Have you ever really looked at a Farmer’s Almanac?  After working 43 years in the agriculture industry, I have had the Almanac quoted to me thousands of times.  The Farmer’s Almanac was founded in 1792.  That’s awhile back.  The cover of the book says that it is” useful, with a pleasant degree of humor”.  

If you take a good look inside you will find a world of interesting information.  Weather forecasting is the most interesting to me. The 2025 Almanac forecasts a mild,wet winter for us in this area.  The summer forecast is hot and dry.  The accuracy for 2024 was 64 percent, which is slightly below the traditional average rate of 80 percent . The 2025 almanac was printed before the weather catastrophe in the south west states.  

Let’s don’t forget the astronomy, and the phases of the moon.  Many of the older people still believe the method of planting the garden by the phases of the moon and the phenology.  What is that?  Phenology refers to the life cycles of plants and animals as they correlate the weather and temperature, or natures calendar.  For vegetables, plant potatoes when the dandelion blooms.  Plant corn when oak leaves are the size of a squirrels ear, and plant tomatoes when lilies-of -the-valley are in full bloom.  These are just a few of the different things that the Farmer’s Almanac tells.   

I prefer to watch the weather, plant when I have the time, and not worry about astronomy.  Just ask your grandparents, if you are so lucky to still have them,  about the almanac.  They will surely have a lot of things to say.

(Mitzi Thomas owns Minden Farm & Garden LLC. Watch for her column on Fridays in Webster Parish Journal.)