The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been a resource for growers for more than two centuries, published annually with information on the best times to sow seeds and harvest fruits and vegetables, and recipes for enjoying all that produce, plus much, much more. To share the history of the Almanac and explain why so many readers still enjoy it today, joining me on the podcast this week is the publication’s editor-in-chief, Carol Connare.
A lifelong gardener and grower, Carol previously wrote for Yankee Magazine, which, like the Old Farmer’s Almanac, is published by Yankee Publishing, based in Dublin, New Hampshire. During two decades working at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a public land-grant research university, she taught food writing and brought students to visit, learn about, and write stories on area farms and food producers. As director of communications at the University Libraries, Carol was on the volunteer crew that tended its award-winning courtyard garden and helped launch the Mass Aggie Seed Library. During her time living in Western Massachusetts, to inform her kitchen garden, Carol was a hands-on member of one of the oldest biodynamic CSA farms in the country, Brookfield Farm. She recently moved back to New Hampshire and tends an edible forest installed by the previous owner of the property.
Carol Connare is the 14th editor-in-chief in the history of the Old Farmer’s Almanac and the second woman to hold the title since the Almanac’s founding in 1792.
Photo Courtesy of Carol Connare — Editor-in-Chief of The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Carol is the 14th editor-in-chief in the history of the Old Farmer’s Almanac and the second woman to hold the title. Robert B. Thomas founded the Farmer’s Almanac in 1792 and spent nearly 50 years at the helm. “Old” was added to the title in 1832 to distinguish it from competing almanacs.
As editor, Carol leads a team of talented writers and editors who work together to produce “new, useful, and entertaining matter” for the Almanac as well as the The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids and the Almanac’s line of calendars, books, journals, and more.
This year, the Almanac added a large print edition. There is also a hardcover edition, with 80,000 annual subscribers. The Almanac’s annual Garden Guide, a magazine-sized publication that comes out in February, has a circulation of 300,000. The Old Farmer’s Almanac itself has a circulation of more than 2 million, inclusive of the U.S. edition, the Canadian edition, large print edition, bookstore edition, trade edition and hardcover.
Some of the editions have a hole in the upper left corner. This is so the Almanac could be hung from a hook or nail to keep it handy, and it’s a very popular feature.
“It costs us thousands of dollars to do that hole in the editions that have it,” Carol says. “… Sometimes I hear from people who ordered the wrong edition and they don’t get the hole, and they are just livid with us.”
The Old Farmer’s Almanac includes peculiar articles that are fun but super-informative.
I grew up seeing copies of the Old Farmer’s Almanac around the house, and ever since, it seems to find its path in front of my eyes, and yet I’ve been guilty of not digging into it. I’ve formed some biases about it in the past. As a science-based gardener, I didn’t have the impression that there was a whole lot of science in there. So I put it off to the side as not an authoritative source of information for me, and shame on me, because since then, I’ve had a chance to get to know it, and I’m really enjoying it.
Carol says editing the Almanac is her dream job. She has been at it for two years now.
“I’m called a boomerang,” she says. “I came back to a place that I worked before, and so I knew people here. I knew the publisher. Sherin Pierce is amazing.”
The Old Farmer’s Almanac was founded in 1792 and published annually ever since.
Photo Credit: Almanac.com
Long-Term Weather Forecasts
“Our founder, Robert B. Thomas, he was an astronomer,” Carol says. “He loved astronomy. Obviously, every other person was a farmer in 1792, so that was along for the ride. But his real passion was astronomy. And he was particularly interested in the science of magnetic storms on the sun. And those are these 11-to-12-year cycles. We’ve had 25 of them — we’re reaching peak of 25 — and he thought a lot about and used his formula using those patterns to figure out long-range weather.”
Carol enjoys the infographics on how the Almanac originally did the work of making these forecasts
“Today we’re not using any different formula,” she says. “It’s really about adding up that data and crunching that data and looking for patterns.”
Though the formula hasn’t changed, Carol points out that now the Almanac can bring a lot more data to bear. The weather is changing, as every grower knows, she adds. “Extreme weather is hitting differently.”
“We really rely heavily on that magnetic storm,” she adds. “Lots of people are familiar with those sun storms now, because we’ve seen the aurora a lot further south. … This has been an incredible peak to cycle 25. We’ll move into 26, and you can literally look at those curves up and down over those years and see how weather intensifies as the cycle peaks, which is what we’ve been experiencing, and hopefully, as other patterns over years, you will see a deintensification as we move into the next cycle.”
She says people — certainly growers — are bonded by weather. “We’re cuckoo about it. … Weather connects us outdoors. People are always interested in the weather.”
She acknowledges it’s bold to make forecasts well over a year in advance and says it’s the bread and butter of the Almanac.
“Weather” is one of the wall calendars the Old Farmer’s Almanac offers. Photo Credit: Almanac.com
Old and New
“The success of the Almanac is doing the old and the new, the traditional and the newfangled,” Carol says. “So while you’re going to find frost dates and planting tables and sky watching information, you’re also going to find the latest science on why we should be giving more hugs, or the folklore and science behind tides. Certainly one of the biggest things we get asked about, again and again, is gardening by the moon.”
She notes that the Almanac is, surprisingly enough, pretty accurate on the weather.
Staying Power
“The majority of our readers have been reading it for more than 15 years,” Carol says. “So there’s this sense of, I need it, I want to have it around. So sometimes we say it’s the most-loved, least-read publication, because we know that people are like, ‘I can read that anytime. I’ve got it for a whole year.’”
The cover design is still the same, and the pages are still black and white, which is quite nostalgic. The Old Farmer’s Almanac hasn’t outgrown its roots.
“It’s tough for print out there today,” Carol says. “You have to be a multi-channel instrument to stay in it. But I think our publisher and our team, we are invested in print. We do calendars — we are a calendar company. We do planners. We do books. We do journals. We definitely have a print-based audience. And then Almanac.com is another great animal in our stable.”
Sometimes, you want to have information at hand on your phone. Other times, there’s comfort in print.
“Print is coming back, baby,” Carol says.
The Almanac has a kids edition with age-appropriate articles. Photo Credit: Almanac.com
Gardening by the Moon
In the wake of the pandemic, the Old Farmer’s Almanac has seen a huge growth in readership and interest. Specifically, Carol reports a lot of interest in gardening by the moon.
In its simplest form, gardening by the moon is about thinking about the tides.
“So the moon controls the tides, and we know that at the new moon and the full moon, tides are higher. And so we also know that we’re water. Plants are 90 percent water, and we have water in the ground,” Carol says.
When the moon is waning, the water’s being drawn down toward the earth, so it’s a great time for root setting and a great time for harvesting because crops are going to be full of flavor, she explains. During a waxing moon, the water’s being drawn away from the earth, and that’s great for above-ground crops.
The Almanac also offers advice around germinating seeds based on the moon cycle.
The Almanac’s “Best Days” chart also offers non-gardening advice, such as when, according to the moon cycle, to start a new project, to castrate your animals and to ask for a loan.
“Moon” is another wall calendar put out by the Old Farmer’s Almanac team. Photo Credit: Almanac.com
Almanac Contests
The Old Farmer’s Almanac has an essay contest and a recipe contest every year, always on a different topic. This year’s essay contest was around the theme “The Best Gift I Ever Gave.”
“I get to pre-read them, but then we do it as a team, and it’s just so heartwarming to hear from people that write to us and the way that they write to us,” Carol says. “We get email submissions, but I also probably have 50 things that come in handwritten, maybe from a prisoner or from maybe someone in assisted living. And they’re just these wonderful snapshots of people being kind. That’s just great to read about. And then our recipes are a hoot.”
This year, the recipe theme is tomatoes.
“We know that’s a favorite subject of the Almanac reader,” Carol says. “So I’m sure we’ll get inundated with that.”
An annual planner is another print publication offered by the Farmer’s Almanac.
Photo Credit: Almanac.com
I hope you enjoyed my conversations with Carol Connare about the Old Farmer’s Almanac. If you haven’t listened yet, you can do so now by scrolling to the top of the page and clicking the Play icon in the green bar under the page title.
Do you read the Old Farmer’s Almanac? Let us know in the comments below.
Links & Resources
Some product links in this guide are affiliate links. See full disclosure below.
Episode 062: Great Garden Reads: Must-Have Books For Every Gardener
Episode 184: More Must-Have Books for Every Gardener: Encore (Hybrid) Presentation
joegardener Online Gardening Academy™: Popular courses on gardening fundamentals; managing pests, diseases & weeds; seed starting and more.
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joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Seed Starting: Everything you need to know to start your own plants from seed — indoors and out.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Beginning Gardener Fundamentals: Essential principles to know to create a thriving garden.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Growing Epic Tomatoes: Learn how to grow epic tomatoes with Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Pests, Diseases & Weeds: Learn the proactive steps to take to manage pests, diseases and weeds for a more successful garden with a lot less frustration. Just $47 for lifetime access!
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Perfect Soil Recipe Master Class: Learn how to create the perfect soil environment for thriving plants.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac on Facebook
The Old Farmer’s Almanac on Instagram | @theoldfarmersalmanac
The Old Farmer’s Almanac on TikTok | @theoldfarmersalmanac
The Old Farmer’s Almanac on YouTube | @almanac
2025 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Trade Edition
2025 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Hardcover Edition
2026 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Trade Edition (Pre-order)
2026 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Hardcover Edition (Pre-order)
2026 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Paperback Edition (Pre-order)
The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids
The 2026 Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Wall Calendar
“The Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook”
“The Celestial Garden: Growing Herbs, Vegetables, and Flowers in Sync with the Moon and Zodiac” by Jane Hawley Stevens
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Disclosure: Some product links in this guide are affiliate links, which means we get a commission if you purchase. However, none of the prices of these resources have been increased to compensate us, and compensation is not an influencing factor on their inclusion here. The selection of all items featured in this post and podcast was based solely on merit and in no way influenced by any affiliate or financial incentive, or contractual relationship. At the time of this writing, Joe Lamp’l has professional relationships with the following companies who may have products included in this post and podcast: Corona Tools, Milorganite, Soil3, Territorial Seed Company, Earth’s Ally, Proven Winners ColorChoice, Farmer’s Defense, Heirloom Roses and Dramm. These companies are either Brand Partners of joegardener.com and/or advertise on our website. However, we receive no additional compensation from the sales or promotion of their product through this guide. The inclusion of any products mentioned within this post is entirely independent and exclusive of any relationship.
