A Picnic at Corey Hill Outlook Park

Bet you didn't know Brookline has a mountain! Ok, I'm exaggerating just a bit...but Summit Avenue is called that for a reason. If you ascend to the top, you'll pass several blocks of beautiful houses, including a castle - seriously, this thing has a turret! - and you'll find yourself in a small oasis, Corey Hill Outlook Park. On one side of the street, there's a gentle slope and a rumored amazing view of Boston's skyline, but at this time of year, the leaves on the trees block most of the view. On the other side of the street, there's a playground.

What a hike. Such hills should not be walked in 90 degree weather when dehydrated and carrying heavy bags. I broke out my funny shoes for the workout.

We set up our blanket at the top of the slope. If you look closely between the two leftmost trees, you can see a hint of skyline:

I had picked up a random assortment of goodies at the Copley farmers' market for the picnic: strawberries (Old Friends Farm, I think), tomatoes and bok choy (Atlas Farm), dinner rolls (Iggy's), ginger goat cheese (Crystal Brook Farm), shelling peas (Siena Farm), herbal nuts (The Herb Lyceum), and M+M cookies (New Breadsong Bakery).

I've recently become obsessed with raw bok choy. It's also great sauteed or in a stir fry, but raw, it's so refreshing. The stem is like celery but with more flavor and no stringy stuff getting stuck in your teeth. The leaf tastes like a mild cabbage. Seems like an odd thing to take on a picnic, but we really enjoyed it!

The Crystal Brook Farm stand had a wide variety of goat cheeses available. I decided to go for the strangest - ginger. I love ginger, but ginger-flavored cheese seemed pretty weird.

We spread it on the dinner rolls from Iggy's, and it remarkably worked really well. The ginger added a good deal of sweetness without actually tasting gingery.

My other recent raw veggie obsession is shelling peas. They're so much fun to open up, and they taste really sweet.

And finally, dessert!

It was starting to get buggy, so we packed up, resisted the urge to roll down the hill, and walked back down Summit, into the sunset!

Corey Outlook Park is great because it's not overcrowded, and the slope discourages sports, so you can picnic without dodging frisbees. I'd love to check out the view in the winter when the trees are bare. So, romantic picnic-planners, this is a great spot for you, as long as you and your date are prepared for a bit of a hike. Or you could drive...but then you'd miss half the fun.