Get ready for the ultimate summer feast as we hear from our friends at Macknade Fine Foods about their top picnic must-haves. From irresistibly sweet Kentish strawberries to their delicious homemade sausage rolls, it's everything you need for a perfect picnic spread...
By Stefano Cuomo, CEO & 6th Generation at Macknade Food Hall
Kent is now at its very best… Every shade of green is filling wooded, soft-rolling valleys, beaches are lapped by warming waters and the season of abundance is starting to pulse. All in all, the perfect picnic weather!
And what a county for picnicking we are. Favourites of mine are stolen afternoons in the walled gardens at Belmont House, the late medieval glamour of Leeds Castle’s lawns and the quiet grandeur of Bedgebury Pinetum (a favourite twitching spot with my grandpa that inevitably involved a knapsack and a sandwich!).
As you would expect, Macknade and picnics go hand in hand, so here’s what I’m recommending you include when you venture out…
Strawberries & Raspberries
The early summer sun is starting to concentrate the sugars in our Kentish soft fruits. We have strawberries grown just across the road from our Faversham Food Hall and raspberries from the Kelsey Family Farm, east of Canterbury – ruby red, firm fleshed and intense in their sweetness!
Sausage Rolls & Sarnies
Back to the picnic basket and all its goodies. I’d certainly be bringing one of our Mr Peppers free range sausage rolls – handmade at Macknade with our award-winning sausage meat – along with a Wingham Bakery Huffkin stuffed with Winterdale Shaw Cheddar and Thanet Earth Tomatoes, which are just glorious at this time of year.
Homemade Quiches
Our in-house baked quiches are another one of my top picks, rammed with the bounty of the county. Think Hinxden Dairy cream - from cows grazing the western downs – and free range eggs - laid by chickens roaming pastures not far from the Cathedral City of Canterbury. Currently, we are serving up a Kingcott Dairy Kentish Blue & Sevenscore Asparagus Quiche, but flavours change week on week.
Beer & Cider
And so to quench the thirst… Macknade is of course based in the foodie powerhouse of Faversham, and on our doorstep is the grande dame of the Kent brewing scene: Shepherd Neame. As a local lad, a pint of Masterbrew was a given, and with temperatures rising I have also been enjoying a glass full of ice, mint & cucumbers grown in Thanet, served with a bottle of Curious Apple - Curious Brewery’s very drinkable cider, fermented using Bacchus wine yeasts.
The Wine Garden of England
On the topic of Kent’s iconic grapes, Chapel Down’s own single varietal Bacchus is perfect with our Kentish cheeses. Its green and grassy notes work beautifully with a fresh and zingy round of Ellie’s Dairy goat cheese, made in the Newnham Valley.
Much like beer, we are blessed with delicious fizz across the county, and at Macknade we have some of the very best only a crow’s flight away. With their first release just months old (it has been seven years in the making!!), Domaine Evremond’s Classic Cuvee is a special bottle, setting yet another high bar for this corner of the country’s wine culture. It is a treat on any occasion but especially so in the sun, on a tartan rug with a picnic basket at the ready!
Sweet Treats
And finally for something sweet… Bears Ice Cream Imaginarium in Whitstable has come up trumps! In my little ice box, nestled at the bottom of my picnic basket, are a couple of handmade ice cream sandwiches: a Lemon Meringue Pie flavour and a Peanut Butter, Miso & Caramel flavour…amazing & unique!! Or try one of Gilda’s Bakery’s cream filled cruffins, filled with seasonal delights.
For more inspiration on how to make the most of this season’s peak produce, head to the Macknade recipe pages here.
