Cork Rooftop Farm

📣 We are !

Duties include, but not limited to:
➡️ Facilitate engagement and collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders to develop a
sustainable and healthy food policy for Cork. Primary stakeholders include Cork City Council, Health Service Executive, community, business, farming, statutory and voluntary organisations.

📅 Closing date: August 4

🔗 To learn more, visit: https://buff.ly/3A55Zy4

📣 We are !

Duties include, but not limited to:
➡️ Facilitate engagement and collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders to develop a
sustainable and healthy food policy for Cork. Primary stakeholders include Cork City Council, Health Service Executive, community, business, farming, statutory and voluntary organisations.

📅 Closing date: August 4

🔗 To learn more, visit: www.corkcity.ie/en/council-services/careers/current-vacancies/cork-food-policy-development-officer-grade-v.html

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41382208.html

A few snaps of our micro greens just as they come out of the blackout period where we stretch them out and how they look just before harvest. The first two are Pea before and after, then Coriander and finally Carrot.

Over the past three and half years we have been making incremental improvements all the time in our systems, processes and setup for growing micro greens and have achieved really good consistency at this point. They suit the context of the rooftop farm perfectly and we should be in line to get our micro greens certified organic in the next few months due to the approach we have taken in growing in compost.

Call into to our stall or our shop on Cornmarket Street to try a punnet if you’ve never had them before. The taste and flavours will hook you in! 🌱

Big things coming…

We’ve added a nice new seeding area in the shop in the last couple of weeks for those who’d like to drop in and enjoy a cup of coffee or organic tea. Did you know that green spaces boost serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, contributing to happiness well-being. So what better place to enjoy a cuppa in the city then a place surrounded by plants!!! 😄🌱🌱

In 2024 we begin our journey of putting 60 acres of land through organic conversion. 30 acres will go into crop production and 30 acres will go into fertility building. We will share exclusive behind the scenes access to our expansion at through our subscription section and give you in depth information on every aspect of the farm. Sharing the ups, the downs, the wins and the losses. A million miles an hour, in true Cork Rooftop Farm style 😅🌱

7 months since we received planning permission to build an extension on the rooftop in order to open the space to the public and put in a restaurant and we still don’t have approval for a Fire Cert or a Disability Access Cert, BUT we’re nearly there. It’s been an incredibly difficult process to say the least. I understand that regulations and legislation needs be protective in order to ensure the safety of those who use buildings into the future but something needs to change.

Our cities have thousands of old buildings which have basically been consigned to being single story due to the prohibitive nature of our fire safety regulations. Some of the lowest hanging fruit for this government would be to rewrite the Fire Safety Code using European standards. Cities and towns would be liberated from ridiculous rules and standards and a wave of renovation and rejuvenation would follow! I don’t blame the officials, they are working with the legislation they have at their disposal. It needs to come from government. The regs need to change!

In the meantime, we have restored these beautiful 200 year old sash windows which will have pride of place in the restaurant. This was made possible through grant money made available by the ensuring they survive for future generations.

First hard frost of the season today. Market garden produce looking sparkling in the mid morning sun. We’ll have a few big announcements over the coming weeks with incredibly exciting plans for next year.

The changing of the seasons brings the harvest of our wonderful assortment of winter squash and Pumpkins!

New English Market traders as Cork Rooftop Farm unveil new stall 'This market is the epicentre of Cork food culture, and we can't believe we landed a spot here'

We harvested the remainder of our white and red onions this week and they’re laid out in our Polytunnel now to cure for the next few weeks. We put out sets of white onions on 6x25m beds and red onions on a 4x25m beds. Between our harvest of fresh onions to date and ones which we have curing now we have grown 435kg of white onions and 235kg of red. The red grew slightly smaller than the white but are still a nice size.

There is often rhetoric that by growing using organic principles you sacrifice in terms of yield due to not being able to utilise chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides. We have found this simply to not be the case. Our white onion harvest works out at a yield of approximately 39 tonnes per hectare which is a high yield by commercial agriculture standards. I have many other examples of yields from our market gardens which exemplify this point.

My opinion is that if humanity had focused all our combined efforts and knowledge since the turn of world war 2 into optimising chemical free principles and methods of agriculture, instead of relying on inorganic fertilisers we would have arrived at the same place in terms of yields and our soil health globally would be in a far different place. Many would dispute that claim but its what I believe. What do you think?

3 months ago we started to get create our new no-dig market garden in and in true Cork Rooftop style had little or no time to get a load of work done to be ready for the season ahead but thanks to all the hard work from the amazing team here, and many more who helped/volunteered we are producing some truly stunning food from both our market gardens and I couldn’t be prouder! Wherever you are, make sure to support local producers. It’s so important and ultimately you will be the one who benefits the most through doing this and eating delicious nutrient dense food

CSA Box week 6: Valmaine Lettuce Head, Redbor Kale, Rainbow Chard, Red Russian Kale, Mixed Beetroot, Courgettes, Kohlrabi, Radish, Spring Onions, Fresh Garlic, New Potatoes and Microgreens. If you are interested in receiving a beautiful box of seasonal vegetables like these, grown by us, message us directly or comment below 🌱

Have you seen the rooftop Rabbit? This is the first photo we have showing proof, from a neighbour actually who lives overlooking the rooftop, of our resident rabbit. We want you to come up with a name for our rabbit and tag a friend and we will give the lucky winners two tickets for one our no-dig market garden course days with at the end of this month!

There are thousands of buildings in cities around Ireland which are old, beautiful, full of character and charm but not financially viable to restore or refurbish. There are many grants and schemes available for elements of bringing these once proud buildings back to their former glory but unfortunately the red tape in this country is insane. We are endeavouring to create a place in Cork, that Corkonians are proud of, but the odds are very much stacked against people who wish to do things the right way. We’ll persist, do it the right way, and showcase the best of urban agriculture and Irish food to people but it could be made so much easier. Why does everything need to be made so difficult in this country? Someone needs to take a machete to all the red tape NOW and then watch the cities and towns flourish!

Cork Rooftop Farm hope to have new restaurants up and running this summer The urban farmers are teaming up with a well-known city restauranteur on a menu that's "as fresh as you can get"

I love this photo!!! Why?! Because it’s exactly what we’ve striving for in our market garden for the past 2 and a half years. Here you can see roots from crop we just finished, and as we broadfork the bed, barely breaking the surface, allowing for air to circulate, we also catch a glimpse of the Mycorrhizal fungi growing around the roots. We want to have a high level of fungal life in our soil. Fungi can be thought of as the motorways and fibre optic cables that run through your soil. They allow for nutrients and minerals to be transported around and for communication to occur between different plants. Because we don’t till or dig up our beds, we retain the fungal structure in our soil, instead of destroying it. 😊🌱

Imagine how much food could be grown on the top floors of car parks in our cities! This is a photo of Q-Park next to the during the middle of the day and it is mostly empty. I think it would send an amazing message on how Cork is serious about sustainable food production and green spaces if areas like these which are not utilised fully could be repurposed to grow crops for the people who live within the city. Cork City has the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030 and big changes will be needed to reach that goal!

FOOD MATTERS (from Wednesday March 29th, 8:30pm, RTÉ One) is a brand new RTÉ One series which uncovers Ireland's food sustainability, and explores how the food system is a major contributor to the climate change emergency.

Presented by GIY (Grow it Yourself) founder Michael Kelly, this brand new six-part series sees Michael travelling throughout the country, meeting farmers, food producers, food experts, climate experts and chefs.

He also talks to economists, ecologists and activists as he digs deep to uncover the complexity of the Irish food system and how it works, delivers and impacts the environment.

"The food system is a major contributor to the climate emergency, and the choices we make each day around food can be some of the most compelling pieces of climate action we can take in our lives", says Michael.

"There are inspiring solutions to the problems in our food system happening right under our noses. In FOOD MATTERS, I travel around Ireland exploring these issues and meeting the people and projects that can help change the food system, one meal at a time".

FOOD MATTERS is filmed at GROW HQ in Waterford, the home of GIY, as well as on location in counties Cork, Kildare, Dublin, Westmeath, Kerry, Meath, Wicklow, Tipperary, Limerick, Kilkenny and Wexford;

In the first programme of the new FOOD MATTERS series which airs on Wednesday March 29th on RTE One at 8.30pm Michael travels to West Cork to visit Dr. Steve Collins of Derry Duff Blueberry Farm , a pioneer of regenerative agriculture, who is farming on the side of a mountain, and managing to grow a superfood in bad soil.

Michael then heads to Kildare to meet 4th generation Athy farmer Colm Flynn who started to think differently when it comes to his soil, and rehabilitated his soil using biological solutions. In Kilbeggan Co Westmeath, Michael learns how nutrient enhancing soil on an organic oat farm is proving very successful in the production of Kilbeggan Oats for farmers Pat and John Lalor.

Michael completes this first episode with a visit to Cork where Brian McCarthy of Cork Rooftop Farm is working on a potential future solution to urban growing, in a surprisingly different garden on a rooftop.

Our new 10,000 litre water storage tank which we will hook up to the gutter off the shed behind our market garden to harvest rainwater.

Exciting stuff! We started planning for our new market garden today which will be based at . We have big plans for the year ahead and that means we will need increased growing capacity and the goal for this year is to install 120 x 30m beds into this space. The season is almost upon us so it’s going to be a bit of a race against time to get everything setup but we love a challenge 😅😅🌱

📢Are you looking to join in trading at one of Cork's oldest outdoor markets (dating back to the 1840s!)

🛍️We are now welcoming applicants to join the creative traders of the to set up shop!🍲📚

❓To find out more, visit: https://buff.ly/3HxRKTO

We’re incredibly excited that our first ever hosted course will be with Richard Perkins from Ridgedale Farm. More details to follow later in the week 😊

Meet Nuffield Ireland's new Chair!

Joe Leonard, a dairy farmer from Stamullen in County Meath, has been announced as the new Chair for Nuffield Ireland. A Nuffield Scholar, Joe has been a member of the board of Nuffield Ireland for five years and succeeds Karen Brosnan who had held the role since 2019.

Joe will be speaking at this year's conference, Friday 18th November 🎤

Buy your tickets now 👉 https://nuffield.ie/nuffield-conference/

At Cork Rooftop Farm our first preference is always to stock seasonal produce that we grow ourselves sustainably either on the rooftop or in our no dig market garden. The last image here shows our sourcing preference scale after growing it ourselves:
2nd - Source locally organic/chemical free
3rd - locally grown conventional
4th - import organic

We feel this is the most sustainable approach to providing healthy fresh produce for our customers.

In an ideal world, we’d all eat solely based on the seasonality of what food is locally available but I think the cat is somewhat out of the bag on that one with modern supply chains and supermarkets. In Ireland we have some amazing producers and it’s incredibly important that you support these local businesses.

Last week we started the process of making Oriental Herbal Nutrient (OHN). This is another input of natural farming. First step is to rehydrate our dry materials Cinnamon, Angelica root and Liquorice with beer and our wet ingredients Ginger and Garlic. OHN revitalizes crops and activates their growth. It is a ferment which is used in the process of making IMO3 and IMO4.