ANNA GLASS

Eating outdoors on a sunny day is a joyous activity. What better way to spend a warm afternoon than sitting on a blanket in the park with your favorite food and drink arranged around you and your companions. Maybe it’s my Southern roots shining through, but the New England season for comfortable outdoor dining takes much too long to come back around. The Fifth Season, a picnic hosted in mid January, sought to bring the joys of a warm summer day to an abrasive winter. 

 

This dining experiment was given occasion by a friend with a winter birthday. She wanted to celebrate outside, but there was snow on the ground and the sun was still setting at 4pm. We invited a third collaborator interested in indoor/outdoor relationships, and began to manufacture our own uncanny season. 

 

We invited an eclectic guest list, loosely connected to each other by the birthday girl, to graze on small bites on a hardwood meadow made of astroturf and inflatable pools. They were offered whole carrots and pudding cups as they stuck their feet in a patch of dirt. Toddlers and adults navigated the space with equal curiosity and enjoyed finger foods in unconventional configurations. The setting encouraged them to let go of expectations upon entering the oasis of a third floor apartment. Comments such as “why don’t we always eat like this,” and, “that’s weird, I want to try it,” rumbled through the rooms as people settled in for a January afternoon on the astroturf.