| For 233 years, patrons of this trusted annual have let us know what’s on their minds. When this publication began in 1792, feedback came by post—including over the fence post. Now we receive your emails, phone calls, and other “posts” (via Almanac.com and social media), as well as letters delivered to our post office box. The secret to our continued success is listening to you. As centuries pass, we note the steadfastness of readers’ interests. Articles in 1825 concerned raising calves, growing asparagus, and keeping a kitchen garden (“highly important to a farmer, vegetables save meat and promote health”). A century later, we described the hazards of rearing chicks, how to thwart houseflies, and the seven best woods for fence posts. Our 2025 offerings are reassuringly familiar: how to raise backyard chickens, grow plants from outside your hardiness zone, and garden in sync with the Moon. Your stories matter. We appreciate feedback and are delighted to hear from friends—4-H'ers, birders, gardeners, prisoners, Rotarians, and Scouts—to name just a few. Like Tom M. phoning from Asheville, North Carolina, searching for gas plant seeds; Bill M. from Dayton, Ohio, needing to know the best days to make sauerkraut; and fan Mary Frances G. from Culpeper, Virginia, who got her first Almanac upon joining NASA’s Moon-mapping project in 1966. Thanks go to poet Heather S. from Saugus, Massachusetts, for reminding us to “Consider the Bees” and to Gordon S. from Calgary for his clever amusements. We know that you count on the Almanac to provide "correct, amusing, and useful" material, as founder Robert B. Thomas described our mission 200+ years ago. We were just a mere seedling then compared to the sprawling mother tree we have since become. We sincerely thank you, |
