Beyond the Cafe

A trip to Lockhart promises visitors more than The Blue Bird.  Known as The Verandah Town, an active Progress Association, Shire Council and many community groups have contributed countless initiatives over the years dedicated to the beautification and well-being of the township.  Lockhart town and Lockhart Shire remain proudly independent from larger municipalities and although Wagga Wagga is only 60kms, the town of Lockhart has everything it needs to be strong and vibrant.  Here are some of the things you could discover on your trip to Lockhart.

The Doris Golder Gallery - Without spoiling the surprise, the intricately detailed and unique art of our lovely local octagenarian Doris, is something to behold.  Not many towns can claim to have someone as talented in creating woolen portraiture so Lockhart is fortunate.  Doris still lives just around the corner and is one of the regular customers brightening The Blue Bird's day.  After admiring her work at the museum, and if you are lucky, you might find her here having an ice cream with us.  Doris will happily tell you about her life and work and it makes quite a story.

The Spirit of the Land Festival and Sculptures - During the recent ten year drought some creative locals were inspired to offer depressed farmers something to take their mind off the devastation.  The National Farm Art Sculpture competition began and subsequently launched new careers for a few farmers who turned their versatile hands to sculpting.  A generous  annual sponsorship from the Lockhart Shire Council has ensured that most of the winning sculptures have stayed in town to become part of a farm art sculpture trail.  The Spirit of the Land Festival held on the second weekend of October each year, has become a major attraction.

The Pastoral Shadows of Brookong - On the outskirts of town, this gentle walk tells the story of the settlement of Lockhart.  It features silhouettes of swagmen, wagons, coaches, shepherds and other tableaux displaying rural life in old Australia.  Local artists and members of the Men's Shed have cut the silhouette sculptures out of iron and other scrap metals.

The Heritage Pavers - The Progress Association initiated this project as an indelible and charming way to record the names and dates of local families.  The names are etched on the paving stones forming a walk under the verandahs of the main street.  Ambling passed the shops on Green Street you can read the story of the people who built Lockhart a century ago, their descendants and many new families who now live in town.  A book expanding on these brick sketches can be purchased at the Greens Gunyah Museum.

Green Street - A number of interesting shops stand as neighbours to The Blue Bird on Green Street.  Heaven in Rags is a store that captures a distant era of clothing, haberdashery, millinery and shoes.  Ginge and Fluffs Second-hand Shop offers everything collectible from your childhood to good china.  The Lockhart Men's Shed sells handcrafted wooden furniture and toys made by the blokes in the shed.  The Brookong Nook Craft Shop is an outlet for local producers of jams, pickles and chutneys, free-range eggs and hand crafts.  The Red Cross Op-Shop is located in the building that started out as The Lockhart Hotel.  If you look closely at the stained glass window above its door you can see the remnants of one of its past lives as The Monterey Cafe.  And then of course The Blue Bird is more than just a cafe these days.  We operate a quality second-hand book shop within our business as well as a line of retro craft.  We have plans to expand our Blue Bird museum into one preserving the heritage of the Greek-Australian Cafes.

There is plenty more of Lockhart beyond the cafe.

Little Cloey

Roger and I are welcoming a new addition to our cafe family, CLOey.  CLOey is a Closed Loop Organic composting unit.  We invested in her (yes, you can't help but anthropomorph it into an employee, and one of the hardest working I might add) in order reduce overall waste in the cafe industry and also to manage our waste cleanly and efficiently.  CLOey is a very neat and tidy compost bin and she will happily chomp her way through vegetable, meat and bones all day long.  She gurgles, beeps and whirs gently and because her digestive system is temperature controlled, in 24 hours, she produces amazingly rich, dry fertilizer that is as powerful as chook manure.  We already have a few people around town lined up for CLOey's product and we are happy to share.

These compost units are all the rage in city cafes that are striving to be zero waste businesses.  They have industrial CLOeys but we only needed a domestic version because we do not generate as much waste as I imagine they do.  However, it's a start and we feel happy that not only are we using our cafe scraps and leftovers wisely on behalf of our customers, but we are also keeping our kitchen clean and hygenic.

Cross Buns and Custard

Easter has passed for another year and it was a busy one for us at the Blue Bird.  We had visitors from all over the state and others stopping by on their way to Confest and the Deni Blues and Roots Festival.  Happy, excited fresh people stopped in for grateful refreshment on Friday afternoon and not so fresh, tired, hungover people dragged themselves in for nourishment and a pick-me-up on the way back on Monday.  It was exhausting but as everyone was happy to see us open and appreciative of the atmosphere, enjoyable for us.

I made Hot Cross Buns and they turned out really well.  There is nothing like the smell of cooking fruit buns or the softness of one that is truly hot and fresh out of the oven.  I made a few dozen to fill family orders around town and next year I will definitely do that again.  They take a long time to make but I pretty much have them down to an art now.

And I am also venturing out into the hallowed Custard Slice territory.  Roger calls them snot blocks but that is unkind, a good custard slice is a thing of beauty as I'm sure any connoisseurs out there among you will agree.  It is the creamy but firmness of the custard, the subtle flavour of vanilla  in the custard and the sweetness (but not too sweet) of the vanilla icing that makes a seriously good custard slice.  I am giving it a good go so try one next time you are in.  At the moment they are a limited edition item on our menu so you will need to be in early to get hold of one.

A piece of crumpet

When was the last time that you had a home-made crumpet?  Not a question asked much when commercially made crumpets are so readily available to the crumpet eating household.  In fact until a couple of weeks ago (when I decided to have a go at making some myself), I could safely answer my own question with "never".  However now that I have both tasted home-made and made them for the cafe, I can say without a doubt that I will not be buying commercial crumpets again.  There is absolutely no comparison. 

A home-made crumpet is so very different and so much nicer.  Even though it takes more time and effort to make, I can say that it was worth the effort.  And fortunately for Blue Bird customers, you do not need to go to so much effort in your own kitchen, let me do the work and make the crumpets for you.  One customer's comment was that it was just like her grandma used to make and that it took her back to childhood.  And that is why we make them here at the cafe ...because the Blue Bird is all about recapturing childhood and enjoying the memories of grandma's house.  So next time you are in Lockhart on a Sunday for brunch or afternoon tea, try one of our homemade crumpets with butter, jam or golden syrup...whatever takes your fancy.

Take Home Dinners for One

We have designed some easy and affordable home-cooked meals that you can take with you as an alternative to factory produced supermarket frozen dinners.  We figure that they will suit busy working people with little time to cook, single older people living independently but who don't want to cook every night, and travellers in caravans wanting a break from toasted sandwiches and soup in a cup.

Our meals are single person serves.  They are handmade with care and designed for your convenience.  All you need to do is take them home and heat them up, then enjoy the fact that someone else has done the cooking for you tonight.

Choose from the following growing list of options:

• Traditional Lasagna
• Chicken Lasagna (our fresh take on the familiar baked pasta)
• Roast Lamb Dinner Pie (an entire lamb dinner in one pie!)
• Roast Chicken Dinner Pie (chicken, gravy, vegetables and potatoes all in a pie!)
• Tuscan Beef Pie
• Bacon and Egg Quiche
• Smoked Salmon Quiche

To make an inquiry or place an order, please contact us on 6920 5559.

Go the Pies!

 Not those Pies...these ones.  

As of this week I have started making my own pies each day as well as our own sausage rolls.  I love a good pie even better than a good plate of fish and chips.  Pies can be traditional or as inventive as you like so there is plenty of scope to play with taste and flavour combinations.

So far this week I have stuck to some traditional flavours to kick start the pies and get a few runs on the board before winter.  The bacon and egg and the beef, bacon and cheese have been the most popular and I think that people appreciate that the pies are made fresh, made here and made by hand.  No mass produced factory frozen kinds.

But I have also been fine tuning some gourmet flavours like; Chicken, sweet potato and mushroom, Tuscan beef, Greek lamb, Roast chicken dinner and the Friday special Smoked fish.  They will be coming soon to the menu but as the pies are made fresh each day and only one or two flavours at a time, you will need to be quick to get one.

Real Fruit Granita (that's a slushie to the kids)

Roger has mastered the juicer and we are full steam ahead making real fruit slushies served out of the milk bar just like they used to in the old days.  Back then it was the Veneris family's secret recipe Orange Ale and we are not claiming ours to be as good as everyone's memory of their refreshing drink.  However we would like to dedicate our version of something similar to the memory of Jack and Peter.  Everyone remembers their drink so very fondly.  They remember how it was a drink but used to ice up around the edges of the freezer and how it had to be stirred once in a while to keep it liquid.

Well, ours is more a traditional granita, in fact that is exactly what it is.  We make two varieties so far using freshly squeezed fruit juice (Roger has been slaving over the juicer just like Peter used to).  Orange and Watermelon Real Fruit Slushies are now on tap so to speak at The Blue Bird.  And as it has most definitely been 40+ degree temperatures all this week the summer is well and truly into what I call 'Watermelon Weather'.  In fact it has been the only thing that has managed to cool us (and our customers) down this week.  Roger reckons that the icy drink is quite moreish but as it is made with 90% fruit including pulp, it is probably not a bad thing to become addicted to in the scheme of things.