5 Custom Picnic Baskets

There is something divinely romantic about a summer picnic

 an afternoon in a country field, a Sunday drive up the coast or to the mountains

 in a park by a river, or afloat on a boat

Sure, you can throw some food and drinks in a cooler,

But the charm of an old fashioned picnic basket evokes by-gone days without full agendas, when all that matters is warm sunshine on a bright summer day, being with someone you love - friends or family, enjoying food that has been lovingly prepared and carefully packed, and perhaps some inspirational reading.

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, 

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; 

Round many western islands have I been 

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. 

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told 

That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; 

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene 

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: 

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies 

When a new planet swims into his ken; 

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes 

He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men 

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise — 

Silent, upon a peak in Darien. 

“” 

The sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" 

October 1816 

Recipes for a Summer Picnic