Miso and peanut butter, snickerdoodle, chocolate: what to bring to a cookie picnic?

Ali Roberts knows what she’s going to bake. 

Now isn’t the time to experiment, she says. As event organiser, she has to set the bar high, she says with a grin. 

So, her offering is to be miso and peanut butter cookies, she says – a tested classic cribbed from the New York Times.

“It’s got this really unique, like, umami flavour,” said Roberts on Monday morning.

This coming Saturday, Roberts is hosting the first of her events under the “Dublin Picnic” header, at The Fumbally Stables in Dublin 8.

It’s a cookie picnic, she says. A free social event – but with limited places and the need to book – inviting strangers to bring home-baked cookies to swap, and just hang out.

If it goes well, she says, she hopes to run all kinds of swap picnics.

###Why not

Roberts moved here from San Francisco at the beginning of this year, to join her partner, she says.

She has been job searching for a few months, she says. “I have a lot of time on my hands.”

She had pondered running an event, she says. Then she saw a post from The Fumbally Stables offering free community space on a few set dates, she says. 

It seemed like a now-or-never prompt, says Rogers. She put herself forward, pinned up some flyers, and sent word around to those she knew, she says.

It’s a solo run, she says. “Me and Canva with a couple of hours to spare.”

But her idea for Dublin Picnic is inspired by others, she says. She follows a few people online who run events to build community, including Sula Awad who started the Tawla Collective in Dublin, which gathers people together over food. 

She had also admired the Cake Picnic in San Francisco, she says, where an open invitation from a woman to go to the park and swap cakes attracted hundreds of people right away.

Roberts doesn’t bake cakes, she says. “But I thought, okay, I can do cookies.”

Everyone is going to bring a couple dozen cookies, she says, and they’ll lay them out. They’ll have people collect some so they have some to take home, she says.

“Then, we can all munch and gather and I was thinking of doing some social question cue cards to help people get to know each other,” she says.

So far 18 people have signed up, she says. She knows seven of them – but not the others. 

Trish Sissons is on the list. Roberts had floated the idea to her a while ago when they were both using the coworking space at Tara Buildings, says Sissons.

They had bonded over trying to find ways to make friends in a new city, she says. “Everything here feels very pay to play.”

Roberts says she doesn’t envisage making money through Dublin Picnic. That it is free is part of why it’s meaningful, she says.

That the picnics are an event with an activity appeals to Sissons too, says Sissons. 

If someone is ready to bake a cookie or get stuck in to an activity to bond over, they’re usually the kind of person she will vibe with, she says.

Into the future

Roberts says that if there is enough interest, and the event continues on, it’ll be variations on a theme.

The idea of Dublin Picnic is an exchange, she says. But “it’s not always going to be cookies”.

Her idea is a book swap next, she says. “Like, bring a book that represents you, or the most recent thing that you read, or just like, find something in a thrift store that looks interesting.”

She just finished Demon Copperhead,  a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in rural Appalachia by novelist Barbara Kingsolver. “I’ll probably swap that one.”

She is still thinking about what picnics to do after the book one, she says. “Sometimes I’m thinking, is this too niche?” 

Maybe a propagation picnic where people share plant clippings, she says, or one where they share dishes and recipes from cookbooks.

Sissons suggests a craft exchange. Teaching knitting, in exchange for another skill, she says. “Anything that gives you a loose common thread that you can connect with people.”

Sissons is still pondering what she will bake for Saturday. 

She is torn between a ginger molasses cookie or a snickerdoodle, she says. “In reality, I’m probably going to do chocolate cookies.”