National Picnic Month - grow your own picnic
How to grow your own picnic
Having a picnic is one of the great joys of a British summer, and with National Picnic Month in July, it's the perfect time to plan some trips with family and friends to make the most of the sunshine. Getting outside is great for our mental and physical health, and dining in the great outdoors can make it even more fun for everyone.
If you're looking to do something special for National Picnic Month, there are lots of ways of changing up your picnic spread, but have you considered experimenting with growing your own picnic? This is not only a fun way to try some new dishes and explore whether you have a green thumb, it will also help to reduce the amount of waste you create when you take a picnic to a nature spot. Using less disposable plastic and packaging will really help out the wildlife and flora around your favourite nature getaways as well as creating a fun talking point during the meal.
Here, the catering experts Alliance Online offer some advice on growing your own picnic and bringing it all together on the day to create a low-waste trip into nature.
Make some space
Whether you have a garden or not, there is always a bit of space that you can carve out to grow some things to add to a picnic, so choose where you'll be able to have some plants. If possible, corner off a section (however big or small!) in your garden for either a vegetable patch, or some pots that you can plant vegetables, fruit, or herbs in. If you have a small front yard or balcony, you can experiment with using lots of sizes of pots to give you some variation of what you'll be eating, and variety when you're watching your little garden grow.
For those without access to a garden, there's still plenty that you can grow! Try having a planter full of herbs on your kitchen sideboard or the windowsill, or place some pots of potatoes or strawberries outside your doorstep. It's useful to establish exactly how much space you have before planning what to grow, as some plants are more demanding than others, and this way you can make sure that you'll be growing things that will always fit inside the area you have available.
Grow plants for picnic month
If you want to be ready for National Picnic Month, you should focus on plants that will grow in time for your July trips outside. Salads and microgreens are ideal for this timeframe and are great on sandwiches or in light dishes that go excellently with the warmer weather. Here are some ideas:
- Microgreens
- Rocket
- Baby lettuce leaves
- Parsley
- Coriander
- Nasturtiums
- Pea shoots
Plan a long-term harvest
If you get into planting your own fruit and veg, there are plenty of options for continuing to harvest your own picnic foods throughout the year long after National Picnic Month. If you're a fan of potato salad, try planting some potatoes in a large container. If you enjoy taking strawberries with you on long walks, try planting out some of these. Blackberries and raspberries are also great choices if you have enough space to grow fruit bushes, and these can be particularly refreshing snacks when out hiking in the summer. Fruit will grow year in year too, so you can be sure that you'll have plenty of treats ready for next year!
You could also add some carrot and beetroot if you enjoy these. Use a vegetable planting calendar to work out what you should plant when, and enjoy the excitement of waiting for your first seedlings to sprout.
Harvest what you need
When you come to harvest the things you've grown, you should take care to only harvest the amount that you're going to use for your picnic. This is because you'll be able to harvest things all the way through the growing season and often your plants will come in handy for multiple picnics. When harvesting leafy plants such as lettuce, you should take the leaves you need from the outside of the plants, and leave the middle to regrow, so that you can enjoy multiple crops throughout the year.
Doing this will also reduce food waste, so you can enjoy eating everything that you've grown. You can also reduce food waste by freezing anything that you don't get round to using — for instance, frozen spinach might not work in a picnic, but can be used in making curries and soups.
Plan your utensils
If you are planning to take the dishes made from your produce on walks and on trips to have picnics along the way, you might want to do a check of your kitchen to ensure that you have the utensils you'll need. Many of us are used to just buying sandwiches and crisps from the supermarket to take with us for picnics, but when creating our own outdoor meals, we'll need food boxes, cutlery, and a container or bag to place rubbish in.
Getting these little things prepared in advance can really add to your picnic experience and mean that won't spend the morning of your trip looking for the right containers or cutlery.
"Having a picnic is a great way to enjoy the warmer whether in the UK, and it also gets us spending time outside and being more active. If you want to add a fun and eco-friendly spin to you picnic outing, growing some of your own food is a great way to do this. But it's a good idea to ensure that you plan your dishes and check that you have everything you'll need beforehand.
"As well as plastic boxes and cutlery to take with you on your trip, you'll also need kitchen equipment to cook your dishes, and if you're making salads then a selection of differently sized bowls can make mixing them a lot easier — as well as salad mixers and serving utensils.
"To make your clean-up more sustainable and gentler on the planet too, you can look into more eco-friendly cleaning products that will keep your kitchen clean without the harsh chemicals you might usually use. Not only is National Picnic Week a great time to spruce up your picnic spread and have some fun, but it's a great time to explore sustainability with family and friends!"
Mike Hardman, Marketing Manager at Alliance Online
