as rainwater collection. If you have any topics you would like me to cover, or any questions feel free to leave a comment.
Episodes

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Skip to 2:05, thats when they connnect & i am on shortly after. This is a IG live for the Tequiladies show, in which I talked California Agave & California Agave Spirits with the Tequiladies. Follow them on Instagram & Youtube. We discuss some of my background, Agave, Tequila and much more. I hope you enjoy this talk, have a great day.

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Skip to 6:30 to get past our technical difficulties at the begining with me trying to connect. In this talk we discuss the California agave Industry & agave spirits being made in CA. We go over farming techniques, the liquor industry & much more. It was done last year, but thought it would still be helpful. If you want to see the live video, follow Planet Mezcal on instagram! Lots of great educational content on Agave & Mezcal. Enjoy the talk, have a great day!

Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Today I talk about an article I read called “Mezcal must challenge irresponsible agave farming”. It was a very interesting article talking about how we can make sure to grow agave in a sustainable fashion, that benefits environment, people and tradition. I hope you learned something in today’s podcast as a lot of the points that the main character in the article explains are things we are trying to implement here in California andhaving success with. We hope him a lot of success on his journey of trying to make Mezcal more sustainable, and we will use his words as inspiration to make California Agave as sustainable as possible.

Saturday Feb 22, 2025
Saturday Feb 22, 2025
Today, i talk about Brazilian Agave. The farmers & researchers are very innovative in Brazil & are using alot of advances in agriculture to explore & utilize the agave plant for a variety of uses, such as: bioenergy, biofuels, biomethane, biohydrogen, biochar & even slowing the deserts expansion. I think there is alot of positives in what they are doing as well as alot of negatives, but you can make your own opinion as we talk about some of the implications of what they are doing, such as creating GMO agave & yeasts. We also get into how i believe these projects could improve a bit and how California can learn and improve from them as well. Enjoy! Follow me on:
IG/threads: Farmingandgardeningcalifornia & agavencactustalk
TT, YT & Pinterest: Agavero Californiano
FB: California Agave Farmer
Follow the California Agave Alliance on Bluesky, Instagram, threads, facebook & soon youtube. Same username everywhere.
If you need any agave & cactus plants, free to reach out.I dont have everything, but i know everyone who does, lol. Peace yall.

Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
This is the 1st half to an almost 3 hour long podcast on this very interesting topic of cactus biofuels. opinions and thoughts on this cactus farming that is going on in India. I show how we in California and Mexico can learn from India and apply what they are learning and producing to everywhere. I also give thoughts on how to improve not only Indian cactus farming but how to take what they are doing and improve it globally. enjoy!

Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
This is the 2nd half to an almost 3 hour long podcast on this very interesting topic of cactus biofuels. opinions and thoughts on this cactus farming that is going on in India. I show how we in California and Mexico can learn from India and apply what they are learning and producing to everywhere. I also give thoughts on how to improve not only Indian cactus farming but how to take what they are doing and improve it globally. enjoy!

Thursday Feb 20, 2025
Thursday Feb 20, 2025
Today we talking with my good friend Agaves De Occidente. He is cultivating all types of agaves in Jalisco, Mexico. common, and rare species alike. We talk about the current agave industry in Mexico and USA and how we are trying to promote the use of not only a diverse array of agaves, but also cacti, trees and shrubs, and preferably the native plants in your region to get the best results.
We talk about agave farming culture, a little history, and relating back to our ancestors in our grandparents who introduced us to agave. We go into saving agave species, agave polycultures and changing how agave is cultivated by educating people on all of these topics. By educating we hope for farmers in mexico and usa to use lots of agaves and different plants; and change the bad name us agave cultivators are getting because most only know agave monoculture that is destructive to people, environment and agave genetics. If people knew the alternatives they would know we can actually be the solution to these issues, and farmers would switch and go back to a polcyulture, a permaculture managment style.
we intend to put our grain of salt to help farmers in any country do that, but specifically in Jalisco mexico with him and California, USA with me. Enjoy this podcast! it is in spanish because we want to have spanish podcasts so people learn that only speak spanish too. I also wanted my friend to talk in his native tongue, which is what he is more comfortable expressing his views in. If you know spanish, enjoy, if not well i am sorry enjoy the other 19 english podcats and get your spanish skills up because alot of agave knowledge comes from spanish speakers. If i have time, i do intend on making a voiceover translation but no guarantees i am busy busy lol.
Follow my friend Agaves de Occidente on instagram and follow the podcast, agavencactustalk on instagram. Anyways enjoy!

Wednesday Feb 19, 2025
Wednesday Feb 19, 2025
Today I focus’s an article I read about how the Australian government and farmers are combating cacti. this is an issue they have dealt with in 3 different centuries and I discuss how I believe they are approaching the problem from the wrong angle. cactus has the potential to be a giant cash crop in Australia but they choose to wage a loosing war poisoning their soil, environment and even people by how they manage cacti as an invasive species. Interesting stuff because my view is cactus is a huge help to ecosystems , while they see it as a pest.

Monday Feb 17, 2025
Monday Feb 17, 2025
Today, we are talking about Cactus farming in Namibia. I talk about how this almost 2 billion dollar mega investment into cactus farming in namibia can be done correctly, protecting the environment and being profitable. The goal of this huge project is to sell carbon credits linked to cacti sequestrating carbon. While a very interesting proposition, there are lots of questions i have for sure and lots of things to learn from this project for the future cactus farmers of the world.

Monday Feb 10, 2025
Monday Feb 10, 2025
Agave & Cactus Talk podcast : Nativotexas
start at 1:35, thats when we are golden.
Great talk with my friend Chris about Agave. We chatted about lots of things we are facing with regards to managing agave and running an agave farm/buisness. We provided lots of education for any agave farmer to learn more about agave and thats one of the goals of this podcast. To help farmers.
I love podcasts centered on spirits, but great spirits start with great agave, & there is a lack of knowledge in audio form for new and existing farmers who want to explore agave. Hoping to teach farmers as much as possible through the podcast, so they have the most diverse and adaptable farm possible, and feel confident in their endeavor. Agave farmers are farming all day and naturally can't sit down to watch videos or read books often, so podcasts are a way for farmers to learn and still keep working. Anyways enjoy everyone. Will be up on apple, YT and others tonight in audio form.