Wow - it’s hard to believe that yet another summer season is just about over. Yes, summer isn’t officially over for another 4 weeks or so, but for most of us who have kids heading back to school, the summer season is wrapped up. Labor Day is here, marking the unofficial end of summer, but have you ever given any thought to the origin of Labor Day?

Labor Day is a holiday like no other in the world. Celebrated on the first Monday of September, it is dedicated to honoring the contributions of U.S. workers to the strength and prosperity of our country. The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City.

Two different people are credited with the creation of Labor Day. Some historians believe Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, first suggested a holiday to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

Others credit the idea to Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is agreed upon is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

Whomever really came up with the ideas isn’t as important as recognizing the contributions of all laborers in our great country. Enjoy the holiday. Remember if you need a weather forecast for the day you can find it here, or if you need some picnic food ideas we have lots of tasty recipes as well.

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The 2009 Farmers’ Almanac is here! It’s always an exciting time of year when the new edition comes out. It’s like a holiday that many of us have eagerly been waiting and working towards for months!

This year’s edition is better than ever! With concerns over the economy and the environment, the 2009 Farmers’ Almanac steps up to the plate and offers tons of advice and tips on ways to conserve energy, water, gas and more! One of my favorite features in this year’s edition is the many natural cures we’re offering for common ailments. Did you know that the herb feverfew can help prevent migraines? Or that a foot soak could help take the pain away from a headache?

Do you know how to test if your lawn really needs water? (Step on your grass, if it springs back when you lift your foot it doesn’t.) And another favorite is the Household Mysteries story, which provides a possible solution for the ever-mysterious Missing Sock Syndrome!

By now you’ve probably heard -the Farmers’ Almanac is calling for a NUMBINGLY COLD winter … yikes! If you like snow and cold you will love our predictions, but if you’re concerned about heating oil, you may want to start planning ahead now.

If you haven’t picked up a copy yet you should. It really is worth every penny. It’s great to hold onto for an entire year, consulting its weather forecasts from time to time, finding the best times to plant and fish, as well as watch meteors and full moons.

You should be able to find copies at bookstores and grocery stores around the country or you can purchase one online. But please - remember — our Farmers’ Almanac, which dates back to 1818 - has an orange and green cover-don’t buy any imposters!

I truly hope you enjoy this year’s new edition - drop us a line and tell us what you like or would like to see more or less of. Before I sign out, I’d like to leave you with the 2009 Farmers’ Almanac thought of the year:

The Keys to true Happiness are:

1. Weather — this winter’s forecast is sure to leave many hoping we are wrong.

2. Grow You Own - great story by the Garden Girl about how to grow your own fruit and vegetables even if you don’t have a yard.

3. Household Mysteries Solved- tried and true tricks on how to solve the mystery of missing socks, stolen scissors, and streaks on glass.

4. Natural Cures — for headaches, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, stress and more.

5. Survival Tips, Helpful Hints, Best Days Calendars and more!

What are you waiting for? Order your copy today! It’s packed with proven advice, calendars, trivia, weather and a bit of humor. It’s the “go-to source” for frugal and resourceful ideas.

If you haven’t read the Farmers’ Almanac in a while this is the year to pick up a copy. They should start showing up at stores everywhere or you can order a copy here!

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The zucchini is coming …every day …two and three at a time! And I only planted one plant!

Here are a few ways we’ve been creatively using up these profusely growing vegetables (wonder if I can make a bio fuel out of them!):

Zucchini Parmesan: Use your favorite eggplant Parmesan recipe but substitute zucchini for eggplant. We made it the other night and it was an instant favorite.

Freeze it: My mom grates her zucchini now, and then freezes two cups in a freezer bag for use later on. Most zucchini recipes call for 2 cups. Freeze it now and make some tasty bread later.

Sauté it with some onions and teriyaki sauce.

Make zucchini pancakes – use your favorite potato pancake recipe but substitute the z for the p!

Don’t feel like cooking? Make zucchini people out of it. Fun for the kids, allow them to decorate the zucchini with yarn for hair, other vegetables for eyes…use your imagination. Then grate it up for some zucchini bread.

What is your favorite way to use up this vegetable?? Anyone have any good ides for yellow squash? That’s next on my list of what “not” to plant next year!

Thanks! Happy gardening and cooking!

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If you have kids, you might be familiar with the phrase “I’m bored!” And if you’re like most of us adults, we long for the days when we thought we were bored…when summer days seemed to last forever . . .

While boredom could lead to trouble, sometimes it’s OK to be bored. In today’s world of 24/7, rushing here and there, cartoons all day and night, computers and video games, sometimes being bored is a good thing.

Next time you hear “I’m bored” tell them “good, it’s good to be bored sometimes.” Use these times to appreciate nature, to take time just to sit and relax or to gaze at the sky and figure out what shapes the clouds look like. Sometimes having nothing to do is just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes we all need to be “bored” to appreciate what we have.

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Deer are very pretty to watch – from afar that is!! Where I live they are everywhere including my garden. They eat almost everything and without any mercy. In fact they recently grazed on some flowers I planted, and I wished them INDIGESTION.

Keeping deer out of the garden is a big job. I have sprinkled cayenne pepper on my flowers and plants, but once it rains, you have to reapply.

Some say human hair clippings work. I haven’t tried that though – have you?

I’ve also hear that strong scented plants tend to NOT appeal to a deer’s appetite. I have some blue salvia planted and so far they’ve stayed away.

Some plants are that supposed to be deer resistant, and I’ve had some luck with include:

• Ferns
• Salvia
• Geraniums
• Columbine
• Lilly of the Valley
• Tiger Lily
• Snapdragon
• Bleeding Heart

My mom who owns a plant farm with my dad, gave me this recipe for deer repellent. You need to make it in gallon size bucket and then apply with a spray bottle. She’s had some success, but as with the pepper, you need to reapply after soaking rains.

Here’s the recipe:
Deer Repellant

To 1 gallon of water add:
½ cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp. cooking oil
1 tbsp lemon dish detergent

Optional: Few drops of hot sauce or rosemary oil

Mix together and apply to plants.

If this doesn’t work a deer fence may be the answer.

Do you have a good deer repellent? If so share it with us here by leaving a comment.

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The granddad of all superstitions, Friday the 13th is perceived as an abnormally ominous day. Many feel that there are numerous incidents and examples in history when a calamity befell someone foolhardy enough to challenge the number 13. The ancient Hindus, as the story goes, started the whole thing when they avowed that 13 people at a table brought bad luck. Some trace the phobia to the fact that Christ died on a Friday, and that there were 13 at the Last Supper, one of whom betrayed Jesus.

And more recently, there’s the move, Friday the 13th, which may fuel the superstition. Whatever you believe, this Friday is a 13th, so you may just want to do one of these things to keep bad luck from finding you!
1. Keep your fingers crossed – Making the sign of the Christian faith with your fingers is believed to prevent evil spirits from ruining your good fortune.

2. Knock on Wood – It was once believed that good spirits lived in trees and that by knocking on anything made from wood, we can call upon these spirits for protection against misfortune.

3. Find a four-leaf clover – Ancient druids believed shamrocks helped them to see evil spirits, providing the opportunity to avoid them.

4. Put your clothes on inside out – No one seems to know how this superstition originated, but the belief that backwards or inside out clothing brings good luck continues to be widespread – from children wearing their pajamas inside out in hopes of a snow day to baseball players and fans turning their caps inside out during important games, and more.

5. Look at the new moon over your right shoulder – The moon is central to many long-held superstitions, and the New Moon is seen as a ripe time for undertaking new enterprises. Whether those enterprises are successful or not depends on whether the New Moon is first seen over the right shoulder (good) or the left (bad).

6. Sleep facing south – The belief that sleeping with your head facing south promotes good health and fortune persists to this day, even among some doctors. The belief seems to be rooted in the Chinese art of feng shui, which attributes a causal connection between geographic placements and the movement of “qi,” or positive spiritual energy.

7. Break a clear, uncolored glass – While breaking a mirror is believed to usher in seven years of bad luck, the breaking of a clear glass has traditionally been seen as a sign that you’ve averted some grave misfortune. The glass purportedly takes on the ill fortune in your place.

8. Walk in the rain – Anyone who’s ever been caught without his/her umbrella may dispute this one, but rain has always been a sign of good luck. This is probably because it is so important to the success of crops; before modern irrigation methods were widespread, a rainy season meant the difference between lean years and prosperous ones.

9. Sleep on un-ironed sheets – This is another superstition with uncertain origins. Luckily, few people iron their sheets these days, anyway.

10. Avoid cracks in the sidewalk – Most of us know the old rhyme “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.” Whether the rhyme is the cause of, or a result of, this superstition is uncertain, though belief in it persists in many people today, even if subconsciously. Come to think of it, avoiding sidewalk cracks is probably a good policy for anyone who wants to avoid tripping.

11. Carry an acorn in your pocket – Acorns, the fruit of the sturdy oak tree, are an ancient symbol of fertility and long life.

12. Sneeze three times before breakfast – The number three has been seen as a lucky number in many cultures and religions throughout history. In Europe, where this superstition originated, the number’s association with the Christian trinity is an important association.

13. Pick up a pencil, a pin, a penny, or a piece of coal in the street – Finding, and claiming, any of these items has long been believed to portend good fortune. Some modern versions specify that only a heads-up penny is good luck.

Good Luck in Animal Form
Animals have long been seen as harbingers of either good or bad luck. Here are just a few animals that are said to foretell good fortune: three sheep, crickets singing, ladybugs, a robin flying into your home, on you, dolphins swimming near a ship, a frog inside your home, a spider spinning in the morning, a dog (especially a Dalmatian or a greyhound with a white spot on its head), a bee landing on your hand or head, birds calling from any direction but north, a bird leaving droppings on your head (yuck! Who wants that kind of good luck?), two blackbirds sitting together, a butterfly inside your house, a cat sneezing, two, three, or four crows, a lone fox, a black goat, a kingfisher, a stork building a nest on your roof.

Happy Friday the 13th!

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Here at the Farmers’ Almanac we live and breathe weather. Overall, our predictions are calling for “fairly good” conditions for Memorial Day, but there’s always a chance that Mother Nature throws us a curve ball. Thus the risk you deal with when you work in the weather field.

But never fear! The Farmers’ Almanac is a never-ending resource for ideas and ways to turn a rainy parade into a sunny memory.

Here are some of our favorite suggestions on ways to celebrate the holiday indoors. (We’d love for you to share your ideas! Simply leave me a comment!)

1. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. If the weather doesn’t cooperate and you have a household full of family, pull out the video camera. Sit your friends/family down individually, or as a group, and interview them for historical/remembrance purposes. Having a family member talk about the past is a great record to have. If an elderly grandparent is available, it would be a good time to get them talking about the family tree. If young children are there, ask them questions about today – their favorite color, song, friend – and then be sure to re-interview them a year later and see if their answers are the same.

2. Picture Day! Declare Memorial Day a day to go through old photos (and/or watch old family videos) organizing them and perhaps putting them into albums. Share pictures with friends and family members. Better yet, have friends bring baby pictures and play – name that baby with them.

3. Who’s afraid of a little mud? So it’s raining, but if it’s warm and you’re not afraid of the mud, go outside! Maybe a mudslide football game will be more fun the original poolside plans! Go ahead – get dirty.

4. History day. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died serving our country in the military. It was called “Decoration Day” because people used to visit graves of service people and decorate the graves with wreaths, flowers, etc. Use this day to learn more about US history and/or wars. If you’re crafty, decorate a wreath or poster with some interesting facts.

5. Inside picnics. Lay the blanket out in the family room, and enjoy your picnic foods indoors (you won’t have to worry about any ants visiting!).

Got a good idea? Share a comment here!
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The gardening season is just about here. I’m getting ready to plant our vegetable garden which has done very well in years past, but it has also been known to be very productive in weeds (if only we could eat them)! This year I’m going to try to stay ahead of the game.

Anyway, as I map out the garden this season, I started thinking about what our most favorite vegetable is to grow. While I love the fresh taste of tomatoes, they are not my favorite plants in the garden. The plants usually need some type of staking or else the tomatoes grow on the ground and get rotten before you pick them, so they’re good and will be a part of the garden, but they’re not my favorite.

Cucumbers are up there - we love to eat them and usually, if the summer weather doesn’t get too hot or dry, we can get a great harvest of fresh, tasty cucumbers.

But I think at our house the favorite vegetable to grow has to be zucchini, and it’s not because we love to eat zucchini bread. Over the past few years, we have grown some of the biggest, baddest zucchinis we’ve ever seen! Some are the size of small baseball bats! I’m not joking! We’ve gone away for a few days and come back to GIANT green zucchinis in our garden. I must admit these giants usually end up in the compost, but they are great for some laughs (and sometimes we even use them as bats with soft balls!).

What’s your favorite veggie to grow?
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1. Harvest your vegetable plants often. The more you pick tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash, the more they’ll grow.
2. Place freshly picked, green tomatoes in a brown paper bag to ripen. (Contrary to what many people believe, its temperature, not sunshine, that makes tomatoes turn red).
3. Animal pests don’t like strong-smelling plants. Surround your garden with marigolds, zinnias, or wormwood. Sneaky yet easy: To keep small animals out of your garden, cut an old hose in three-foot lengths. Place the pieces around your garden. These fake snakes will scare away small animals.
4. Plant dill near tomato plants to prevent tomato worms. It works.
5. Start seeds in eggshell halves. It’s economical and earth-friendly. Fill shell 3/4ths of the way to top with planting soil and seed, then store in egg cartons. This will keep the shell safe and allow you to easily carry the seedlings to sunnier locations or out to the garden. When ready to plant, leave the seedling in the shell. The roots will break through and the decomposed shell will act as a fertilizer.
6. When choosing annuals, bigger isn’t always better. When shopping at your local greenhouse, choose the plant that is well proportioned, not the tall one that has become root bound. Watch out for signs of insects or diseases.
7. Sprinkling the lawn out of habit is wasting a natural resource and money, too. A healthy lawn will signal it’s thirsty when walking on it makes footprints.
8. Some vegetable gardeners use newspapers as a mulch when cold weather threatens. This practice is ecologically good but don’t use the colored sheets. They contain harmful chemicals.
9. Position garden stakes so the wind blows plants toward the supports, not away from them.
10. To catch slugs, put a dish of beer in the garden at night. They will desert the plants and drown in the brew.

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