A Year of Picnics Recipes for Dining Well in the Great Outdoors

Everyone loves picnicking—dining in the great outdoors, cozied up on blankets, and surrounded by the beauty of the natural world. Now imagine doing it year-round, where the setting speaks to the foods served, and you've got A Year of Picnics!

Savor good food and good company while lounging beneath the shady canopy of trees or under the sparkle of a starry sky. With just a picnic blanket and a little inspiration, you can transform mealtimes into an opportunity to relax, connect, and enjoy the outdoors. A Year of Picnics presents everything you need to picnic through the seasons, with over 70 picnic-perfect recipes, tips on selecting your location, advice for packing your basket, and creative ideas for outdoor activities. Through 20 themed picnics—celebrate the bounty of summer produce with a Table to Farm Picnic or revel in the colors of autumn with a Falling Leaves Picnic—you’ll discover the ways food can be elevated by your surroundings. From mountaintops to meadows, rooftops to formal gardens, let your picnicking take you to new places.

ASHLEY ENGLISH has degrees in holistic nutrition and sociology. She has worked over the years with a number of nonprofit organizations committed to social and agricultural issues, is a member of Slow Food USA, and writes a regular column for the quarterly publication Taproot. She is the author of four books in the Homemade Living series (Canning & Preserving, Keeping Chickens, Keeping Bees, Home Dairy), as well as A Year of Pies, Handmade Gatherings, and Quench. Ashley and her family live in Candler, North Carolina, where they are converting their land into a thriving homestead. Follow their adventures at www.smallmeasure.com.

Spring and Summer
Breakfast Picnic
Bird-Watching Picnic
Table-to-Farm Picnic
Into the Woods Picnic
Children's Picnic
Waterside Picnic
Lunch Break Picnic
Sacred Tree Picnic
Ephemerals Picnic
Afternoon Tea Picnic
Romantic Picnic
Movie Night Picnic

Fall and Winter
Falling Leaves Picnic
High-Altitude Picnic
Coffee Break Picnic
Tailgate Picnic
Rooftop Picnic
Around the Word Picnic
Twilight Picnic
Winter Picnic