Suprising Picnic Facts You Might Not Know

Picnics are on the rise in the UK, with more people choosing to spend time away from phones and other devices, and spending some quality time with friends or family instead. 
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It's proven that getting some fresh air and sunlight is good for you, and enjoying some healthy home cooked food is the perfect way to relax without breaking the budget. With haute cuisine on the rise, more people are enjoying cooking a meal that not only delicious, but beautiful too. Then it can be enjoyed in a setting as breathtaking as the food.

Here are our top ten facts about picnics to get you inspired:

1. The average person picnics at least three times a year, that’s 94 million picnics per year.
2.  According to research done in 2013, the average family spends £26 per picnic totaling £2,479,720,000.
3. Originally, a picnic was a fashionable social event to which each guest contributed some food.
4. The French started the modern fashion for picnics when they opened their royal parks to the public after the revolution of 1789.
5. The use of the phrase “no picnic” to describe something difficult dates back to 1884.
6. The most popular picnic snack fifty years ago was the humble cheese sandwich. Now, it’s a bag of crisps.
7. The most popular day for picnics in the US is the 4th of July. In Italy it’s Easter Monday. In France, it’s Bastille Day. In the UK, it’s (weather dependent) rapidly becoming National Picnic Week.
8. Fortnum & Mason, the London department store, claims to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738. They still sell them today.  
9. Picnic food is as popular as if it’s ever been. In 2012, an average of ten grams of meat pies and sausage rolls were consumed per person per week.