We have been busy bees over the last month with Christmas, renovations and a new Summer Menu developing.

Over the month of December Lochiel House asked our local Kurrajong Heights Community and beyond to help donate non perishable gifts for those less fortunate this Christmas. We have had our tree up, decorations gallor and carols to go along with the festivities. We asked our local community if they could assist us in providing the gift of Christmas this year by placing a small gift under our tree to be donated to Hawkesbury Helping Hands. We are so touched as to the response we received. The gifts flooded in and without sparing any expense our beautiful community have worked together providing an abundance of food, clothes. toys, and more for those in need this Christmas. We could not thank everyone enough for their amazing generosity and we are sure kids, men, women and elderly have had a brighter festive season.

Not only have we been tinkering away with the celebrations of Christmas, we are still underway with our renovations. Lochiel House is transforming into a true destination. . . relaxing in our newly renovated courtyard under the blossom trees, taking a leisurely stroll in our kitchen vegetable gardens or even pulling up a rug in front of our live jazz on Sundays amongst our newly renovated garden beds. We are not stopping here, we have so much more to grow and develop, our ideas are flowing and the excitement of it all is overwhelming.

Lochiel House is a steam train at the moment, not stopping until we have reached our goals (this may be a never ending track) and we are currently developing our New Summer Menu. The current Lunch and Dinner menu we serve now will be enhanced and the idea is to not change the dining options but to tweak and improve certain flavours. We will be ustalising what we can from our kitchen garden, picking ingredients fresh daily. We will be sharing this new menu with you all in the next few weeks so make sure you are hear to try our beautifully created menu.

We have been waiting in anticipation as we watched our kitchen garden evolve over the last month. We have an abundance of Corn, Tomatoes, Broccoli, Kale, Beetroot, Chilli and herbs. The Chef's in the kitchen will be creating special dishes from the fresh produce we have harvested in the back of our restaurant. This week we will be paying special attention to Broccoli, Beetroot and Kale. We love the idea that we are able to grow and produce really fresh ingredients. We are so excited to be able to transform the idea of Farm to Plate in our own backyard.

The Chef's have created a vegetarian dish: Bilpin Honey Glazed Beets, Fried Broccoli, Roasted Garlic Aioli, Almonds, Baby Kale Leaves & Flowers.

We will be continuing to harvest the rest of the produce in the coming weeks and will ensure we create dishes reflecting the fresh produce we gather.

We are so fortunate to be able to have a kitchen garden in the back of our restaurant in the beautiful Kurrajong Heights.

When you come and visit us here at Lochiel House, we would love you to walk around our backyard and have a look for yourselves as to what we are growing. You will also notice a beautiful big framed chalk board as a feature on our restaurant wall. This chalk board was built by our local supporter Neil. Tayla & Nathan have spent an afternoon creating a Garden plot for the guests who dine with us to discover what produce we have used from our garden in their meal. This is a fun way of learning where your food comes from and the way it is handled within a restaurant environment.

We ensure our Chef's in the kitchen have the opportunity to not only cooked the produce but grow them also. We enjoy getting our hands dirty weeding, picking, trussing and watering. Its a great way for the team to get some sunlight and fun with our produce.

As spring starts to bring us beautiful weather and flourishing garden beds we don't see a better way than to spend your Sunday in our courtyard listening to Live Jazz. Live Jazz has become a staple here at Lochiel House. Listening to the tantalising sounds of rotating Jazz Bands whilst enjoying a great meal and glass of wine in the Spring sun is a beautiful way to spend your Sunday afternoon with Friends and Family. Our gorgeous trees provide the perfect sun protection, sitting beneath the Pink Blossom tree adds a tranquil atmosphere as you hear chatter of other guests embracing the excitement of the afternoon buzz. Make sure to book ahead as this special Sunday afternoon in growing in popularity and once you join us you will understand why. Nothing better than a glass of Rosé and great company.

Welcome to Lochiel House's first blog post. You can tap in here to read about all the exciting news and upcoming adventures that are about to unfold.

As some of our guests have noticed there has been some amazing improvements made to Lochiel House in the past few months. We have been able to give Lochiel House the love and respect a 200 year old cottage deserves by helping it with a little face lift. We have been on a journey to provide our guests with a unique experience. We have transformed the back alfresco dining area into a peaceful and tranquil dining area. Beyond the beautiful outdoor courtyard we have now landscaped our backyard and spiced things up a little. You will be able to walk through our vegetable gardens & watch as the gardens evolve over spring. Our guests can enjoy a glass of wine or two with the fresh smell of herbs and flowers starting to blossom. Kids can now enjoy the backyard and soon they will be able to enjoy the grassed area for fun games of tag whilst Mum, Dad & Friends relax. We have an endless list of the improvements and goals of Lochiel House and this is just the beginning of a very exciting chapter.