this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025

356 points (98.9% liked)

News

33337 readers

2237 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

356

Farmers’ Almanac to shut down after more than 200 years in operation (www.wnep.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by IronpigsWizard@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 38 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 102 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

There seems to be some confusion, and rightly so.

This is "Farmer's Almanac" which, yeah, started in 1818 and is 207 years old.

But "The Old Farmer's Almanac" started in 1792 and is generally 'the one' you think of when you hear 'Farmer's Almanac'. That one is still running:

https://www.almanac.com/about-us

Interesting history here:

https://www.almanac.com/history-old-farmers-almanac

Edit Used to sell both and man people would get PISSED if they asked for "the farmers almanac" and you grabbed the wrong one!

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Barnes and Noble? Cause I feel you

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

30+ years ago, man I could tell you stories... 😉

[–] Ageroth@reddthat.com 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

settles in for story time
I don't know why but retail horror stories are some of my favorites

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

One year, right around Black Friday, I was working registers and we had a line of people out the door... we were all just trying to get people rung up as quickly as possible.

I'm in the middle of helping someone when this woman jumps the line, interrupts me while I helping another customer, and goes "Excuse me, I just have a question?"

So I turn to my first customer, "Do you mind? She just has a question?"

Ok, fine, what's the question?

"Where are your etiquette books?"

ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

"They... they're on the reference wall. Right hand side, about 1/2 way down."

That night, cleaning up the store, I found a pile of 20 etiquette books just sitting on the floor.

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Closing in on 20 for me, I still have flashbacks about being asked “I’m looking for a book, I don’t know the title or author, but I know it’s blue and was on the table by the cafe last Christmas, do you know that one?” And then hating myself for knowing exactly what they meant half the time

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

"It's that book with the picture of the woman on the front."

"The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende?"

"Yeah..."

Co-worker: "How did you do that?"

"Every time I walked by it I thought 'oh, hey, it's that book with the picture of the woman on the front'."

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

It was “The Art of Racing in the Rain” for a solid 7 months

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I would show up to b&n with a list of isbn Numbers ao i would get exactly what i wanted

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I don’t even belive in god but bless you, your local bookseller is infinitely grateful to you even if they don’t say it.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

True story:

Dead Wednesday. I was working the front by myself.

"I don't know why I'm here, you can't help me."

"Well, I know a lot, and I have a computer for our inventory and one for our distributor, if you can remember 1 or 2 words, we have a good shot."

"Yeah, but I don't know the author, you can't help me."

We went round and round like that for 10 minutes, finally dragged it out of him and found it in the distributor system:

"How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People".

"Ordinarily it would take a couple of days to get this, let me expedite that for you, it will be here tomorrow."

He never picked it up. 😟

[–] dumples@midwest.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

I am so glad because I use The Old Farmers Almanac website all the time. They have the best gardening advice. Bullet dodged

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 65 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

That's a bit sad ... I used to pick up a copy every second year whenever I remembered it. It was always one of those things that was just always there and something that you thought would be around forever .... at least during your own lifetime.

I remember my old neighbours talking about it, referencing it and reading it. I remember old farmers swearing by it. I remember old time hunters and trappers using it as a guide for weather .... whether it worked for anyone or not, it was a mainstay that a lot of old time folks enjoyed.

It feels like the passing of another thing from our past.

[–] IronpigsWizard@lemmy.world 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers, so I grew up reading it. Every now and then I would buy or gift a copy to someone. I have even referenced it for weather while planning vacations in the past.

So yeah, i am sad to see it go as well.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It also never seemed to matter if the predictions worked, were accurate or even came to be ... it was just another farmer thing ... a farmer thing to talk about it. Everyone I knew who read it or referenced it, either swore by it or said it was no good ... and those same people would turn around and say the opposite the next time.

The best part of it all was just that it was there and always there.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 10 points 3 weeks ago

I often looked at their planting tables and long term forecasts, but I've never seen any retrospective analysis of their accuracy.

[–] blazeknave@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

I was on the website a few weeks ago considering whether to do an outdoor kids bday party. It's silly and barely a part of my decades on earth but these bits of institutions and normalcy chipping away is sad. I also thought that the other day that this is always in flux and nothing is forever so enjoy and move on. 🤷 Life

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 39 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

fuck when do I plant my turnips?

[–] protist@mander.xyz 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

On the ides of the month of the first blue moon after the vernal equinox, obviously

[–] Bahnd@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I had to check the acurssed interwebs to find out that you are refering to 2026-05-15 or 2026-05-16

But of our party had a druid (Or an annual publication written by and for druids), then they would have just been able to tell us.

[–] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

/c/theydidthemath

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 weeks ago

June 13, 2026? That's rather specific. Turnips are pretty frost tolerant so you could plant them much sooner or later if you wanted.

[–] rayyy@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

Most seed companies have planting charts. Fedco Seeds has a good one that includes a guide to seed saving.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 31 points 3 weeks ago

But something else is going to happen? I'm sure they've been losing money for years, so I'm guessing they've sold the brand. Rip.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is there a list out there somewhere comparing historical weather stats against the farmers almanac? I'd love to see how close the yearly predictions were compared to what actually happened.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It was 52% accurate. Or, you could make the same prediction accuracy by flipping a coin.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

Except the weather is a dice not a coin. Being Right 52% of the time on a d100 roll is really good.

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Does anyone read the almanac? Just curious if there's still anything worth reading in there anymore.

[–] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

I liked it for entertainment. It was always there in the outhouse.

[–] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It used to have instructions for hypnotizing chickens.

[–] raoulraoul@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

So that's where the POTUS learned that trick from! 🇺🇸 😵‍💫🐔

Seems to have worked on at least 51% of the country.

[–] vegeta@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

I'm suprised they haven't used it as a basis for new NOAA regulations under Trump. Maybe it's too scientific?

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago

Oh no, now where are people going to get their season horoscopes?

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ah yes, where I always go to find out what the opposite of my weather will be.

[–] CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean, it's only wrong 50% of the time.

[–] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

With the cuts to NOAA I’ll take it.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 weeks ago

Makes sense, we're all Poor Richard in this economy.