The Old Farmer's Almanac

The Horticulturati

We’re back with an Old Farmers’ Almanac episode! Continuously published since 1792, the Almanac is an American institution, rife with weather forecasts, recipes, gardening tips, and snake oil. Long advertised on its cover as “useful, with a pleasant degree of humor,” the new edition provides tips on the best days in 2024 to wash your floors, perm your hair, and make jams or jellies – according to the sun, moon, and stars.

Colleen traces her complex personal history with this grocery-checkout-aisle stalwart, a jumble of what she calls “astrological hooey and astronomical fact,” from her childhood fascination with natural phenomena, like bird migrations and eclipses, to her current wariness about the blurred line between fun folk wisdom and dangerous pseudoscience.

Despite ourselves, we find it pretty compelling.

For a truly useful almanac, check out Colleen’s new Digital Texas Fruit Tree Calendar! Learn from a Central Texas fruit tree expert about when to plan, prune, and feed your fruit trees in 2024. Viewable on any device, this resource syncs with your Google or IOS calendar to take the guesswork out of maximizing your fruit harvest of figs, citrus, apples, peaches, pears and plums! With this superpower in your pocket, you’ll be empowered to care for your fruit trees with confidence. You’ll receive the file, plus video and text instructions for installing your calendar in an email after you purchase.

Mentioned in this episode:

“The Quiet Mysticism of Almanacs” by Jess McHugh (Los Angeles Review of Books, July 11 2021); “The Old Farmer’s Almanac Needs a Reboot” by Mark Athitakis (Washington Post, August 24 2022); “Farmer’s Almanac: Literature to Poop To” (Stuff You Should Know podcast, August 22 2023)

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