Picnic Night at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens ©Chickpea

When I so much as offer my daughter a single goldfish cracker at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a security guard swoops down from the sky and scolds me.  They are serious about rules – as they should be: it’s a beautiful place, especially with the roses in full bloom and they don’t need my two year old messing it up with veggie bootie.  So I was determined to make it to one of the members only picnic nights this year, where you are allowed to spread out a blanket (normally contraband as well) eat on the lawn, and even bring a bottle of wine.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I found myself at the first picnic night totally by accident.  Tonya (my partner in blogging at Adhoc mom) and I decided to bring our kids to the garden, and after a good hour or so of romping around on the lawn we slipped them some snacks.  Shocked that we weren’t asked to leave, I looked around to see that we were in fact now surrounded by quite a few other families who were properly organized and had blankets and actual picnic baskets, a jazz band, and even a popcorn machine and cotton candy machine offering free snacks in honor of the garden’s 100th anniversary. (These families had paid for the privilege of doing so by being Members).

Determined to offer our kids something more than a dinner of crackers and raisins, we went down to the Terrace Café.  The Cafe has everything from salads, sandwiches, burgers, mac & cheese to fancier offerings like filet mignon.  One thing you must know if you decide to go this route is that it is not convenient to purchase your dinner at the café and walk it up to the lawn if you’re with your family.  The garden is very admirably making an effort to be green with their packaging, which means no lids on cups and no bags for transporting food.  We ate in the café and were perfectly happy.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is truly the perfect setting for a picnic.  The grass couldn’t be softer, and the landscape changes every time I visit.  If you are a member you should definitely take advantage of picnic night – and not stumble upon it by accident like I did, although that seems to work too.  The next picnic night is this Wednesday and I’m already planning my menu, this time I’ll be ready.

The next members only picnic night is this Wednesday June 30^th from 6-8 p.m., followed by Wednesday July 28^th 6-8 p.m and Wednesday August 25^th, also from 6-8 p.m.

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Paula Balzer is a Brooklyn based literary agent and co-founder of the blog www.adhocmom.com, the blog for freelance and part-time working moms.

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