With COVID-19 restrictions easing, and outdoor gatherings with reasonable social distance being allowed, picnics present the perfect opportunity to enjoy blue skies, green grass, sunshine, and tasty food!

Concord is blessed with an abundance of green space. Beyond the obvious choices like Walden Pond and Minute Man National Historical Park are such gems as South Meadow or Emerson playgrounds, Mattison Field, and even the shady lawns of historic attractions like The Old Manse or The Robbins House. 

Courtesy of the Cheese Shop

Choose a location, pack up a ground cover, camp chairs, some lawn games, and a cooler and you’re ready to go. But wait a minute, what’s to eat? Tuna fish from home just won’t cut it, so make your first stop The Cheese Shop of Concord on Walden Street, a delightfully retro emporium that’s been filling the most discerning picnic baskets for more than 50 years. 

Check out the daily blackboard specials, or customize a hot or cold sandwich from dozens of bread, cheese, and charcuterie choices. Better yet, grab a crusty baguette and ask the cheesemonger to cut you a selection of three or four cheeses from the more than 100 varieties generally available. 

Courtesy of the Cheese Shop

You can please just about everyone with some French chevre, a sharp Irish cheddar, a creamy round of Harbison from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, and the Cheese Shop’s signature crucolo cheese – imported from Trentino, Italy in large wheels. Olives, pickled veggies, condiments and crackers add spice, crunch and flavor accents. A mouth-watering array of cookies (shortbread, gingersnaps) and candies (artisan chocolate bars, Danish licorice) make a grab-and-go dessert. 

And to drink? Simply reach into the cold case; fully stocked with high end juices and sodas, and - for the adults - refreshing chilled bottles of wine and beer. We’ve all been cooped up at home for months, so why not make this day extra special by popping open some sparkling wine or refreshing hard cider? If there’s an ice chest in the trunk of your car (and there should be), you can pick out any bottle or can from the shop’s extensive selection, and cool it down en route to your picnic destination.

Some of Concord’s parks have walking/bicycling trails, others have ponds, streams or sports fields, but honestly, reading or relaxing under a tree over a game of Go Fish or Bananagrams is what picnicking is all about, so don’t hesitate to be a “grass potato” if that’s what the day calls for.  

However you choose to spend it, put on some sunscreen and enjoy a revitalizing (and delicious) day picnicking in Concord’s great outdoors.