Farmers' Almanac Blog

Tweet

Print

Summer is filled with fresh flavors, scents and scenes. Flowers are in bloom, gardens are overflowing, and fruits and vegetables taste so much sweeter and fresher. Every year I look forward to that first tomato sandwich made from fresh, garden grown tomatoes. It melts in my mouth (which by the way, I’m having today for lunch).

But how about taking some of those flavors and drinking them? We have run stories about adding fruit to water for an additional flavor (watermelon and strawberries add a sweet taste to plain water), but what about adding some fresh herbs? Or cucumbers?

Yesterday I added some mint leaves to my water bottle and enjoyed that flavor so much I decided to try some lemon verbena in the afternoon, and then some fresh oregano. They all added that little flavor that helped make drinking my 8 glasses a day (especially during this heat wave) a little more flavorful.

Do you add any flavors to your water? Share you flavorful ingredient here.

Tweet

Print

The weekend is tantalizingly close. Anyone who spends their workweek cooped up indoors knows there’s nothing more special than good weather during a summer weekend.

The Farmers’ Almanac’s main office is located in Lewiston, Maine, about an hour in one direction from Maine’s celebrated mountains, and an hour in the other direction from the coast, with its sandy beaches. While most people probably associate our far northern state with skiing and moose, rather than with lounging on the beach, the latter is precisely what I intend to do this weekend.

Planning on hitting the beach yourself? Don’t miss our 2013 beach forecast, to find out when the weather will be perfect!

You can also get our tide tables to find out when you’ll have the most sand to enjoy, and when you’ll need to move that beach blanket to keep it from getting washed away!

Taking the kids? Try these games and activities to keep everyone happy and prevent bickering or whining.

Even if you’re not taking the kids, be sure to stay safe yourself with our beach safety guidelines.

Enjoy the surf and sand!

Tweet

Print

Are you a camper? Last week we ran a story about camping like a champ. It offered some great tips on ways to make the whole camping experience more enjoyable. We also shared some campfire cooking recipes that many of you seemed to enjoy.

Camping was a popular vacation for me when I was a child. My mom, dad, three sisters and I would all fit into one huge (or so it seemed back then) tent, most of the time at a state park. And while some may cringe at the thought of sleeping all together in a flimsy temporary housing structure, it was in fact one of the most endearing parts of my camping memories. The feeling that someone was right next to you to tell stories to or to continue the Walton’s tradition of saying good night to everyone over and over again was fun, comforting and has stayed with me.

I have camped as an adult too, both with kids and without. Most of the time they were tenting experiences, that always included a night or two of what seemed to be a torrential rainfall. One time we borrowed a pop-up camper. That was a lot of fun and especially enjoyable to be off the ground, since the rain came down in buckets.

Reconnecting with nature and shutting off electronics are two of the appeals of camping for me. We play cards, tell stories, catch up on reading, and play a few board games. There was one night I recall when my daughter was probably 4 or 5 and went to get her pajamas on in the tent and started screaming at the top of her lungs! Yes a bug was in her pajamas and it was crawling on her in the dark.

I’ve also been camping with the Girl Scouts, but ever since a bear invaded a local scout camp (even tried to pull a girl out of the tent), the girls in our troop have been a bit leery about spending the night in a tent.

I haven’t been camping with the kids in awhile. One of the drawbacks to me (besides the biting bugs and that nagging worry of a bear sighting) is the amount of work that it takes to prepare for the trip. Unless you have a box or area where you can keep spare pots, pans, utensils, spices etc., getting ready for a camping trip can be quite the chore. As is the cooking and cleaning up after meals without running water, and the keeping food cool without refrigeration.  So sometimes the idea of a camping vacation is more like a working one.

But then again, I do think it’s a wonderful experience for everyone, especially children, to experience the awe of camping and nature, and to reconnect with the wonderful outdoors.

What do you think? Is camping too much work? Do you enjoy it or is your type of camping similar to my sister’s – done at the local hotel down the road?

Tweet

Print

Thursday marks the 237th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when the American colonists, fed up with being ruled from afar by King George III, stood up and declared their land a sovereign nation.

It took another seven long years of fighting before the United States of America was officially free of British rule, but July 4 is imprinted on the hearts of patriotic Americans everywhere as the birthday of our country.

While many patriotic holidays have a more solemn purpose, Independence Day is an unabashed celebration, complete with cookouts, swimming, fireworks, and family fun.

Here are some fun Fourth of July articles for your reading pleasure:

Fourth of July Trivia

Weird Presidential Trivia

Patriotic Trivia

Fourth of July Cookout Recipes

Record July 4th Temperatures

Burger and Poultry Grilling Temperatures

Grilling Veggies

Summer Food Safety

Have a great day of celebrating, America!

Tweet

Print

It’s officially summer and the weather is heating up. This weekend I debated on whether or not to turn on the air conditioner. Yes I have central air and it’s very nice, but I also like to have the windows open, to feel the breeze, and feel like the outside isn’t as far away as it is in January through April. But it was 85 degrees in the house. I succumbed. I turned it on.

I know many people who live in warmer areas need to use their air conditioners as much as I have to use my furnace during the colder months. I also know people who live around me that keep their AC on from May through September without a second thought. And believe it or not, I still know people who don’t have AC at all.

While I do not debate that it’s a necessity at times and a luxury at others, I will debate how long to keep it on.  I guess until this heat wave breaks.

What about you? Do you like to keep the AC all the time? Perhaps you live in a warmer area and have to keep it on, but then do you open your windows during colder months? Ever miss the fresh air blowing in through your windows? Or hearing the birds sing outside your window? Do you find it hard to motivate teenage kids to get outside since it’s so comfortable inside? Or worry about the electric bill that will come next month?

How do you keep cool if you don’t turn the AC on? I do have overhead fans and a stand-alone fan that work well, especially if you’re not moving around much. I have a pool and it comes in handy, but I have yet to figure out how to waterproof my laptop so I could work while floating on the water.

Share your thoughts here.

Tweet

Print

Be sure to head outside tonight and tomorrow night if you want to see the biggest Moon of the year.

Last month, we told you that there would be three full supermoons in a row, appearing in May, June, and July. A supermoon is when a full or new Moon phase coincides with the Moon’s perigee, or closest point in its orbit to the Earth. A full supermoon can look up to 14% larger and be up to 30% brighter than a normal full moon.

The largest of this year’s supermoons will occur tomorrow, June 23. The moment when the Moon becomes full, at 7:32 a.m., falls within within 30 minutes of the Moon’s perigee.

Even though the Moon won’t officially be full until tomorrow, tonight’s waxing gibbous Moon will look full, and will also be exceptionally big and bright.

Tweet

Print

It’s berry season. What a delicious time of year. But in addition to a fresh, sweet taste, there some very convincing reasons why you should let everyone in your family eat lots of berries:

1. Blueberries are full of antioxidants that not only help build up your immune system but may help keep your memory sharp as you age.
2. Strawberries contain more vitamin C in a one-cup serving than one orange. They are also high in folic acid, which is beneficial in reducing the risk of heart disease and decreasing incidence of breast and colon cancer. It’s also beneficial for pregnant women.
3. Raspberries contain ellagic acid, a compound known to have anti-cancer properties.
4. Blackberries help in memory retention and the risk of hypertension.
5. Açai berries are new to the list, but also contain many superfood qualities and health benefits.

So now that berry season is here, be sure to eat plenty of them and share them with your family. Add them to cereals and oatmeal, eat them as is for a snack, or put them in a smoothy. Whatever way you serve them, you should feel good about eating berries this season.

Tweet

Print

Although we’re the Farmers’ Almanac, it can be hard to have a sense of what the overall weather conditions are actually like during a given year. Things can seem one way in the Northeast, where most of our staff members live, and be completely different in Texas or California. If there’s one thing your comments on our articles, forecasts, blogs, and social media posts have made clear, though, it’s that the spring of 2013 has been a wet one nearly everywhere. Though summer won’t officially begin for another week, many of you are already beginning to wonder when to expect more seasonal weather to appear.

This year’s wet, chilly conditions provide a stark contrast to last summer’s hot, dry streak, which continued a trend of debilitating droughts that had begun during the previous year. Many of you are wondering if we predicted this, and if so, what we’re forecasting for the rest of the season.

We expect things to dry up somewhat in the Northeast and along the West Coast as summer gets fully under way during the coming weeks, but for the season to remain wet throughout much of the rest of the country.

This year’s wet weather should offer some respite to those in the South Central region of the U.S. who were punished by heat and drought over the last two summers. Farmers’ Almanac forecaster Caleb Weatherbee often refers to this phenomenon of an extremely wet year following on the heels of an extremely dry one as Mother Nature “balancing her checkbook.” We may not like the extremes, but when counterweighted against one another these dueling weather systems create a kind of equilibrium. Though it can be hard to remember when we’re in the thick of it, there really is no such thing as an average year, only lots of varying patterns that come together to paint a picture of our weather.

So what are you seeing, weather-wise, in your area? Are you optimistic that this summer will bring the kind of weather you want to see?

Tweet

Print

We recently revealed our forecast for an active hurricane season. So, I have been comparing our predictions with actual events. Our first mention of any type of storm is June 4 – 7th in the Southeast.   “An early tropical storm is possible in the Gulf of Mexico,” is what the Farmers’ Almanac states.

You can only imagine my delight when my good friends at the NWS passed out an advisory at 5 pm Wednesday (June 5), that Tropical Storm “Andrea” formed in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

As Sheldon on “Big Bang Theory” would say: Bazinga!

If it remains a tropical storm, all the better. Stay tuned for more.