The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2018

revives the tradition of the rural almanac for those who want to connect with the seasons through gardening, eating seasonally, moon-gazing, foraging, celebrating feast days and picking seasonal flowers. It brings you the tools and inspiration you need to celebrate, mark and appreciate each month of the year. For each of the 12 months, award-winning gardener and food writer Lia Leendertz shares her practical guidance for expeditions, meteor-spotting nights and beach holidays, as well as stories about each month’s unique nature and folklore, and charts relevant to each month. Keep track of the phenomena of the universe with tables familiar to almanacs of the past: significant dates; phases of the moon; sunrise and sunset times; king tides; equinoxes, solstices and cross-quarter days; food in season; a forager’s guide; meteor showers, visible planets and lunar eclipses; festivities (Samhain, Wassailing, Divali, Midsummer) and more. Lia also shares her favorite recipes using seasonal ingredients and relating to each month’s festivity: Cider Cake for wassailing in January; Blood Orange Tart in February; Potato Kugel Gratin for Passover in April; Beltane Wine for May Day; Sticky Cinnamon Figs in September; and Soul Cakes at Hallowe’en. Filled with wonder, is a highly practical, historical and contemplative book to be enjoyed all year long, and it will have you looking forward to the next edition as the year draws to a close.