Garden Rant: The Old Farmer's Almanac is Curiously New

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I was recently contacted by a new reader - Janice Stillman, the editor of the Old Farmers Almanac - who asked if I was interested in seeing their publications. Absolutely - send 'em my way! (Have we mentioned we like giveaways here at GardenRant?) She even agreed to an old-fashioned telephone interview to answer my pesky questions. And here's what I learned about this American icon.

Almanacs are part of American history, but do we know what the word means? "Calendar of heavens" - which reminds us that the primary focus is weather, but conjures up all sorts of traditions. Stillman describes this yearly publication as a time capsule or snapshot of the year, all about predictions and trends.

Today there are a few regional almanacs still in publication and two national. Dating from 1792 is the appropriately named Old Farmer's Almanac; its competitor, the upstart Farmer's Almanac, began in 1818. Man, I bet people who work for them get tired of hearing people confuse the two, and the race for the best URLs must have been fierce! I notice the newer FA website has an "Editor's blog." Nice touch, but isn't it really a forum? (Speaking of which, forums are popping up on every damn site nowadays but how many do we really need?)

COOL HISTORY
I love that the Old FA is the oldest continuous publication in the U.S., with its 215 editions catalogued by the Smithsonian Institution. And publishing during WWII wasn't easy. After German spies were caught with the Almanac in their possession, government censors insisted that the term "weather forecast" be changed to "weather indications," to throw the enemy off their game, one supposes.

OLD CONTENTS
The 2007 edition contains old standbys like advice about growing crops and animals, the best fishing days, a cure for freckles, and more astrology than I'd seen since the '70s. When asked about all the astrology (curiously sharing the same publication as astronomy) the editor described it as the "folklorish part of almanac." And what about all the classified ads for spiritualists and psychic readers (for as low as $1.95)? "If it works for them, we'll provide them the opportunity to find it."

NEW CONTENTS
Now imagine, tucked in with all the astrology and the 18-months-in-advance weather forecasts, these topics seemingly ripped from the pages of today's newspapers - organic gardening, green roofs, meadows replacing lawn, local food, meditation, and the ethical treatment of farm animals. And Stillman tells me she gets lots of positive feedback from her readers about them.

They even tackled the hottest topic of all - global warming - with an article called "The Good News about Climate Change," which Stillman admits lots of readers have called "blasphemy". I don't know; we gardeners have been known to see the silver lining ourselves. But I'm not sure this is really true: "While the scientific community is divided over many aspects of the global warming theory, they agree on the impact of global warming on precipitation...Global warming will mean more condensation and more evaporation, producing more and/or heavier rains." And "To the parched millions in Asia and Africa, this will be life-saving."

When challenged, their meteorologist Michael Sternberg stands by his prediction of global cooling - that's right, that it'll be COOLER in 10 to 20 years, "though manmade influences might change that." When asked about the obvious warming, he says "That's the challenge - fossel fuel influences." Got that right!

SUBSCRIBERS
In a survey of their readers (3.5 million sold) 58 percent own no more than 1 acre and only 11 perfect are small farmers or ranchers. So with the preponderance of hobby farms over traditional farms, it's no wonder the content now includes topics of interest to ex-urbanites. And good news for our trend watchers - their readers list gardening tips as their second most popular topic (presumably after weather).

THEIR GARDENING EDITOR
And while we're on the subject of their gardening articles, I was recently interviewed for them by Doreen Howard, who's doing an article about turf replacement for the 2008 issue. So just knowing they hired a respected, experienced garden writer who then had the good sense to find yours truly to interview and maybe use the garden photos thereof - well, they're winning me over faster than I can type.

And BTW, Doreen is the good soul who created the Gardenwriters Listserv, which is now the heart of the writing community. You can see the natural generousity of this bunch coming out in their discussions, and I've gotten some great help there myself.

THE EDITOR
Janice Stillman (pictured here with the OFA publisher), is the 13th editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac and also the first woman in that job. She says "It's a kick to work on it," this "beloved American icon." I'll BET it's a kick. Maybe even a hoot and a holler.