children love picnics. it doesn’t matter if it’s in your own garden, the local park, in a field or by a river. if it rains, you can have fun improvising one in your living room. if it’s a beautiful evening, we love to break the after-work routine when the children are off school and make the most of long summer days with an evening picnic, parks are less crowded, less hot and it is a very relaxing experience.
at hedgehog we love to explore outside and spend the day in nature. this often means taking our own picnic as we like to keep away from restaurants, shops, people and queues.
for a ‘zero waste’ picnic, simple is best – a fresh baguette with some ham or cheese, a bag of cherry tomatoes, a cucumber and a punnet of big fat english strawberries. we like to shop in markets and prepare our own food to avoid too much packaging. we take glass jars crammed with mouth-watering marinated olives, feta and sun-dried tomatoes, individual bottles of homemade elderflower cordial (see our recipe) and paper straws to drink with, pack everything into a favourite woven basket and spread out our simple, rustic feast on a check rug with a stack of washable napkins.
with a bit of thought and care and some hedgehog gear, your picnic can be transformed into a seasonal, stylish (and instagramable) event.
we love gingham, stripes, polka dots and checks. kraft lunchboxes, enamel plates, bamboo cutlery and aluminium sigg water bottles help us reduce our plastic use – we even have a litter grabber so we can leave the place cleaner
than we found it! we can’t always count on public bins (often overloaded) or recycling points so it is a good idea to take a rubbish bag too.
for extra interest, don’t forget to take a compass, insect catcher and magnifying glass for inspecting your finds. for really adventurous explorers we suggest a bow and arrow or fishing kit, and for creative children a little flower press or sunography sheets - there’s nothing more gratifying than for capturing images of nature forever. you can also take outdoor games, we love our hoopla game and the giant mikado…
teresa