Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/1148446
W hen the weather gets warmer and the rains of spring have abated, the outdoors are beckoning all those adventurous families who are out to have fun in the sun. Local parks have finally come out from under the pall of cloud gray skies, and picnics can begin in earnest! Fresh fruit and lemonade, these are the hallmarks of a great meal out of doors. National Picnic Month encourages you to get out and celebrate the warm summer days and find your love and wonder of the outdoors again while enjoying some great food! Throughout the recorded history of civilization, there has always been something special about leaving the stuffy confines of your home and eating a meal outdoors. We know there's a beautiful world out there waiting for us to come visit it, and when summer comes around we're reminded just how much time we've been locked inside. The word 'picnic' is thought to have first been used by Tony Willis in 1692, and from that point forward everyone from the working class to the upper crust have been fascinated with taking their repast outside under the sky. Picnics have been used for many things throughout the centuries, from a simply family gathering spent enjoying the outdoors, to being used as a peaceful protest in the Pan-European Picnic, which was held on the Hungarian/ Austrian border in 1989. The most notable, and largest, picnic ever held spanned 600 miles, crossing France from coast to coast and celebrated the millennium's first Bastille Day in 2000. Such a diverse resume for such a simple concept! Picnic Month celebrates the history of this activity and the way it has been used to bring families, countries, and all humanity together. It seems only natural that when pondering the perfect picnic offerings that one might also contemplate a wine pairing to round out the festivities. A great bottle of wine can brighten any picnic, and it need not be expensive.