Nothing says British summer time more than a spread of mouth-watering food on a chequered picnic blanket. Whether you are planning your next family adventure or looking for a way to keep the kids entertained over the summer holidays, we’ve put together a selection of our favourite forest themed picnic ideas to treat your taste buds.
If you are visiting our forests, be sure to check out the forest code and take all litter home with you.
Forest bruschetta
Get creative by using your choice of ingredients to create a forest scene. Why not try out our tasty tree idea first?
You will need: Your choice of sliced bread, cream cheese, cucumber, almonds
Start by spreading a layer of the cream cheese over your slice of bread, this is the background. Thinly slice the cucumber and arrange these to create a layered leaf effect in the rough shape of a tree. Take your almonds and use these to build a tree a stump, you may need two or three depending on how big your tree is!
Ants on a log
You will need: Celery, your choice of spread (peanut butter, almond butter or houmous), raisins
A true staple of any nature themed picnic, all you need to do for this classic snack is slice your celery into stick-sized pieces, add a scoop of spread to fill the celery stick and top with raisins. Truly magnific-ant.
Looking for extra activities to bring some extra forest fun to your picnic? We have a host of activity ideas and downloads including our tree explorer activity pack, deer true or false activity and loads more on our forests at home page.
Babybel Ladybirds
You will need: Babybel, marker pen
If you’re looking for a simple way to add the wildlife touch to your forest themed picnic, this snack is for you. Take a Babybel and peel off the single strip of wax, without removing the two halves that cover the rest of the cheese. Separate both sides of the wax slightly at one end of the cheese so they look like the ladybird’s wings. Use the marker pen to draw spots onto the wings and some eyes at the front. How many spots does yours have?
Forest mushrooms
Whether you prefer savory flavours or have a sweet tooth, we have two ideas for you.
Savory
You will need: Cocktail sticks, cheese, cherry tomatoes
Slice the cheese into square chunks and half the tomatoes. Take a cocktail stick and slide on the cheese as the mushroom base and top with half a tomato.
Sweet
You will need: Mini marshmallows, raspberries
Pop a mini marshmallow into the hole of the raspberry. Simple, and tasty!
Hedgehog doughnuts
These hedgehog doughnuts will make an adorable addition to your picnic.
You will need: mini doughnuts bites (ideally with no hole, but use whatever is available to you), melted chocolate, chocolate sprinkles, cocktail stick
To make a hedgehog, take one of the mini doughnuts and dip three-quarters of it in your melted chocolate. Dip the coated section in the chocolate sprinkles. You can then use a cocktail stick to draw on the hedgehog's eyes and nose using the remaining melted chocolate.
Forest floor mud cups
You will need: Reusable cups or jars, Oreo's, gummy worms, your choice of berries
Crush up some Oreo's into a gravel-like texture, this is going to be the soil. Add this to the cup or jar and create a forest floor effect by layering in the gummy worms before topping with the 'forest foraged' fruit. Our favourites are blackberries and raspberries.
That’s not all!
- Twiglets make the perfect addition to your forest themed picnic, and no prep is needed!
- Create a jar of ‘squirrel snacks’ by mixing your choice or dried fruit and nuts.
- Looking for a forest themed drink to wash down your treats? Bring along some cloudy lemonade and tell everyone its pond water.
