CORINTH — According to the New England Historical Society, an almanac was the second book to come off the first printing press set up in North America. That was in Cambridge, Mass., in 1639.
Almanacs were essential reference books as far back as the 1400s, and Puritan settler John Winthrop had with him a 1620 almanac when he landed in New England in 1630.
Like most other printed materials, an almanac, with its weather predictions and date references, has been replaced by the smartphone, except for the Old Farmer’s Almanac, still published yearly in Dublin, N.H.
But there’s something durable about an almanac’s format. It’s concerned not with the news of the moment, but with the news of the year, with events that are slower to develop and better seen over time.
That’s the organizing principle behind the Vermont Almanac, a publication that emerged in December, when most eyes were fixed on national and international events. Vermont Almanac, which has roots in Corinth and features writers and artists from around the state, including the Vermont side of the Upper Valley, bears the subtitle Stories From & for the Land. While most almanacs are concerned with a wide range of sublunary things, Vermont Almanac is tied to the soil and people who toil on it.
“One of the things that we focus on is trying to have most of it connected to the land in some way,” said Virginia Barlow, a Corinth resident and one of the volume’s founders and editors.
In the absence of Vermont Life, which introduced generations of people to Vermont and often explained the state to newcomers before the state-owned publication shut down in 2018, Vermont Almanac plays a role its editors hadn’t intended. It describes Vermont for its residents.
So far, Barlow said, the publication’s four staff — Barlow, fellow editors Dave Mance III and Patrick White, and Corinth resident Amy Peberdy, who handles operations — haven’t taken a paycheck, but they’ve offered pay to the publication’s 63 contributors, about two-thirds of whom have taken them up on it. Peberdy is hunting for fresh ways to sell it, including through real estate agents who are welcoming new families to the state, Barlow said. Buying it is like buying a book: It costs $30.
Organized in 12 chapters, one for each month starting with October 2019, the almanac is largely descriptive. Each monthly entry starts with a painting by Chelsea artist Nick DeFriez, a brief essay and a recap of the weather, then moves on to nature notes from a cast of contributors, including Hartland naturalist Mary Holland; Barlow; and Mance, former editor of Northern Woodlands, a magazine now published in Lyme.
Every chapter contains seasonal stories about farming. October features a report from Terence Bradshaw, assistant professor of specialty crops production at the University of Vermont titled Vermont’s Evolving Apple Industry, and a piece by southern Vermont poet Verandah Porche about Clarence Elijah “Chief” Boston III, who tends a small Windham County orchard all on his own.
Month follows month, with stories about hunting and the “great Vermont hemp boom” in November, Christmas trees and balsam wreaths in December along with a profile of a family-run Christmas tree operation in Middlebury in December, and so on into the planning, planting, growing and harvest seasons. Each month includes a “look back” at Vermont history, including at an earlier almanac called Walton’s Register, which was published in Montpelier from 1817 to 1868 before it moved to Claremont, then to White River Junction, then elsewhere in Vermont.
More importantly, the Vermont Almanac grapples with Vermont as it is. The almanac’s writers explore the continuing decline of dairy farming, profile a Mexican dairyman who has been working on a Vermont farm for a dozen years and look closely at how land use and agriculture are changing. That includes a profile of a saffron farm in Newbury, Vt., and an essay by one half of an Italian couple making traditional salame from a farm in Panton.
A volume celebrating the land and its fruits runs the risk of seeming hopelessly earnest. The title of an article by Bradford, Vt., writer Amanda Narowski might make some sophisticates shudder: Make Your Own Bear Grease. But the almanac is not entirely celebratory. It includes a vinegary essay by Hartford farmer Chuck Wooster that might make sophisticates shudder for a different reason: Don’t Bargain With Your Farmer From the Window of Your Audi.
“In the actual world,” Wooster writes, “I often have to deal with the opposite problem: people who can easily afford the prices we charge yet want it for free anyway. Or at least, demand a discount or complain about the cost. I call them ‘Audi bargainers.’ ”
That’s the reality the Vermont Almanac confronts: While many Vermonters still work on the land, the state has become more suburban in character, Barlow said. People who live in small towns now often drive to work in larger ones.
“There wasn’t any publication that covers working the land in all of its aspects,” Barlow said, adding, “I think that there is some sort of hope not to lose some kind of genuine connection to the land.”
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vne ws.com or 603-727-3207.
Correction
The four founders of the Vermont Almanac did not take any compensation for their work on the journal’s first issue, but the contributors were all offered pay. An earlier version of this story was incorrect on that point.
