Farm to fork: neighbourhood food in the heart of Dublin suburbia
Luke Matthews, culinary ambassador and head chef, Overends Kitchen at Airfield Estate, Dundrum, Co Dublin.
Airfield Estate is a productive 38-acre farm overlooking Dundrum Town Centre, Ireland’s largest shopping centre.
Vegetables, fruit, milk and meat from the farm and gardens go directly into Overends Kitchen, the busy on-site café and restaurant. This is something that Luke Matthews, culinary ambassador and head chef, appreciates. “We are really lucky to have such an amazing relationship with all of our suppliers, but in particular being able to walk 200 meters and chat to Brian, the farmer for the estate, about the quality of this year’s lambs, turkeys or beef is incredible. It’s certainly unique compared to most places,” he says.
Overends Kitchen is named after the estate’s previous owners, a family who established it as a working farm in the 19th century, producing food and maintaining a prize-winning herd of Jersey cattle. The last owners were sisters Letitia (1890-1977) and Naomi Overend (1900-1993), two intrepid philanthropists and farmers, donating pasteurised milk from their farm in the 1920s to help reduce infant mortality at a time when TB was rampant. They were also involved in setting up the Children’s Sunshine Home, a rehabilitation centre for children with rickets.
These were practical and self-sufficient women who insisted on doing a car maintenance course in the 1930s so that they could keep their own cars on the road. They understood the meaning of sustainable long before it became a current buzzword.
In 1974 the sisters left their estate in trust to the people of Ireland. It is now a charitable organisation that aims to educate and inspire people to make better food choices for their health and the environment. Cooking classes and workshops are a key part of this. The Airfield community food hub has videos on menu planning and cooking nutritious meals, and a Junior Cycle short course called Food: From the Ground Up is available to download from the website.
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB
The land is farmed in an environmentally sustainable way and, as Matthews points out, this follows through into the restaurant. “GLAS [the Irish word for green] is the key principle behind everything we do in Overends Kitchen: go with the season, local with produce, avoid food waste and sustainably sourced... This should be a staple understanding in everyone’s education.”
With supermarkets operating an always-in-stock situation when it comes to fruit and vegetables, it can be difficult to maintain a connection with the seasonal nature of food. “By having such a close relationship with the farm we are able to see everything from beginning to end,” says Matthews. “This in turn heavily influences our production within the kitchen, where we take a root to shoot, nose to tail approach to bring the value of the produce through to the customer.”
Fostering this greater involvement with food is actively demonstrated through activities on the estate. Visitors are encouraged to gather at the hen coop for the egg collection, proceed to the milking parlour to see the cows being milked, wander past the veg garden and through the orchard as they explore. This bounty makes its way into the restaurant and farm shop, where squash and heritage carrots are transformed into salads and you can buy some Jersey milk to bring that creamy goodness home with you.
When a chef has such an involved relationship with the food and those that produce it, it helps to keep the focus on cooking sustainably and avoiding food waste. Matthews says that there is little waste in the Overends Kitchen, and he shares a few tips that may be useful at home: “We have sneaky little tricks to reuse as much as we can, be it roasting food in coffee grinds, pickling cauliflower leaves or even using rinds and peels to flavour kombucha.”
It’s a case of thinking outside the box before disposing of any food. “Most items have lots of uses, and even when they don’t we can pop it into the composting on the farm to help nourish next year’s harvest,” says Matthews.
How does this sustainability transfer into our own home kitchens? For Matthews, GLAS can also work on a smaller scale: “All of the principles have merit, but in my view being able to pop down to your local farmers’ market, meet the producer, see what’s in season and try new experiences is irreplaceable.”
The more we focus on seasonal, local and sustainable food, the less we’ll waste.
The Overends Kitchen is a three-star member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Food Made Good award programme, which has also recognised Food Space, a catering company with outlets throughout the country, and Bujo Burger Joint in Sandymount, Co Dublin.
In 2021 Michelin introduced a Green Star to highlight restaurants with a focus on sustainable practices. Three of these awards went to Irish restaurants: Kai and Loam in Galway, along with Inis Meáin Restaurant and Suites on the Aran Islands.
