Cork Rooftop Farm is set for exciting expansion

CORK Rooftop Farm has become so entwined in the conversations around local food systems, access to locally grown organic fresh food in densely populated urban spaces, and how to be a positive example for the future of Irish horticulture - that its humble origins as an aspirational lockdown project can almost be forgotten.

I’ve been reporting on the progress of one of Cork’s, and Ireland’s, most exciting experimental food projects since May, 2020.

Back then, the farm was a few raised beds on the roof of an old warehouse just behind the historic Coal Quay. Since then, it has added its first market garden of field grown crops in Laharn in North Cork; a micro-herb cropping system at the original rooftop farm and shop underneath; a second larger market garden in Whites Cross; and a seasonal veg box Community Supported Agriculture scheme.

Then, in October, 2023, the farm answered the call from The English Market to ‘Start Your Story’ and took a lease on a stall in the iconic city venue.

Cork Rooftop Farm has come a long way since that initial lightbulb moment. And there is more to come in 2024.

I caught up with Brian McCarthy, founder of Cork Rooftop Farm, for the latest news on the next chapter of this inspiring enterprise.

“The reception has been amazing. The first day we opened in The English Market was a Saturday, it was a gorgeous sunny day, people were out,” said Brian.

“It was a really busy day, and we cleared out of veg as well. We really hit the ground running!”

The Cork Rooftop Farm stall glows a vibrant green from the emerald tiles and the market’s own bijoux hanging gardens of Babylon! All this green is set off by the rows upon rows of brightly coloured, vital-looking veg, all freshly harvested that day from the two market gardens, and from other organic growers in the locality.

“It’s been the dark side of the market for so long, I think people were taken by surprise to suddenly see lights, colour, veg, plants and a bit of energy going on,” said Brian. 

“What really shows off the stall is what’s on it: the vegetables.”

In November, 2021, Brian opened the farm’s first bricks and mortar shop on the Coal Quay. It was a move that ensured a home and a ready market for their farm fresh produce seven days a week. Aside from growing vegetables, having a place where customers can easily access the produce and where what is grown can be sold is vital.

So, why the need to open a second location inside The English Market?

“Anyone who knows anything about Cork knows the English Market is the heart of food in Cork; it has its own buzz and energy and the opportunity to be a part of that was too good to pass by,” said Brian.

“I’m delighted to say both locations are working really well together, and we’re meeting a whole new clientele that didn’t shop at the other end of the city.

There’s such a tradition to the English Market that I suppose people who have been shopping here have been for years, so it’s great to expose our produce to them, now.

Of course, Cork Rooftop Farm isn’t the only vendor of fresh produce in the market, but there is a distinct point of difference, said Brian.

“The majority of what we sell is what we produce - what we grow ourselves. That’s what we put out front and centre.

“When we run out of something, we support local organic growers that we know and have a similar ethos to ourselves, so we can promote what’s in season and what’s good now. That’s really important,” added Brian.

“We grow kale and, along with our microgreens and carrots, they are probably our biggest sellers here now. It’s that freshness and people can see it.

“We’re harvesting that morning, and it’s in the English Market that day; you can tell with crops like kale that don’t travel very well, so having that short supply chain helps massively.

“That’s been really gratifying, that people are moving towards products that in the past would have been seen as cattle fodder but are really nutritionally dense and flavourful.”

People walk by the stall and see a stack of carrots the height of their head and wonder, what’s this all about? Then they can smell the carrots and smell the produce, which for things that have been sprayed or locked away in plastic... you can’t get that sense of freshness. It’s been lost and we’re trying to bring it back.

The farm is spread across three growing sites: the original rooftop farm, Laharn, and Whites Cross. Although many different approaches to growing across all three sites vary, from high to low tech, one constant is a commitment to growing food that’s fully organic, or chemical-free.

“We have just over a hectare in Glenbrook, half an acre in Laharn, and the Rooftop Farm as well where we grow our leafy greens and microgreens,” said Brian.

“The microgreens have been such a success, especially since we opened here in the English Market. It’s a completely new offering here; people haven’t been able to buy them before.

“We find people are curious - they see these trays of living greens, wonder what they are, taste them, and they come back again and again because it’s such an intense flavour compared to your washed-out salad leaves. The microgreen are literally cut in front of their faces, so they know they can’t get it fresher than that.”

“We now have one full tunnel on the rooftop farm entirely devoted to growing microgreens and micro leaves,” explained Brian.

“Two years ago, we were growing five trays of microgreens a week. Now its upwards of200! We’re able to turn around a crop of microgreens in seven days and we grow 11 different varieties.”

“Most people ask if they’re a garnish, and we explain that they can be eaten as part of your core meals. People try a few types in one punnet with a few different flavours, and then they can come back and choose what they like.”

It’s a long way to microgreens from the market’s historic trading patterns, but the endless curiosity of those who buy and sell in the English Market is its most enduring trait, and arguably why the market has remained essential in the city for 235 years.

“People want to know how and where we grow,” said Brian. 

They hear about the roof and our market gardens and want to know the source of what they’re buying. That’s important to them, and it’s something we’re proud to stand over because we know where our produce is coming from.

Never one to stand still, Brian tells me about two exciting developments in the pipeline for Cork Rooftop Farm: a restaurant collaboration with Cork chefs Brian Murray (The Glass Curtain) and Darren Kennedy and an expansion of the farming collaboration with Glenbrook Farm in Whites Cross.

“Hopefully, we’ll begin building the extension to the original Cork Rooftop Farm in 2024 to bring in our restaurant. It’s been an incredibly difficult process to get to this point, but we’re almost there,” said Brian.

The restaurant will be called Birdsong in the city and is a reimagined revival of Murray’s lockdown street food project. He is partnering with chef Darren Kennedy (formerly of St Francis Provisions and Sage) for the project, which will be a celebration of plot-to-plate food in the heart of Cork city.

“The rooftop area will be more family- oriented, with relaxed vibes and an open grill area behind the bar so you can see the food being cooked,” explained Brian. It’ll have a real energetic feel and you can see where the food is coming from.

“A second area will be on the first floor inside [above the shop] with more of a fine dining-oriented experience.”

Brian has also signed a 60-acre lease at Glenbrook Farm in Whites Cross, which will see an expansion of the current market garden there with a collaborative progressive mixed farming enterprise.

The former dairy farm is owned by Peter Twomey, who now raises free-range pigs. The pigs will stay on the farm and provide an essential element for a farming system called Silvoarable. Trees, grazing, and mixed crops grow together creating a self-supporting ecosystem for food production.

“We’re putting the land through organic conversion,” explained Brian. “The idea is for Cork Rooftop Farm to take on a large percentage of the land and farm it, but we’ve also been working with Cork Food Policy Council to create a food hub for horticulture in Cork.”

What does this mean, and how will it work?

“Cork Rooftop Farm will be the anchor tenant and we’ll invite other organic horticulture growers in to take up large plots of land to grow as part of a food hub. They’ll have a kick- start with organic conversion because we’ll already have done that, and have access to a centralised post-harvest area, facilities for storage, propagation, sales and distribution.

It’s not been done in Ireland in a horticultural sense before.

Cork Rooftop Farm is reimagining food in the city for Corkonians in a seriously exciting way. So much has been achieved in under four years.

“I’m immensely proud of it,” said Brian. “I do look back and think, wow, we’ve come a long way.

“It’s grown very quickly; we’ve had loads of different bumps in the road and the next chapter is a massive jump again.

“That’s going to bring immense challenges, but I think there needs to be a couple of positive examples of horticulture happening in the country. Horticulture is seen as the poor relation to anything else because if people are trying to do a diverse variety of veg like we are, it’s seen as though you’re feeding a certain part of the population, but you’re not feeding ‘The Population’.

“I don’t think that’s the model for horticulture going forward. I think it needs to be more distributed, local, organic, more variety and not monocrop growing.

Our focus is on having food that you can trust to eat, that’s nutritionally dense and as locally sourced as possible.

“If we can tick those boxes, that’s a pretty good way of doing things to strive for.”

www.corkrooftopfarm.ie