| The Old Farmer’s Almanac has a rich history. Meet founder R. B Thomas and learn so much more with an Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club Membership |
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 | Dear History Hound,
Even before the birth of our country, almanacs were a popular companion to farmer and city dweller alike. Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack originally appeared in 1733, and, at the height of its success in the mid-18th century, it had a circulation of about 10,000 copies. Franklin ceased publishing his almanac after 25 years—eight years before Robert Bailey Thomas was born in Grafton, Massachusetts. It would be another 34 years before the very first edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac would be published, in 1792.
What led a young man from central Massachusetts to publish what would become, and remains, the oldest continuously published periodical in North America? Thomas tells the story himself, beginning in the 1833 edition, with his “Concise Memoir of the Author and Editor of The (Old) Farmer’s Almanac.” He and his brother “were brought up to farming. Our father, quite a scholar for those days, instructed us at home and sent us to the winter school.”
“In the winter of 1783–4, my father sent me to Spencer to improve my penmanship with Dr. I. Allen. The succeeding winter, I studied arithmetic, under my father’s inspection.
“My father possessed a larger library than usually found in a country town. Among many scientific works, no one engrossed more of my attention than Ferguson’s Astronomy. From this work, I first acquired the idea of calculating an Almanack.”
In the winter of 1789, Thomas “called on Isaiah Thomas [no relation] of Worcester to purchase 100 of his Almanacks in sheets, but he refused to let me have them.” As a nod to the wit that would be forthcoming as a hallmark of the Almanac, Robert B. Thomas notes that Isaiah Thomas’s Almanack had a lot of inaccuracies “which I knew I could remedy.”
Finally, in the early summer of 1792, Thomas arranged for instruction “in astronomy as related to calculating an Almanack.” The rest, as they say, is history. Circulation of the second edition of Thomas’s Farmer’s Almanac, as it was known at the time, tripled from 3,000 to 9,000 copies, and Thomas remained the editor until his death in 1846 at the age of 80. |
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| | | 2021 Pre-Sale Now Open!
Save 57% with a Charter Membership in The Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club! |
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| Get Your Special Pass—Access to the World's Most Beloved Almanac! |
| | Save 57% when you claim your Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership—become a Charter Member today! | | |
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| | | Hard Times for the Almanac | The Old Farmer’s Almanac continued to grow and expand through World War I and the Great Depression. Then the greatest of all Almanac blunders happened. In 1936, Roger Scaife was appointed editor. His term coincided with the only time in the history of the Almanac that circulation and financial stability declined precipitously. The 1938 edition had a circulation of only 88,000 (as compared to 225,000 in 1863)! Scaife also took away what the Almanac was most known for: weather forecasts! In their place, he substituted temperature and precipitation averages. The public was not happy.
Luckily, Robb Sagendorph bought The Old Farmer’s Almanac in 1939, returning the publication to its witty, wise, and entertaining ways. Then came World War II. In 1942, a German U-boat entered the waters off Long Island, New York, sending a spy ashore. He was apprehended by the FBI the next day, and in his coat was a copy of the Almanac. The U.S. government suspected that the Germans were using the Almanac for weather forecasts, which meant that the book was indirectly supplying information to the enemy.
What happened next nearly halted publication of an Almanac that had lived through the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and so many more historical events. What did Sagendorph do to ensure that his beloved Almanac could maintain a perfect publication record? You’ll have to claim your membership in the Best Value Club to find out! |  | | Let Them Eat Cake | Actually … let us eat cake! We love weather. We love history. But we also love to cook, and we’ll share plenty of our favorite recipes with you when you get your membership in the Best Value Club. One of our most-loved cakes around the office here is this Apple Walnut Celebration Cake.
Start by buttering an 8-cup bundt pan and preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, cream ¾ cup butter and 1½ cups sugar, then beat in 2 eggs (one at a time). Add 1 cup of plain yogurt and ½ teaspoon of grated nutmeg and beat until smooth. Separately, mix together 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon each of baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir to blend. Stir in 2 large peeled and grated tart apples and ¾ cup of chopped walnuts. Spoon the batter into your pan, bake for 50 minutes, and you have a grown-up dessert treat! Dust with confectioners’ sugar for good measure!
Whether you want to discover the best days to view the planets, read about “The Day the Sun Exploded,” or experience “Baseball’s Most Amazin’ Season,” you can get it all (as well as much more useful information, wit, and wisdom) with your membership in The Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club!
With an Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club membership, you’ll get the collectible hardcover edition of the 2021 Almanac, the 2021 Weather Watcher's Wall Calendar, 2 vintage digests of The Old Farmer's Almanac (from 100 and 200 years ago!), and monthly digital editions of the Almanac EXTRA!. PLUS, get a bonus gift of complete access to the Almanac EXTRA! digital library, with 40+ issues bursting with gardening ideas, recipes, and more! Join The Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club today and you’ll get:
● The inside scoop on astronomical events, from comets to eclipses
● Access to the complete history of The Old Farmer’s Almanac
● Practical gardening tips that will help you to grow the best garden you can, whether you have a city balcony or a country lot
● Our world-renowned weather predictions for the upcoming year.
● Plenty of recipes, cooking tips, and, of course …
● Our famous wit, wisdom, trivia, folklore, and “pleasant degree of humor” |
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| | | 2021 Pre-Sale Now Open!
Save 57% with a Charter Membership in The Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club! |
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| Get Your Special Pass—Access to the World's Most Beloved Almanac! |
| | Save 57% when you claim your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership—become a Charter Member today! | | |
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| | | NEW FOR 2021! | | Get full access to everything under the Sun, including the Moon, weather, vegetable and flower gardening, folklore, nature, home remedies, and more—with your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership! | Introducing The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership! This new and exciting club is designed especially for you—and it's packed with articles, advice, best days, facts, and fun that you cannot get anywhere else!
Your Charter Membership gives you all the elements of a true almanac—a "calendar of the heavens" and a "time capsule of the year" for 2021, plus some fantastic bonuses when you join today. More about those bonuses in a minute.
Since 1792—in fact, every day since!—The Old Farmer's Almanac has been trusted and enjoyed by folks from all walks of life: people who grow their own food depend on the planting dates; home cooks, gardeners, and folks hungry for something quick and delicious love the recipes; just about everybody checks on the Moon phases and sunrise and set times … as well as the weather forecasts … to know what to expect on any given day, week, month, or season.
With The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership, you'll have content that is both useful and humorous. You'll discover quirky facts, timeless adages and advice, amusing quotes and profound proverbs, contests, Anecdotes and Pleasantries, Best Days to do things (from fishing to weaning from planting to setting eggs, for example), and so much more!
Your Charter Membership gives you everything that you've come to expect and depend on in an Almanac—valuable and accurate content and advice. In fact, fulfillment of readers' expectations has made our Almanac the best-known and most sought after Almanac for generations.
Did you know? The Old Farmer's Almanac is the oldest continuously published periodical in North America! We got started with this valuable content in 1792—when George Washington was president and the U.S. Post Office Department was first established . . . and we've been at it ever since then, for more than 228 years! | | 2021 Pre-Sale Now Open!
Save 57% with a Charter Membership in The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club! |
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Get Your Special Pass—Access to the World's Most Beloved Almanac! |
| | Save 57% when you claim your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership—become a Charter Member today! | | | People always ask how and why our Almanac has lasted—and continues to be a best seller. The answer is simple: We stay true to the original mission of founder Robert B. Thomas, who declared in an early edition, "Our main endeavour is to be useful, with a pleasant degree of humor."
We believe that, especially in today's trying times, finding humor and enjoyment in daily life is important and can be uplifting, and we hope you like our light-hearted fun and find the joy in chuckling at our witty and inspiring words.
This will make you smile, too: Every edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac is fresh, new, and designed to make the year one of the best ever. How do we do that? With entertaining and informative articles. With your Charter Membership, you'll be able to read about:
- Hot trends for 2021: Forecasts, fats, and fascinating ideas that define our life and times, including food and cooking, pets, money matters, home-design trends, health issues, home farming, and culture.
- How to pick a pet: The pros and cons of dogs, cats, fish, and birds.
- Time-tested tips for fighting colds and flu.
- Love lessons from old valentines — how sweet nothings from the past can provide prescient pointers for the present.
- How to grow beautiful wildflowers on your property.
- Special report on "Farming for Good": Farmers from around the country share their stories, inspirations, dreams, and advice about farming as a living.
- And more—almost 300 pages of riveting content!
Plus, charts, maps, and photos bring it all to life for you—making every article and every table easy to understand and follow.
But that's just the beginning! Here's just some of what else you'll discover in the 2021 Almanac:
- Beyond the Pumpkin Patch: Secrets for growing success with pumpkins, radishes, and squash.
- The Star-Spangled School Project: Everything you need to know about how the American flag was first created and changed over time.
- When Predators Come Calling: What to expect and what to do when you have wild animals in your backyard or barnyard.
- Ace the Small Space: All you need to know about growing food in an area of almost any size.
- "Appetizers" Recipe Contest: See the winners and get the recipes for "Buffalo Eggs," "Stuffed Jalapenos," Spicy Mexican Shrimp Bites," and "Zippy Potato Balls."
- Birds on the Wing: Facts and fallacies about avian migration.
- Test your "Sky-Q": Take this quiz to gauge your knowledge of the universe.
- Become the best Stone Skimmer: The most practiced sport in the world that doesn't require any fancy gear.
- Hockey Pucks: A special report on hockey's little black disk — there's more to the puck than meets the ice!
- Zodiac Signs: Learn all the key behavior traits of every astrological sign, so you can play to people's strengths and expectations — all based on their zodiac sign.
- All this and too much more to mention for nearly 300 pages of riveting content!
Plus, the Almanac's easy-to-follow charts, maps, and photos bring it all to life for you—making it all easy to understand and use. | | 2021 Pre-Sale Now Open!
Save 57% with a Charter Membership in The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club! |
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Get Your Special Pass— Access to the World's Most Beloved Almanac! |
| | Save 57% when you claim your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership—become a Charter Member today! | | | | An Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership will deliver exciting rewards for you—and for a special introductory rate right now, to all new Charter Members. | When you join today, you'll ensure that you get the latest details about Almanac events and forecasts—and you'll enjoy all these benefits:
- Your best garden ever—Almanac gardening advice, planting dates, time-saving tips, and detailed guidance from experts will get you growing like never before.
- You'll know in advance about every important astronomical event in 2021—when they're happening, where in the sky, and the details and delights of each one.
- You'll have access to the world's best source of Almanac content—from astronomy and weather to anniversaries and milestone dates; from important (and little known) holidays and religious events to traditional days in calendar folklore.
- You'll save time and money when you follow all the practical advice and tips that we deliver to you about everything from gardening to food preparation and cooking.
- You'll be a weather expert in your family and circle of friends—no one else you know will have the detailed knowledge about forecasting and weather that you'll have . . . and for every region of the country!
| | How can you not consider becoming an Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Member? | | What you'll get with an Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership. | When you claim your Old Farmer’s Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership today, your Charter membership will include:
- The Old Farmer’s 2021 Almanac—Our newest edition, the hard-copy version will be shipped to you with everything you’ve come to expect from the world’s premier almanac.
- The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2021 Weather Watcher's Wall Calendar. Enjoy stunning photography of spectacular weather around the world month after month.
- The Old Farmer’s Almanac 1821 edition—A printed version will be shipped to you with your order. Take a trip down memory lane and see what one of our early Almanacs looked like! It’s a time capsule of life 200 years ago!
- The Old Farmer’s Almanac 1921 edition—A printed version will be shipped to you with your order. Another classic Almanac, this takes you back a century: Compare the content then and now!
- The Old Farmer’s Almanac EXTRA! —A treasure trove of digital updates and Almanac content not found in the printed edition, including audio and video multimedia content. EXTRA! is far more interactive and fun than plain printed pages!
- BONUS: Complete access to our EXTRA! library, with 40+ digital issues at your fingertips any time!
| And all of this is available to you—right now—when you claim your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership.
What are you waiting for? This Charter Membership offer is in effect for you right now!
No other Almanac has so many fun and fascinating facts, timely and accurate events and predictions, and topical and useful articles all in one place for your easy access and use—and covering more regions of North America than any other almanac or resource! |
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| 2021 Pre-Sale Now Open!
Save 57% with a Charter Membership in The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club! |
|
Get Your Special Pass—Access to the World's Most Beloved Almanac! |
| | Save 57% when you claim your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership—become a Charter Member today! | | | | Why not join right now? | Gardeners, weather and sky watchers, and nature lovers everywhere have been enjoying The Old Farmer's Almanac for generations, and now it's easier than ever for YOU to experience it all with an Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership.
When we created this new club for folks like you, we wanted to make it easy to use, easy to order, and packed with content and value—that's why we named it the "Best Value Club"! The Almanac is the ultimate resource for gardening, astronomy, folklore, nature, and more, and now it can be all yours with your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership. |
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| | Special Introductory Offer is Now in Effect — 57% Discount!
Special limited-time Charter Membership offer for you right now!
When you respond today, you'll be among a select group of Almanac friends to take advantage of this special Charter Membership offer.
Activate your Charter Membership in The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club today, and you'll get access to unique almanac content that you can't find anywhere else—plus five bonuses!
Join other weather and astronomy watchers, gardeners, nature and food lovers, and trivia fans—for 57% off when you respond today!
This is a limited-time offer that you should take advantage of right now. |
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| | Why not be among the first—gardeners in your neighborhood; weather and astronomy watchers under the Sun; cooks in your community; trivia fans in your circle; nature-lovers in your area—to join us today and benefit from all the valuable Almanac information that you simply cannot get anywhere else?
Become an Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Member today—while this special offer lasts!
Sincerely,
Janice Stillman
Editor, The Old Farmer's Almanac
P.S. You should act today to claim your Charter Membership in The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club—including your 2021 issue of the Almanac …and your bonuses, too! | | 2021 Pre-Sale Now Open!
Save 57% with a Charter Membership in The Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club! |
|
Get Your Special Pass—Access to the World's Most Beloved Almanac! |
| | Save 57% when you claim your Old Farmer's Almanac Best Value Club Charter Membership—become a Charter Member today! | | | | We reserve the right to substitute items based on availability. |
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