Cork Rooftop Farm

15/04/2025

🥛 NEW & LOCAL // From this Thursday, we’re thrilled to be stocking at our stall in , organic raw milk, kefir, yoghurt & skyr from the wonderful in Croom, Co. Limerick 💚

Tory Hill House & Farm is proudly run by three generations of women – Catherine, Kate & Hannah – who share a deep passion for agriculture, nature, wildlife and biodiversity. Between them, they bring a lifetime of experience and pour incredible care and attention into every part of the farm.

They’ve created something truly special: a small farm that punches well above its weight, showing what’s possible when we work in harmony with nature while still making a living from the land.

✨ So, what is raw milk?
Raw milk is unpasteurised and unhomogenised, meaning it keeps all of its natural enzymes, beneficial bacteria and nutrients. It’s strictly tested and must meet tight safety standards — but it’s also packed with natural probiotics and goodness that many people find easier to digest than processed milk.

🌿 Why raw dairy?
Better for your gut, better for the planet, and in our opinion… way tastier too. Skyr, kefir and yoghurt made from this milk? Absolute dream.

We’re so proud to be supporting a farm that champions sustainability, biodiversity and real food from the ground up.

26/03/2025

Stocked full with loads of beautiful organic and local fruit and veg in our stall in the today! We are so privileged to be selling in one of the most iconic places in Cork and delighted to showcase what we do.

Fruit/Veg in photos:
1. Aubergine Ping Tung
2. Purple Cauliflower
3. Romanesco
4. Tomato “Rebellion”
5. Blood Oranges
6. Purple Artichoke

28/02/2025

Loads of beautiful locally grown vegetables and organic fruit available at our stall in ! We are privileged to be trading in what is the heartbeat of Cork food.

25/02/2025

Something very exciting is in the planning stages over on this side of town 🤤👇👇

25/02/2025

We are delighted to be partnering with the to bring you an exciting 1-day masterclass course in Profitability in the Market Garden with world renowned Canadian market gardener and the .

Join us for an intensive and hands-on 1-day masterclass featuring a focus on living soils, and choosing the most profitable field crops in the market garden. The course will take place on Cork Rooftop Farm’s Glenbrook holding, just north of Cork City.

DATE: Sunday June 29th, 2025
TIMES: 10.30am to 6.30pm
VENUE: Glenbrook (Cork Rooftop Farm), near White’s Cross, Co Cork T23 TC67
COST: €175 when you sign up through NOTS or else €290 (includes lunch and a BBQ dinner)

PARTICIPANTS: Strictly limited (Sign up ASAP to confirm your place)

Please note – to qualify for the NOTS rate, you must be a) resident in Ireland; and b) employed in any sector (either full-time or part-time). If you are not currently in employment – please sign up directly through Cork Rooftop Farm.

Links for the course are in our bio!

25/02/2025

Exciting Changes at Cork Rooftop Farm

We are announcing the closure of our beloved shop on Cornmarket Street to accommodate the much-anticipated opening of Birdsong, the second restaurant of the esteemed Glass Curtain. Nestled on both the ground and first floor, this new addition will bring a unique farm-to-fork offering to Cork’s vibrant culinary scene.

While we say goodbye to our physical store, this transition marks new beginnings for Cork Rooftop Farm. We are delighted to confirm that our presence at the English Market remains steadfast, and we will continue to serve the people of Cork from our stall, ensuring our community has access to locally grown, organic and sustainable produce.

We are thrilled by the thriving success of our online veg box subscription service, paired with the support we’ve received at the English Market. With these growing opportunities, we are channelling our efforts towards expanding our online operations and continuing to deliver quality produce to more homes.

Moreover, we are excited to announce a series of educational courses this summer, providing the community with hands-on learning experiences to grow your own food both on our rooftop and at our 60 acre organic farm. Among these is the much-anticipated Market Gardening course led by world renowned expert Jean-Martin Fortier on June 29th. With limited tickets available, this event promises to be an enriching experience for horticultural professionals. Tickets will be available soon.

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all our loyal customers and supporters who have been with us throughout this journey and continue to support us. While this marks the end of one chapter, we are excited about these new opportunities to engage with our community and share our passion for sustainable farming and growing.

We look forward to seeing everyone at our English Market stall, the farms, upcoming events, and exploring these new ventures together!

18/01/2025

In the Autumn of 2020 we began our first market garden at Laharn. We set it up using the deep compost mulch system, focusing on a no-dig approach for soil health. We applied 6inches (15cm) minimum of compost for our beds and the same in wood chip for the paths.

The soil was a heavy clay soil and we setup the market garden in very wet conditions. The constant traversing of the ground with wheel barrows and our own feet meant that we caused considerable compaction in the initial setup. We spent the next two years undoing the damage we caused unfortunately and it was a tough lesson to learn.

We did still produce some beautiful vegetables and we funded the investments through a CSA box scheme in those initial years. The beds were 75cm (30”) in width and 10m long, standardised in blocks of 10 beds. We took huge learnings from those initial years at Laharn which stood us in good stead for future setups. Like everything with the rooftop farm since the beginning, it’s been about learning from our mistakes, always trying our best, and working hard to do things better the next time.

16/01/2025

In 2021 we started our first ever flock of pasture raised layers. We had 400 hens initially and out of all the enterprises we have taken on here at Cork Rooftop Farm over the years, this was the one which was by far the most challenging. We built a mobile unit for the hens to lay and live in but straight away we ran into major difficulties regarding regulations compliance due to the minimum housing standards for free-range birds. Although our birds were incredibly happy and healthy and spent the majority of their days out foraging and scratching in the fields, the design of the mobile unit did not tick all the boxes, most notably in terms of minimum floor area.

Straight away we ran into significant issues regarding foxes. We used electrified mesh fencing surrounding the hens and they were always locked inside at night for their protection but Mr Fox always seemed to find a way which was quite heartbreaking. Just as soon as we thought we had figured out our defences against the Fox, a new foe appeared, Mink. A non-native animal in Ireland, they are extremely deadly creatures when it comes to killing large numbers of wild life in one go. They do massive damage to biodiversity in Ireland and have no natural predator so they thrive and spread.

The worst morning I had was in June 2023 when I arrived to the flock to find 75 hens all killed. Most with their heads ripped clean off but the rest of the body left alone. It was a very upsetting situation and not long after we wound down on our pasture raised laying enterprise as the risks to the animals I felt was just too high in spite of our huge efforts to keep them safe.

Nature can teach you some very hard lessons and this was definitely one of those instances for me.

14/01/2025

Thanks to Sarah and Michael who helped us put in honey bees on the roof in that first year and held our hand the whole way through til harvest! To be able to harvest your own honey is beyond a treat and to have it smack bang in the middle of the city is the something I absolutely treasure!

13/01/2025

In the autumn of 2020 we received delivery of our aeroponic tower farm. This enabled us to grow an assortment of leafy greens, herbs and other vegetables all year round on the rooftop. We used the towers for two years and discontinued them at the end of 2022 as we transitioned to becoming fully organic. Vertical farming is an area of agriculture which has seen billions of euros investment in recent years. It has seen a number of high profile companies rise and fall in that time due to the enormous associated costs to run such enterprises. I’m glad of the learnings we took away from our time growing using vertical towers and in certain contexts, they are a viable alternative to growing in soil.

It’s my own personal opinion that there is no substitute for healthy, microbially rich soil as a growing medium. In Europe it is a minimum standard that vegetables and fruit must be grown in soil in order to be certified organic. This standard is not the case in the United States of America and Canada. How can something be organic if it’s not grown in soil?!

I believe that instead of farming to standards such as organic, bio-dynamic, regenerative, chemical-free, etc in the future, we will be farming and consuming based on the nutritional density of our crops and food. This will take some time and technology, farmers, retailers and consumers will all need to come on board but ultimately it would create a level playing field for best practices in every sector of agriculture.

12/01/2025

In the early stages of my very steep learning curve in agriculture, I did a farm scale Permaculture course with .co in Sweden. This was one of the most influential learning experiences of my life and it introduced me to so many topics in agriculture that I had never been exposed to. Learning about how agricultural systems when managed in a hollistic way, could have a really positive impact on your environment, your community and that you could make a decent living from it. It inspired me to pursue other enterprises such as micro-greens, market gardening and pasture raised laying hens. I look back with incredibly fond memories on the 10 days I spent there and I’m hugely thankful for Richard and what he taught me.

12/01/2025

Almost to the day, 4 years ago we sold the first produce from the rooftop at the farmers market on the Coal Quay! It was an absolutely amazing feeling, to be able to grow, harvest and sell our produce from the same place. That day we sold around €250 worth of salad leaves, microgreens and herbs grown from the rooftop and it was the such a memorable experience to meet and chat with the people buying our produce, to tell them what we were doing and that buzz still remains to this day! We were still in the thick of Covid and it was strange times but the atmosphere at the farmers market was so positive and inspiring, to witness the support being given to local growers, artisan producers and vendors

11/01/2025

How it all started back in March 2020…

15/11/2024

We place a huge emphasis on minimal disturbance of our soil. A core reason for this is to allow fungal networks to thrive. Why so? Well, imagine a bustling city, vibrant and full of life. Beneath its streets lies an intricate subway system, teeming with activity, silently connecting people and places without drawing much attention. This is akin to the role fungi play in our farm’s soil.

Recently, a variety of fungi have sprouted throughout the wood chip pathways of our permanent beds, weaving through our soil. These fungi are not merely passive residents; they are active builders of soil health, contributing significantly to the well-being of our plants.

The Underground Network
Much like a subway connects neighborhoods and supports the movement of people, the mycelium (the underground part of fungi) forms vast networks beneath the soil surface. These networks connect plant roots, enabling them to communicate and share resources. This is sometimes referred to as the “Wood Wide Web” for its similarity to the internet in terms of connectivity and information flow.

Nutrient Sharing and Support
Fungi help in nutrient cycling. They break down organic matter, making nutrients more available to plants. Think of them as the city’s couriers, ensuring that essential nutrients get to plants just like packages get to doorsteps. This results in improved plant health, stronger root systems, and better resilience against diseases.

Water Management
In times of water scarcity or drought, fungi act as an auxiliary water supply for plants. They absorb and retain water, sharing it with the plants in need, much like a city’s reservoir system releases water during dry spells. This symbiotic relationship ensures that plants are not only nourished but also well-hydrated.

Inducing Growth and Diversity
The presence of fungi in our farm also promotes biodiversity, inviting a cadre of beneficial and insects into the garden. This diversity bolsters soil health, enhances plant growth, and creates a thriving environment

12/11/2024

This is the Coal Quay from around 1910, where the Rooftop Farm is based. The Coal Quay has long been a place for trade and commerce in Cork City with some families trading there for multiple generations. My own family have worked on the Coal Quay since the early 1980s when Central Floral Supples, (then Cork Floral Supplies) was opened on the street by my father Kevin.

moved out of the city in 2006 due to the changing nature of the city with companies more and more moving to the outskirts in the suburbs where access was easier and parking for trucks and loading more convenient. Cornmarket street received a facelift in that time and a vision for a more pedestrian friendly city centre was seen as the way forward. Our family retained ownership of the building and in 2020 I started the Rooftop Farm with the shop opening in the Autumn of 2021.

It would be amazing to see a new vision for the Coal Quay which brings back an emphasis on trade whilst retaining a strong link to the history and culture of traders and gives a better experience for the people of Cork city.

What would you like to see on the Coal Quay? There is a Farmers Market on Saturday mornings which gives a glimpse of the potential of the street but this needs enhanced in my opinion and built upon. What would make the Coal Quay a more compelling place to come to shop? How could we bring it back to its former glory when literally thousands of people came to shop?

05/11/2024

Nice delivery into .wholesale this evening of our Kale, Carrots and Beetroot. Great to be working with a local wholesaler who wants to support Irish growers. Important that all links in the supply chain support Irish produce in order to have a healthier horticulture industry in this country.

21/10/2024

29/02/2024

Big things coming…