In 2008, home elevators will become status symbols, concrete counters will (finally) trump granite, and “green” materials like cork, recycled glass or bamboo flooring will be all the rage.
Americans will incorporate pets into their weddings. And the hottest collectibles will be antique teddy bears, ocean liner memorabilia and vintage gas station maps.
At least, that’s according to “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” an annual that for 216 years has offered Americans weather, gardening and calendar information gleaned from the stars. The familiar yellow-covered book with the four-seasons illustration on the cover is the longest-running publication of its kind and has a broad loyal following. But can it speak to modern living the same way it did to farmers and ranchers when “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” first published in 1792?
Room recently sat down with editor Janice Stillman to find out how a book so old can keep from becoming old-fashioned.
Q: What’s the first thing people should know about “The Old Farmer’s Almanac”?
A: The history is the story. It dates back to 1792 when we had an agrarian society. It was essentially a news magazine. It only came out once a year, of course, but in addition to the weather and the calendar dates, it gave you things like court dates and distances between different places.
It was always an annual, because an almanac first and foremost is a calendar. It’s a calendar of the heavens. That’s what brings in the weather and the seasons, and then you get the gardening and the farming and it evolves from there. There were many farmer’s almanacs at the time. But ours, through luck and circumstance, is the oldest continuously published periodical.
Q: How is the data collected?
A: We contact an astronomer. We have a fellow, George Greenstein, who’s at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He has been our astronomer for 30 years. In fact, 2008 is his last year. So we contacted another astronomer, a woman at Yale, and we hope to have a long spell with her as well.
Our meteorologist is a long-range forecaster, that’s his expertise. And we have another fellow, who’s also an astronomer, who provides us with a feature article every year and also provides us with a visible planet timetable. So it comes from experts. We don’t make it up, and we don’t pretend to do it all from our offices in Dublin, N.H.
Q: How do you decide what other content to include from one year to the next?
A: That’s the challenge. One thing we don’t do is headline news, because we come out once a year. The almanac is a calendar first, so the calendar pages go up front. Many people collect almanacs because they do capture the events of the year. So we do capture that in our trends section, where we talk essentially about what’s hot and what’s not in fashion, in home styles, in science, in collectibles and a number of categories. It’s kind of a quick-read, sort of a summary of things, but it’s our way of getting a foothold in the year. …
We do have a full set of “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” in our office, and there’s also one in the Smithsonian Institute. We go back regularly, and it’s really interesting to see that everything old is new again.
Q: Like what, for instance?
A: A year or two ago, we had a story on training chickens. We covered how to keep chickens, but we also found a woman who trains chickens to come when called, to pick up cards, and to follow you around like a dog. She actually said that they were easier to train than dogs. Then we went back into the archives and found (an article) in one of our books from 1858. The editor at the time was recommending to farmers that they train their chickens and take them out for walks each night because they are the most productive stock.
Q: Can you share one or two noteworthy weather and gardening trends for 2008?
A: We have one story about growing small vegetables, like small carrots and small zucchinis, because we see that as a trend. And there’s an article on aromatic flowers that actually smell like chocolate, for instance, so … people can make a chocolate garden or a spice garden. … What we like to say is that “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” is the one book you can read all year long.
Look for regionalized forecasts and personalized data at . For kids almanac stories and activities, check out .
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
