How To Eco Picnic with Yasmin Mills

What was the inspiration for your new book: How to Eco Picnic? 

The inspiration for the book was the beautiful vintage hampers, china and glassware that I was sourcing for my ethical homeware brand Ecofêtes. After the challenging times we’ve all faced, I wanted to show people how to create a stylish eco picnic that can turn a simple lunch into a culinary event that lifts your spirits and is greener for the planet.   

100% of the proceeds of the book go to The Lady Garden Foundation. Tell us more about the charity.

The Lady Garden Foundation is a women’s health charity that does crucial work raising awareness and raising funds to help fight gynaecological cancers.  

What are your top tips on how to eco picnic successfully? 

Don’t panic and resort to plastic! Even if you decide on an impromptu picnic without a hamper available and have to empty the contents of your handbag to use it, resist the eco picnic litter and style crime of putting your chosen treats into plastic bags! 

Put a little thought into your preparation and you can bring theatre to the simplest alfresco meal.  Filling your chosen hamper ahead of time with vintage china plates, fabric napkins, real cutlery and glassware – rather than cheap throw away plastic and paper napkins – is not only greener but far more elegant.  

What is your favourite picnic recipe? 

Organic cucumber and spicy cream cheese sandwiches on homemade seeded bread. Cucumber sandwiches are a quintessentially English summer picnic staple. Often made on rather tasteless dry white sliced bread, this classic sandwich is made far more delicious and nutritious by adding lashings of peppered cream cheese to succulent slices of organic cucumber on textured rich-tasting seeded bread. The sandwiches are even more delicious if you have time to make the bread yourself.

Favourite London Park or Garden Square and why.

My favourite London Park is Hyde Park. It's an iconic oasis of elegant green beauty in the middle of the city. From the Albert Memorial to the Peter Pan statue, Hyde Park is steeped in quintessentially English cultural history. 

What’s your almost-too-good-to-share tip for the perfect London adventure? 

My almost-too-good-to-share tip for the perfect London adventure is to simply walk around this incredible city. You can walk past some of the most incredible historic sites like Buckingham Palace, stumble across a restaurant or little cafe serving cuisine from all over the world, go to some of the most famous art galleries and end up in a trawling through vintage market stalls in Portobello Road – all in the space of a few hours.

Did you have a Treehouse growing up, or what’s your favourite childhood memory?

One of my favourite memories growing up was pretending a huge tree across the road from our house was a petrol station. I loved riding around with my brother on our bicycles when we were small. We used to pretend that they were motorbikes and that we had to take them to the tree/petrol station to fill them up with fuel. 
 

Stop by Backyard our ground-level coffee shop and discover Yasmin Mills's book available to purchase for £18. All proceeds go to the Lady Garden Foundation.