Christy Page, Editor and Publisher of Food Gardening Network

Hello, and welcome to the February edition of Food Gardening Magazine. February is typically the month when I start thinking about warm spring days, sunny skies, and the smell of fresh grass poking up through the ground. Of course, those days are still a month or more into the future. Even so, I always find it’s easier to embrace the cold of February when I know gardening season isn’t far away.

This is also the time that I look through my seed catalogs, take inventory of my gardening tools, and continue planning the garden. That’s what this issue of Food Gardening Magazine highlights. If you’re new to gardening, or if you need to replenish your supplies, be sure to check out the article on essential gardening tools.

You’ll also find a few garden planning articles here, plus a fabulous slow cooker Chicken Cacciatore recipe that will fill your home with the aroma of a mouth-watering meal. Even better, though, there’s almost no clean up! Gotta love that!

So go ahead and explore the February edition of Food Gardening Magazine! Here is a sampling of what’s ahead.

Food Gardening with Amanda articles—Food Gardening Network’s Senior Editor and Producer Amanda MacArthur is one fabulous food gardener! She’s always cooking, planting, or experimenting in the garden. Better yet, most of her content includes companion videos to show you, not just tell you, exactly what to do. Check out these helpful articles from Amanda this month:

• 6 Essential Gardening Tools for Beginners to Buy in February: Don’t wait for the spring rush! Replenish your gardening tools now and you can enjoy your garden while everyone else is at the garden center looking for tomato cages.
• How to Grow an Authentic Italian Garden: Get ready to immerse yourself in the essence of Italian cuisine with luscious tomatoes, fragrant basil, zesty garlic, robust radicchio, and more.
• How to Make Organic DIY Seed Tape for Perfectly Spaced Vegetables: Want perfect rows of onions, carrots, lettuce, and radishes in this year’s garden? Here’s a fun and easy way to make it happen.
• Hearty Winter Cacciatore: This dish is about as easy as it gets. In fact, there’s only one step! Easy enough for busy families, yet tasty enough to make any meal seem like a home-cooked feast.
• Never Too Many Cherry Tomatoes: This article comes from our sister publication, GreenPrints Magazine. In this story, writer Doris Lange shares a touching story about growing a community of friends from the seeds of her tomato plants.

And this issue of Food Gardening Magazine includes details on three featured foods this month—concurrently with publishing this issue of our magazine, we’re also publishing and updating three gardening guides on basil, bell peppers, and cauliflower. As a premium member of Food Gardening Network, you get full access to the magazine and these gardening guides:

Basil: Basil is one of the most common herbs grown by food gardeners and is enjoyed by cooks to flavor everything from spaghetti sauce to salads, vegetables, and pesto. And basil is so easy to grow that, really, anyone can do it! To learn more, check out the The Basil Grower’s Guide.

Bell Peppers: Bell peppers are one of the most popular home gardening crops. And no wonder: with so many varieties to choose, you can grow a whole rainbow in your garden! Find out more about the many varieties of bell peppers and how to grow them in Beautiful Bell Peppers!

Cauliflower: When it’s growing, cauliflower starts out resembling broccoli. But instead of opening outward to sprout separate green florets, cauliflower forms its compact head, composed of flower buds that have not developed fully. Learn more about this fascinating vegetable in our Marvelous Cauliflower Gardening Guide!

In this edition of Food Gardening Magazine, you’ll find Gardening Guide Close-Ups that focus on basil, bell peppers, and cauliflower to help get you started with these three foods and our gardening guides. These articles give you valuable tips and advice about these three foods, and you’ll have instant access to the premium gardening guides themselves, too. Be first to read these Gardening Guide Close-Ups and get a head start on how to grow and use these foods:

• 5 Different Types of Basil Gardeners and Chefs Love: Discover five different types of basil and find out which of them are chefs’ favorites and gardeners’ delights.
• When to Harvest Bell Peppers at Peak Flavor: As they say, “patience is a virtue,” and this is particularly true when waiting for bell peppers to grow and ripen. Green bell peppers are tasty, but colored bell peppers have so much more flavor if you can wait those extra weeks before harvesting!
• Discover the 6 Cauliflower Growing Stages: Despite its unmistakable appearance, the cauliflower is a somewhat mysterious vegetable. But knowing the cauliflower growing stages takes some of the mystery out of the picture.

And then there are the recipes you’ll find in these gardening guides! Here are some of my favorites that are tasty, unique, and easy to make:

• Basil-Lemon Grilled Chicken: Held together by a delicious marinade, this Basil-Lemon Grilled Chicken is bursting with flavor, making it the perfect dish for a light and delicious dinner.
• Cauliflower Fritters: The combination of lightly fried cauliflower florets, herbs, and spices gives these fritters an amazing flavor that’s perfect to enjoy as a delicious appetizer or snack.

We’re also happy to announce there’s a new tab on our site for Gardening Kits! This is where Gold Members will find:

• Printable Garden Planning Calendar Kits
• Printable Garden Planning Kits
• Printable Recipe Card Kits

Check them out now, and download your favorites!

I hope you enjoy the February 2024 issue of Food Gardening Magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed making it. We’re so happy to have you here! Now let’s start planning that garden!

Happy harvesting—and happy eating!

Christy Page
Editor & Publisher

P.S. Please enjoy this issue of Food Gardening Magazine, and let me know what you think about it by commenting below with your feedback! Your input is valuable to us and can help us make improvements.