Remember the old adage “April showers bring May flowers”—meant to express optimism about next month’s blooming gardens?

Because, traditionally, April can be a very wet month that results in beautiful blossoms later. But did you know that the full saying, originated in the United Kingdom in the 1880s, is “March winds and April showers bring May flowers and June bugs?”

Now, that makes you think about an entire cycle!

I like to focus on the optimistic part of the shortened saying—that work and conditions this month will lead to an emerging garden next month. In fact, by May, a lot of my plants will be growing and thriving—and some items can even start to be harvested.

So, during the rainy—and sometimes cooler—days of April, stick to your gardening plan and keep your chin up. Think about the crops you’ll harvest and the delicious foods you’ll make later in the season—you just need to have a little patience.

Welcome to the April 2021 issue of Food Gardening Magazine, to help you gear up for all of your spring food-gardening efforts!

In this edition of Food Gardening Magazine, you’ll discover lots of valuable and helpful content and advice, with some of my favorites including:

Gardening with Amanda articles—Amanda McArthur is one fabulous food gardener! She takes gardening seriously, makes it fun, and delivers some great content—including companion videos to show you, not just tell you, exactly what to do. Check out these three helpful articles, with videos, from Amanda this month:

• “5 Things to Plant in April”: Read about five fruits and vegetables that thrive in cooler temperatures for planting and need to establish well before summer to produce hardy harvests later—ideal for planting in April! Get specific advice from Amanda about planting these crops now.
• “How to Make Natural Dyes from Vegetables”: In this article, Amanda shows you how to avoid potentially harmful chemical dyes and how to use your veggies for making natural and safe dyes—red, yellow, blue, purple, green, orange, and even brown. Every color kids love! And find out how to use these dyes for cakes, frosting, and decorating Easter eggs.
• “Cherry Lavender Moon Milk”: Get Amanda’s quick-and-easy recipe for this delicious and healthful drink, combining anti-inflammatory ingredients that promote restful sleep, too!

And this issue of Food Gardening Magazine includes details on our three featured foods this month—concurrently with publishing this issue of our magazine, we’re publishing three brand-new gardening guides on cherries, onions, and thyme. As a premium member of Food Gardening Network, you get full access to the magazine and these gardening guides:

• All Things Cherry, the Sweet and the Sour
• The Outstanding Onion Gardening Guide
• It’s About Thyme

I’ve read all three new gardening guides, and I learned so many things about cherries, onions, and thyme. Consider some of these tidbits that I discovered while reading these gardening guides, to get you thinking about what you might want to plant this year.

Did you know that cherries won’t start bearing fruit until their third to fifth year? But that, once mature, a standard cherry tree will produce 30-50 quarts of cherries each year? I guess patience is a real virtue when it comes to growing cherries!

Or, did you know that onions are the third largest vegetable crop grown in the U.S., the second most consumed vegetable in the world, and the most widely traded raw vegetable on the planet? And I also learned in the Onion Gardening Guide about why onions make you cry—and some proven remedies for avoiding those tears!

Or how about that thyme was used by ancient Egyptians to embalm and by ancient Greeks as a burning incense in their temples and baths? And that the ancient Romans thought thyme was an antidote to poison? What an illustrious background for such a now-common herb!

To help guide you about these three foods and our gardening guides, you’ll find in this edition of Food Gardening Magazine three Gardening Guide Close-Ups that focus on cherries, onions, and thyme—these in-depth 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, to get a head start on how to grow these foods:

• “How to Grow Cherry Trees from Pits Step-by-Step”: Learn how you can start growing cherry trees in your backyard—with step-by-step instructions to get you from pits to fruited trees.
• “5 Tips for Growing a Healthy Harvest of Onions This Year”: Get valuable tips about planting onions in the right place, at the right time, and in the right soil for ensuring you a bountiful harvest.
• “How to Grow Culinary Thyme in a Container”: Discover how easy it is to grow thyme in a container, to reap all the benefits and secure a regular spot for these potted perennials.

And then there are the recipes you’ll find in the three gardening guides—here are three of my favorites that are tasty, unique, and easy to make:

• Fresh Cherry Cobbler—Made with fresh cherries from your garden instead of canned cherries, you’ll tolerate the time it takes to pit the fresh cherries because the finished product is well worth it! I like it served hot with a small scoop of vanilla-bean ice cream and a dollop of whipped cream on top, too. Very easy and very tasty!
• Caramelized Onions—It’s delightful and satisfying to smell and taste caramelized onions! They can be used in French onion soup, as a pizza topping, or in a rich onion dip. I keep a batch in my fridge at all times, because you can even add them to any vegetable side dish to give the dish a tasty kick. Get this easy-to-make recipe now.
• Cheddar-Thyme Biscuits—Get this mouth-watering recipe for enjoying a bountiful thyme crop. Cheese and thyme go well together, and these savory biscuits aren’t just for breakfast—have one with your lunch’s bowl of soup, to accompany your chicken dinner, or as the bread for a small ham sandwich. Get this delicious recipe now!

There’s a lot of work to do in our gardens right now, to ensure we harvest bountiful crops later—so let’s commit to spending plenty of time outside in the garden this month. It’s good for your health and good for the health of your plants.

Happy gardening—and happy eating!

Bill Dugan
Editor and 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.