Eostremonath – Eostre’s month, after the goddess of spring
April marks something of a turning point in the calendar. The countryside will change colour this month – we’ll see fields of new green shoots, the first delicate white flowers of the blackthorn will blossom in the hedgerows, and by the end of the month, entire landscapes will be painted with the vivid yellow of rapeseed flowers.
The weather is still far from perfect and we will almost certainly have a mixture of warm sunshine and cold showers (or, if we’re really unlucky, a ‘blackthorn winter’ when the pure white petals disappear against a backdrop of frost or even snow).
Despite the spectacular and colourful growth all around us, April isn’t a particularly abundant time of year. It’s seen as the start of the ‘Hungry Gap’ – the period which starts when stores of winter root crops finally run out and ends with the first harvests of June. In the past, our ancestors would have managed their larders very carefully around this time and they would certainly have been looking forward to the more generous months of summer. These days, thanks to advances in farming, we’re unlikely to starve, but the slightly thinner pickings are perhaps a gentle reminder that you can’t rush nature.
All that said, there are some real seasonal treats to look forward to in April. We’ll see the first new potatoes arrive this month and foragers will eagerly await the arrival of morels and St George’s mushrooms.
When you’re out and about in April, keep an ear out for cuckoos. Their unmistakable call traditionally heralds the true start of springtime (and, if you’re a cider fan, confirmation that the first barrels from the previous autumn are ready for drinking).