Bar food has come a long way since the days of raw onions and cheese served up at McSorley’s Old Ale House. These days, you can find anything from fish tacos with champagne slaw to confit duck nachos — and let me be the first to admit that even veggie-centric dishes like the sprout tacos at Donkey are some of the best bar eats you could ask for.

Like music, movies and fashion, the culinary industry is prone to inescapable season-defining trends. Suddenly, a relatively innocuous foodstuff will get to bask in its 15 minutes of fame, with appearances in farm-to-table restaurants, fast-food joints and everywhere in between.

Each year, the National Restaurant Association releases data on the predicted top food trends. Many of these trends were inspired by viral videos on Instagram, including Thai Rolled Ice Cream and unusual flavor-filled doughnuts. And while we may not see rolled ice cream hitting the streets of West Michigan anytime soon, one of the list’s trends fits right in with our local food scene: quality sourced ingredients and a hyper-focus on locality or ethnic cuisine.

If April showers bring May flowers, now’s the perfect time to start a garden. With produce, flowers and herbs all readily available from local stores, you may ask yourself if starting a garden is necessary. Brandon Iker offers up a resounding, “Yes!”