2012 Edition Published—

There Is Always Something New In The Old Farmer’s Almanac

By Nancy K. Crevier

New Englanders wading through hip-high floodwaters and steering cars around fallen trees and wires, post-Tropical Storm Irene, are probably sad to be the ones falling outside of the usual 80 percent weather prediction accuracy of The Old Farmer’s 2011 Almanac, which predicted below average rainfall for the area this summer, and just thunderstorms for the last few days of August.

Still, an 80 percent weather accuracy rate over the course of the magazine’s 220-year history is commendable, and fans of the yearly publication are pleased to see the 2012 edition is on the stands.

Boasting not only weather forecasts for 16 regions of the United States, but “Everything under the Sun, including the Moon,” The Old Farmer’s 2012 Almanac is once again a wealth of fun and information.

Even with one growing season not yet over, gardeners will still pour over the useful 2012 Frost and Growing Season and Planting by the Moon charts, and devour articles like “Create an Astronomical Garden” and “Green Thumbs’ Tell-All Tales.”

Creating an astronomical garden, one with “celestial alignments that connect you to the universe and remind you of your place in it,” can be as simple as choosing plants with heavenly names (“New Moon” iris) or designing a garden plot that traces the shape of the sun and rays, or a phase of the moon, writes University of Massachusetts Astronomy Professor Judith Young.

Need some help turning your black thumb green? Tips from readers have been gathered together in one article this year, sharing ideas like using old ice cube trays for starting seeds; a nonchemical solution to rid tomato plants of whiteflies; and yet one more clever tactic to deter slugs in the garden.

For those better off using the harvest than trying to grow it, The Old Farmer’s 2012 Almanac is full of recipes. Tasty treats for shipping, new twists on that old comfort food, macaroni and cheese, and winning recipes from the 2011 coffee cake contest provide plenty of material over which to drool.

If you are into hot, hotter, and the hottest of hot peppers, “The Patron Saint of Peppers” is just the article to read in The Old Farmer’s 2012 Almanac. Wilbur Scoville was a chemist at Parke Davis Pharmaceutical Company in Detroit when he developed a means of measuring the heat unit of different kinds of chile peppers. That measuring technique is now known as “The Scoville Chile Heat Chart,” a valuable tool for cooks who need to know “Should I go with the Pasilla or the Manzano pepper?” when heating up a spicy dish.

Just in time to follow up on Tropical Storm Irene readiness, is the “What Would You Do If…?” quiz, marking the centennial of the founding of the Girl Scouts of the United States of American, as well as the first Eagle Scout badge in Boy Scouts.

Weather, of course, is the cornerstone of the Almanac. This year’s issue features the wily ways of ash produced by volcanic eruptions, weather by region, tide corrections, and of course, the calendar pages revealing “all of nature’s precision, rhythm, and glory.”

It is useful, it is informational, and as it has been for the past two centuries, The Old Farmer’s 2012 Almanac ($5.99 for the soft-cover “Classic Edition,” $6.96 for the “Bookstore Edition,” and $15.95 for a hardcover collector’s edition) is fun to read.