# The Old Farmer's Almanac

4 Hacker News commenters recommended The Old Farmer's Almanac and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its long-range forecasts, gardening and home tips, and tables; critics say its forecasts are about 50% accurate.

## Why people recommend it

- Impressive long-range forecasting effort (1 comments): "doing it a year+ ahead of time and getting similar results/accuracy is actually quite impressive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844856))
- Helpful home and gardening tips (1 comments): "Both have helpful little home tips and quite a bit of gardening advice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45843617))
- Enjoyable tabulated data (1 comments): "I always enjoy reading through those tabulated stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844015))

## What people warn about

- Forecasts about 50% accurate (3 comments): "Neither is accurate tho. Both are around 50%." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45848171)) "it’s been found to come out to about ~50%+ under scrutiny" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844060)) "They are equally unreliable, and only rarely agree" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736278))
- General-purpose book serves poorly (1 comments): "the general purpose nature of the book serves it poorly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844043))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Encyclopaedia Britannica](https://hackerapproved.com/p/encyclopedia-britannica.md): 29 recommend
- [507 Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown](https://hackerapproved.com/p/507-mechanical-movements.md): 12 recommend
- [The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ashley-book-of-knots.md): 8 recommend
- [World Book Encyclopedia by World Book](https://hackerapproved.com/p/world-book-encyclopedia.md): 5 recommend
- [The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atlas-of-middle-earth.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1571983589?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781571983589) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Old Farmer's Almanac", https://hackerapproved.com/p/old-farmer-s-almanac/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).