Fine fresh food for picnic enthusiasts

When you've reached the point where a delicious variety of local and seasonal fresh foods appear on your household menu, then it's the next logical step to pursue some suitable settings for eating a downright tasty meal. Picnicking has long been an unbeatable pastime in the warmer months, and it's a trend that's set to continue into the future. Whether you opt to simply take along some sandwiches with basic fillings or prefer instead to pack a gourmet hamper, the choices are virtually limitless.

Pork and Cherry Picnic Pie

Finger food is a clear winner, so whatever you decide to bring along with you it's best to make sure that it's cut into easy-to-handle or even bite-sized pieces. You can get creative with mini-burgers or focaccia that have been prepared in advance, or instead tuck in on-site with a terrine and a crispy baguette. Bruschetta is even a possibility, but you'll lose its characteristic crunch if you prepare it in advance. Mediterranean or Middle Eastern dips also work a treat with freshly baked breads of all sorts. Pasties, quiches, frittata or tarts also make ideal finger foods, and picnic salads can be made more creative (and substantial) with the inclusion of pasta, rice, couscous, quinoa, chickpeas or broad beans. Cured meats and smoked salmon are simply scrumptious in almost any setting, and your picnic can be memorably spiced up with a bit of chorizo next to that old favourite, traditional British cooked hams.

As for a piece of picnic trivia: Do you know the origins of the word hamper? For the purists out there, no picnic is truly complete with a great-whopping wicker hamper to cart around all your goodies, but apparently the word reached us today via Middle English as a variation of the Anglo-Norman hanaper, which in turn was an adapted form of hanepier - the Old French word for "a case for holding goblets". The root of the word, hanap, has been traced even further back and is thought to be of Germanic origin as the word for "goblet". Well there you go, we can thank our lucky stars that hampers these days contain a little more than just glasses!