The Old Farmer's Almanac 2015
Read The Old Farmer's Almanac 2015 Online
Authors: Old Farmer's Almanac
The 2015 Edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Masthead
Food: Winners in the 2014 Carrot Recipe Contest
Gardening: Make a Cultivated Exchange
Gardening: Have Your Own Walden
Outdoors: What's Happened to All the Quail?
Weather: When and Why Wind Chills
2014–15 The General Weather Report and Forecast
Astronomy: 24 Strange Things About the Universe
Calendar: Holidays and Observances
Calendar: Glossary of Almanac Oddities
Special Report: Where Does the Time Go?
Outdoors: Best Fishing Days and Times
Outdoors: Try Getting Bumped in the Night
Husbandry: Gestation and Mating Tables
Home Remedies: Beauty on a Budget
Gardening: Frosts and Growing Seasons
Anniversary: Witnesses to the Surrender
Anniversary: 3 Unparalleled Pioneers
Amusement: Winners in the 2014 Essay Contest
Amusements: The Greatest Deals in History
Astrology: Signs of Good Health
Astrology: Secrets of the Zodiac
Gardening: Planting by the Moon’s Phase
Amusement: Answers to Mind-Manglers
Amusement: Anecdotes & Pleasantries
Special Bookstore Supplement: A Reference Compendium
We hope you enjoyed the Almanac Monthly. Here’s your 2015 Old Farmer’s Almanac—the annual edition!
Three Cheers
This year, dear reader, marks a variety of historic records set by this modest annual and its related endeavors. As your humble servants, we recognize and proclaim that for all of our successes—great or small, in print or electronic technology—we are indebted to each and every one of you. We salute and thank you!
Your enthusiasm for and loyalty to this calendar of the heavens and yearly time capsule has, with this edition, once again solidified its standing as “the oldest continuously published periodical in North America.” Yet it is not this Almanac’s longevity that we honor foremost; rather, it is you, for procuring the previous edition in such record numbers that its presence in hands and homes across the continent has scarcely ever been exceeded. We hope that the information in this edition similarly meets (dare we say “exceeds”?) your expectations, and we eagerly await your comments and observations.
Many of you rejoiced at the debut this year of our annual
All-Seasons Garden Guide
as a full-size (no longer digest) magazine, with its mesmerizing displays of blooms and edibles. We thank you from our roots. Next March’s edition promises more beautiful and delicious garden delights.
We would also like to high-five the youngsters—and teachers and parents—who read and rave about our biannual Almanac for Kids. Your fun is our fulfillment. Send us your ideas!
Being of a modern mind, this Almanac is fully engaged in popular media and social networking. In these means, you have also demonstrated unprecedented interest, for which we are also grateful. To wit:
- In March 2014, the volume of new visitors to and viewers of pages on
Almanac.com
surpassed all previous monthly tallies, with 4.4 million and 11+ million, respectively. - Our number of Facebook friends hovers at about 550,000. One post about the lunar eclipse on April 1415 was read by some 5.8 million people.
- Your use of reading devices to engage with Almanac offerings—apps, the digital Almanac, and the Almanac Monthly magazine—encourages us to produce more, an opportunity that we welcome. About these and any other of our endeavors, we welcome you to contact us at
Almanac.com/Feedback
.
Finally, in closing this passage and beginning a new Almanac, we offer three cheers, each with heartfelt appreciation: one for you, one for the years we have enjoyed together, and one for the new year that unfolds before us all.
–
J. S., June 2014
However, it is by our works and not our words that we would be judged. These, we hope, will sustain us in the humble though proud station we have so long held in the name of
Your obedient servant,
Robert B. Thomas
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Established in 1792 and published every year thereafter Robert B. Thomas, founder (1766–1846) Yankee Publishing Inc.
Editorial And Publishing Offices P.o. Box 520, 1121 Main Street, Dublin, NH 03444 Phone: 603-563-8111 • Fax: 603-563-8252
Editor (13th Since 1792): Janice Stillman Art Director: Colleen Quinnell Copy Editor: Jack Burnett Senior Research Editor: Mare-Anne Jarvela Senior Editor: Heidi Stonehill Senior Associate Editor: Sarah Perreault Editorial Assistance: Tim Clark Intern: Sarah Drory Weather Graphics and Consultation: Accuweather, Inc.
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We welcome your questions and comments about articles in and topics for this Almanac. Mail all editorial correspondence to Editor, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, P.O. Box 520, Dublin, NH 03444-0520; fax us at 603-563-8252; or contact us through
Almanac.com/Feedback
. The Old Farmer’s Almanac can not accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and will not acknowledge any hard-copy queries or manuscripts that do not include a stamped and addressed return envelope.
All printing inks used in this edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac are soy-based. This product is recyclable. Consult local recycling regulations for the right way to do it.
Thank you for buying this Almanac! We hope that you find it “useful, with a pleasant degree of humor.” Thanks, too, to everyone who had a hand in it, including advertisers, distributors, printers, and sales and delivery people.
No part of this Almanac may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other) without written permission of the publisher.
Our Contributors
Bob Berman,
our astronomy editor, is the director of Overlook Observatory in Woodstock and Storm King Observatory in Cornwall, both in New York. In 1976, he founded the Catskill Astronomical Society. Bob has led many aurora and eclipse expeditions, venturing as far as the Arctic and Antarctic.
Tim Clark,
a retired high school English teacher from New Hampshire, wrote the Farmer’s Calendar essays that appear in this edition. His recordings of them are available free at
Almanac.com/Multimedia
. He has composed the weather doggerel on the Calendar pages since 1980.
Bethany E. Cobb,
our astronomer, earned a Ph.D. in astronomy at Yale University and is an Assistant Professor of Honors and Physics at George Washington University. She also conducts research on gamma-ray bursts and follows numerous astronomy pursuits, including teaching astronomy to adults at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC Berkeley. When she is not scanning the sky, she enjoys playing the violin, figure skating, and reading science fiction.