When I turned ten, my mom’s best friend Maria gave me a wicker picnic basket. Inside, it was stocked with sturdy, reusable plastic cups, plates, and utensils. I was completely thrilled and spent the next couple days packing and unpacking those wicker walls.
So powerful was the pull of the basket that I even made temporary peace with my sister (it took us growing up and living in different places to finally become friends) so that she would accompany me on trips to the neighborhood playground, where I’d plate up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in order to make best use of my picnic gear.
While I’m not quite as enamored of picnics as I was in 1989, I still believe that there’s no better way to make an ordinary day special than to pack up lunch or dinner and take it to the park (and when there’s something to celebrate, an outdoor gathering is my favorite way to make merry).
Thanks to Ashley English‘s gorgeous new book, A Year of Picnics, I am once again filled with picnic inspiration (in the past, Ashley’s books have also motivated me to bake pies, blend my own tisanes, and gather up friends for seasonal celebrations).
Organized by season, this book makes an excellent case for the concept that dining well and beautifully in the outdoors is possible all year round. During spring and summer, some of the picnics Ashley suggests include those for breakfast, while seated near the water, and for a movie night gathering.
Some of the fall and winter picnics are those to celebrate the falling leaves, for tailgating, and for when perched on a rooftop. Each picnic includes suggestions for choosing your picnic site and activities appropriate for all ages, as well as tidbits tailored specifically to theme.
You’ll also find between three and five recipes for each picnic. I’m particularly looking forward to trying the Cardamom, Rose Water, and Berry Coffee Cake (page 24), the Moroccan Apple Salad (page 93) and the Mason Jar Apple Cardamom Crumbles (page 187).
For those of you hoping to be inspired to pack a picnic, I’ve got two copies of this book to give away. This giveaway is open to everyone (though it is void if giveaways are prohibited where you live). Please use the widget below to enter.
PS – As you enter the giveaway, please do take a moment to send Ashley and her family good thoughts. She recently gave pre-mature birth to a sweet but tiny baby named Alistair. Everyone seems to be healing and growing, but well wishes are never unwelcome. May they all picnic as a family together soon!
Disclosure: Roost Books sent me three copies of this book for review and giveaway purposes. No additional funds were provided and all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
What a beautiful book, I love a picnic!
Picnicking on our row boat!!
I would love to win!
In 2009, I had my second son and decided to quit my job. 2010 was a stay at home mom’s dream come true. A little baby, a four year old and all the time in the world each day. That was the year of the picnic for us. My boys ate lunch spread on a blanket under a tree in the back yard at least twice a week We ate picnics at the park, at the library, with friends, with cousins, in the cold, in the heat. In addition to our lunches, we had breakfast picnics, afternoon snack picnics, we even had a picnic dinner at the local lake at night while watching Wall-E! We are huge fans of the family picnic!
I love picnics! I always say that food tastes better when eaten outdoors. thanks!
We don’t picnic often enough! But hopefully more this summer!
Adorable book. I want to pick up her beekeeping and chicken books too!
Picnic with those you love. Memories to last a lifetime. Honest.
We had an old red bedspread with a tear in it that we always used for picnicking when I was a kid.
I am not yet a picnic person, but I would like to be! My young kids love to have a picnic at the park. I would love some ideas beyond peanut butter and jelly.
The book looks lovely. My kids and I are frequent picnicers and it’s what I asked to do for mothers day. Best wishes and prayers for the author and her family.
I love picnics! I have so many fond childhood memories of picnicking at the park near our house. Food was usually simple – sandwiches, salads, fruit, etc. But it was so fun.
I have a lovely wicker picnic basket in my basement I haven’t used in years. This book would be an inspiration!
Fried chicken and potato salad will always and forever be my favorite picnic food.
First picnic of the year is scheduled for May 20! I’m looking forward to the sun and the flowers!
I love everthing about picnics.
It’s always great to discover new packable food ideas. “Picnics” for us often take place in “town” rather than in the country.
Some of my favorite memories are of picnics along the road during vacations. My family always found the coolest spots to stop for lunch on the way to our destinations. Thanks for the giveaway!
I have her Year of Pies, which I quite enjoy. I’ll have to check this one out.
I love a good picnic. One of my favorite picnic memories was taking food to Trek in the Park, where a group of volunteers would put on a stage production of one episode of the original Star Trek. It’s now defunct, but it was great fun for the years that it lasted.
I think picnics are a perfect family activity! We have a new grandson and I
want to do this more.
Oh, I want this book! I love picnics. Most of the time, with our young children, they are last minute affairs. I want some inspiration to plan for one and make it amazing!
I love picnics! I even do living room picnics with my kids, since meals always taste better and are more fun when eaten on a blanket!
I love picnicking, in parks and at events, but with small children there is a picnic daily; this book might just inspire me to include myself in those picnics as well.
I used to love camping but, after a back injury, sleeping on the ground isn’t as much fun, so I’ve started to enjoy the pleasures of a simple picnic. My friend packs the best picnic lunches that I’ve ever had, so I’d like to try to up my own game in the picnic arena!
I love picnics and bbqs! I also do a lot of hiking, food I can transport is always welcome 🙂
We love a good picnic and the favorite ones are often around our own bonfire at the edge of our property. We are homeschoolers and often find ourselves enjoying a picnic when out on a nature ramble (or in a starving fashion in the car on the way home!) Looks lovely, like so many of her books!
My daughter’s love of goat cheese baguette tartines comes from our many lunch picnics.
Mydaughter’s love of goat cheese baguette tartines comes from our many lunch picnics.
Haven’t done a proper picnic in a while, but this book might inspire me!
We do picnic dinners a few times a dinner for concerts in the park – I’d love to up my game for that!
This book looks so lush and lovely!
Early in my marriage, thirty years ago now, my husband took me on a picnic in the snow. It was such fun! He made hot chocolate & soup. We lived in Chattanooga then & snow is so rare there that the whole city shut down. We drove to the top of Missionary Ridge, found a park with a giant tree stump & spread our picnic out on it.
After a life time of picnics I still love them. We’re in the empty nest now & so it’s back to picnics for two for the most part. We usually take our little dog & go the the little company park for employees where my husband works…beautiful shade trees, wide open spaces, comfortable picnic tables & a little fenced area for our dog to roam as we eat.
We also have picnics on our porch though it’s usually home cooked meals & we each carry our plates out, take a seat & enjoy the views.
If it weren’t for the bugs, I’d eat outside as much as possible.
I have some of her other books. Can’t wait to see this one.
Beautiful pictures, can’t wait to see more.
Last year, for my birthday, my husband and I packed the kids up with lunch and toys and went to the lake and had a lovely picnic. One of the best memories I have of last year.
This book looks darling. I’d love to check it out.
I love picnics! I will check this book out.
We love beach picnics.
Love picnics. My parents have a picnic basket collection- it might be time for me to dust them off and take one for a spin!
We picnic to have less formal meals so the kids can play as soon as they have eaten and to enjoy the beautiful PNW summer. Thinking of Ashely and he family.
I always love picnics. It’s so nice to spend leisurely time outdoors with everyone, eating and playing!
I love picnics, and I love how much my two little kids love them. Even the simplest meal is exciting when it’s eaten outside!
Love picnics!
I love picnics. My husband and I got married in a state park and we try to have a picnic there each year around our anniversary.
I haven’t gone on a picnic since last summer after I got engaged. My friend and I packed pasta salad, sandwiches and a few bottled beverages and threw out a blanket in one of our favorite parks. I would love to picnic more often!
It’s like camping without all the work – cant wait to check out the book!
We take a picnic with us on every road trip – 🙂 Parks, beaches, rest stops – we love them all.
My favorite picnics are on the beach at the Chicago Air and Water show. There’s nothing like a picnic lunch with the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds overhead!
Picnics are so fun and so versatile!
I love packing picnics and venturing out with my kids!