Happy New Almanac Year! It’s time to celebrate the 231st edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac! Long recognized as North America’s most beloved and best-selling annual, this handy yellow book fulfills every need and expectation as a calendar of the heavens, a time capsule of the year, and an essential reference that reads like a magazine. Always timely, topical, and distinctively “useful, with a pleasant degree of humor,” the Almanac is consulted daily throughout the year by users from all walks of life.
The 2023 edition contains the fun facts, predictions, and feature items that have made it a cultural traditionally 80 percent–accurate weather forecasts; notable astronomical events and time-honored astrological dates; horticultural, culinary, fashion, and other trends; historical hallmarks; best fishing days; time- and money-saving garden advice; recipes for delicious dishes; facts on folklore, farmers, home remedies, and husbandry; amusements and contests; plus too much more to mention—all in the inimitable Almanac style that has charmed and educated readers since 1792.
Every year I get the Old Farmers Amanac for the next calendar year, and this year was no exception. I love reading it, both the parts that are the same every year (which, in the current year's edition, I check out each day), and the parts that change (essays, recipes, and fun information).
In this year's edition are Ukrainian Christmas recipes, advice on incubating and hatching chicken eggs, an essay about spiders and their webs, and a few Dad-level jokes (Why isn't the word "dark" spelled with a C? Because you can't C in the dark.) Besides the weather information (SouthWestCentral Louisiana might see hurricanes next summer / fall), the back section has tables for wind chill, best planting days, best fishing days, conversion tables, and a graphic explaining the difference between second cousins and first cousins once removed.
I very much enjoyed reading this book (I have all the editions from 1979 on), and I look forward to reading the 2024 edition next fall.
This is an update of the review I posted for the 2022 volume. I buy the Old Farmer's Almanac every year mainly for its astronomical information, which includes some data not included in other sources such as the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's "Observer's Handbook", or the Handbook of the British Astronomical Association. Here are some of the details given in this year's OFA: the year's eclipses of Sun and Moon (though despite the heading there's no transit of Mercury in 2023); transit, rise, and set times of bright stars (correct for Boston, but adding 54 minutes gives the correct time for my own location: a table of time corrections allows the reader to make similar adjustments to rise and set times throughout the USA and Canada); duration of astronomical twilight; principal meteor showers; visibility of the naked-eye planets with their rise and set times; in the calendar pages, daily rise and set times for Sun and Moon, lunar phases, and oppositions and conjunctions of the planets. This year there's no astronomy guest article.
There are as always some other items of interest to people who spend time outdoors, including nature and meteorological articles, though the weather forecasts are no more reliable than the astrological predictions.
I have been receiving the Old Farmer's almanac for several years and read the daily on line information but I don't think I have ever read the print version. This time I did and was surprised by all the trivia tidbits it has. Informationon sky watch, when to harvest grapes, little known fish facts, planting days, fun filled trivia. It was an enjoyable read. Now I'm looking forward to reading the 2024 version.
the 2023 edition contains the fun facts, predictions, and feature items that have made it a cultural icon: traditionally 80 percent–accurate weather forecasts; notable astronomical events and time-honored astrological dates; horticultural, culinary, fashion, and other trends; historical hallmarks; best fishing days; time- and money-saving garden advice; recipes for delicious dishes; facts on folklore, farmers, home remedies, and husbandry; amusements and contests; plus too much more to mention—all in the inimitable Almanac style that has charmed and educated readers since 1792. I loved reading these predictions for the next year. It has a lot of fun facts, moon phases, and astrological information too.
Nothing like I imagined. I am a farmer, homesteader, gardener, beekeeper, naturalist of sorts. I expected this book to be full of useful information, tips, guides, etc. Only a few pages were useful. Most of this book is just sell ads & product pushing. Very disappointed.
🖋️ A year’s worth of gardening tips, various reports and charts, weather forecasts, and the like made reading this almanac a consummate favorite of mine. 🌴 From my private library at Four Queen Palms. ●▬●🔷●🔷●▬●