April 2, Monday — The voice of the turtle is heard in the land. Shad (largest of the herrings in America) swim north of Chesapeake Bay and into the Hudson River to spawn.

April 3, Tuesday — Prune to encourage growth today or tomorrow. Also good days to entertain.

April 4, Wednesday — American country blues singer Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) born, 1915.

April 6, Friday — Conjunction of Venus and Mercury. Admiral Robert Peary reached the North Pole, 1909.

April 7, Saturday — Moon on equator. Full egg moon. Cut hair today to encourage growth.

April 8, Sunday — Palm Sunday. First day of Passover. Ponce de Leon landed in Florida, 1513.

Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: Is there any way to tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard-boiled egg in the shell? — T.S., Salem, Ore.

Answer: Well, you could crack it open, but then you'd be gambling on getting the one you want. Another way is to spin the egg on its end. Try either end — the broader side or the more pointy one — but in either case, the cooked egg should spin quite nicely, while the raw egg won't spin at all. Some cooks pencil an "X" on the shells of hard-boiled eggs, but this works only for the cook who knows to look for the telltale mark.

Always keep both cooked eggs and uncooked eggs in the refrigerator, of course. Occasionally you'll see a photograph of a country-style kitchen showing a wire basket of beautiful brown eggs on the kitchen table. Picturesque though it may be, that's pure foolishness because an unrefrigerated egg loses its freshness very quickly. You can keep eggs up to a month in the refrigerator, but only a couple of days at room temperature. Fertilized eggs, by the way, spoil more quickly because of the small bit of male hormone they contain. Some consumers pay a premium price for them, considering them more nutritious, but that's a myth. It's also a myth that the small blood spots you sometimes see in fresh eggs are a sign of a fertile egg. Actually, the spot is just a small bit of blood from a tiny rupture. The spot does not affect either the flavor or the nutritional content.

Even in the refrigerator, it's best to keep eggs in their cartons so they don't absorb other food odors. The egg container on the door of your refrigerator is better utilized for your smaller, wrapped leftovers such as half lemons, bits of cheese or butter, or bags of fresh herbs and spices. Cracked eggs should be discarded. If the cracked egg has leaked onto other eggs in the carton, simply rinse the others clean before you use them. One source we know suggests storing eggs with their broad ends up, but we're puzzled by this bit of advice. If any readers know a reason for this, we'd love to hear from you.

Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: What do the terms section, range and township refer to, and how are they related? — T.B., Cedar Cove, Alabama.

Answer: This system of dividing land dates back to the land ordinance of 1785. It was first used in the western part of the United States to survey land parcels that were outside of the original 13 colonies, but even then, there were certain areas that were excluded from the system. Some old mining claims, for example, described oddly-shaped parcels of land, and those landowners with claims in dispute probably wished for a system as orderly as this one. Tribal lands, placed in reservations, were also omitted from the system in some cases.

Land that has been divided this way is always described in terms that go from small to large, but for ease of explanation, we will start with the larger dimensions. A township is a piece of land that is comprised of 36 square-mile parcels of 640 acres each. One of these parcels (640 acres, or one square mile) is called a section. So there are 36 sections in a township and 640 acres in a section.

Now, here is where it gets complicated, or fun, depending upon your point of view. To describe the smaller increments within a township, the land is divided by north/south meridian lines, much like the primary meridian on which longitude lines are based, and by east/west range lines, similar to latitude lines. The location of the primary meridian for any given area is historical, based on local surveys, and some would argue (and believe me, argue is the word!) arbitrary. Too often, these initial defining lines are difficult to pin down with any accuracy. The range lines, too, being based on the meridian lines, can also be infuriatingly whimsical. But assuming you knew where the base point of the primary meridian was, the east/west range lines, then, would be at 6-mile intervals above and below that point. The north/south meridian lines would also be at 6-mile intervals, to the east and west of that base point on the primary meridian line.

So when you want to describe a land parcel, you look for the section, township, range and meridian numbers written in the legal descriptions in that order from small to large.

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Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: What is planked shad, exactly? — C.G., Hancock, Maine

Answer: The Latin name of the American shad, Alosa sapidissima, means "most delicious shad." A planked fish simply means one that has been put on a plank, or board, for cooking. Usually, the board is slightly larger than the fish itself, and it may be buttered so the fish doesn't stick to it. Often the fish is split in half, and possibly boned, before being placed into the oven, plank and all, for baking. "Planked shad with roe and bacon" or "planked shad with creamed roe" are early spring menu items, famous along the northeast coast of America. Some communities, particularly those near spawning grounds of this bone-filled member of the Clupeidae family (related to herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats and menhaden), hold shad festivals where shad are planked and baked, or simply grilled, for the crowds. Once called "poor man's salmon" because of its availability, shad was often salted or smoked for preservation. It is said that it was one of the foods that kept George Washington's winter troops from starving at Valley Forge in 1776.

Fannie Farmer (1857-1915) described how to make planked shad in her book, "The Boston Cooking School Cook Book" (1896): "Clean and split a three-pound shad. Put skin side down on a buttered oak plank one inch thick, and a little longer and wider than the fish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and brush over with melted butter. Bake 25 minutes in hot oven."


Send your questions to Ask the Almanac, The Old Farmer's Almanac, Main St., Dublin, NH 03444. Web site: www.almanac.com © Yankee Publishing Inc.

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