The Perfect Picnic with Gill Meller

 

The Perfect Picnic

by Gill Meller

 

 

Eating outside is one of the best ways to appreciate the natural world and good food at the same time, and it’s always been a big passion of mine. For some reason everything seems to taste better when you’re outdoors. Even a thermos of hot soup can be wonderful, if you’re sat on a bench overlooking a cold stormy sea.

 

Sometimes when I’m eating outside, I like to get a nice hot campfire going and cook something over the glowing coals, I find the wood smoke hard to resist, but at other times, a proper picnic feels more appropriate, so I’ll pack a hamper full of delicious things before heading out the door.

 

You don’t always need to go too far, either. Sharing a sandwich on the park bench is fine, laying a blanket out at the bottom of the garden can be equally pleasant — but every so often it’s fun to make an adventure out of it. 

 

 

One of my favourite picnic destinations has to be the beach, I love being by the ocean, watching the waves break on the shoreline, it’s hard to feel closer to nature. In fact, I’m lucky enough to live down on the Southwest coast.

 

The local fishing town of Lyme Regis is a stones throw from me, and in between here and there are a few hard to reach beaches that, when you get to them, are lovely and quiet, even in the summer. They make the perfect spot for an adventurous picnic.

 

If you’re going off piste, then packing light can pay, you’d don’t want to be lumping the kitchen sink along with you. At the same time you still want to make sure your picnic is still next level, there’s no need to compromise. Good cheese, cured ham, olives, scotch eggs, Pork pies, chutneys and pickles can all be slipped snuggly into a decent rucksack or hamper. 

 

 

But sometimes, that little bit of extra effort can really make the experience of being outdoors extra special: like the time, a few years ago, when I arranged a secret picnic on top of a Roman hill fort in west Dorset. 

I’d been asked to prepare it by a family who lived in the nearby village, so I got up really early and started cooking all sorts of lovely things, then I packed them up carefully and headed off to the hill. I’d been asked to lay out the blankets and set out all the food on plates and boards and then run away. The idea was the family, who were on a big weekend get-together with friends, would surprise everybody by literally stumbling upon this incredible picnic during their afternoon walk.

 

The plan had potential, but by the time I had everything laid out for them, a flock of particularly curious sheep, which had been grazing near by, had begun to build ranks around me.

 

I’m not sure if sheep like picnics, but I didn’t want to find out later they had, so I grabbed the ice bucket and shook it about, just like the farmers do, and the sheep began to follow me — and as I led them along the furrowed ramparts and out of sight, I could hear happy voices in the distance, so it all turned out well in the end, thankfully...