Bar Beach Kiosk

 Hidden away on Bar Beach Road, by the entrance to the lake at Merimbula, many tourists never discover this gem of a place.

 The Silver Gulls Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae are not too pushy, but ever alert for scraps.

We were taken there by friends who live locally. I love the way the owners use Facebook to keep their customers informed.

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In our kitchen yesterday: I bottled up a batch of preserved orange peel, ready for use in sorbets, cakes and chocolates. 5 litres of chicken stock made, and a  litre and a half of vegetable stock. A kilo of peas shelled and blanched. Lunch was dolmades made from our own vine leaves and elderflower cordial made from flowers collected along the bief (millstream) in Le Petit Pressigny. Dessert in the evening was some of the 500 g of freshly picked strawberries and 2 kg of sweet red Géant cherries from our orchard with home made strawberry icecream. I also picked a kilo of redcurrants at Tim and Gaynor's (the cicada is still sitting in the redcurrant bush). The redcurrants have been stripped from their stalks and frozen.

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Shopping at the market yesterday: a petite boule loaf from the boulangerie (85 cents). A kilo of new ratte potatoes, 500 g peas, a bunch of carrots, 500 g broad beans, 2 leeks, a zucchini, 500 g apricots, 200 g button mushrooms, a bunch of celery, 5 vine tomatoes (total spend on 3 local market garden stalls about €20).