Just over a week now until Ireland's first National Youth Food Summit on 20th September at Airfield Estate. 🥕🌱🌍 This event will bring together young people from Junior infants all the way up to young professionals and everyone in between for a day of learning about where our food comes from and where young people have a place in the agri-food system with activities tailored to each age group. With activities from foodie storytime, butter-making, food waste workshops and short-film screenings for the primary and secondary school students and panel discussions spanning culture, careers and policy making; film screenings, culinary workshops, farm walks and a networking reception for the third level students and young professionals.  This day brings together young people from ac...

Are you looking for ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle in Ireland? As Earth Day approaches, we would like to share the opportunities and programmes for reducing our carbon footprint and protecting the natural environment here at Airfield Estate. Visitors to the estate will find multiple “sustainable stops” on the paths around the site where we demonstrate how small changes have significant positive impacts on our daily lives. Be inspired and empowered to make changes in your homes and workplaces to reduce your carbon footprint and live more sustainably.   How We Are Lowering Our Carbon Footprint   At Airfield Estate, we set out to reduce our carbon footprint by 25%. However, you cannot improve what you can’t measure so our process began with establishing ...

Are you tired of endless posts urging you to make New Year Resolutions for 2022? Sometimes the thought of creating new year resolutions and the inevitable prospect of not living up to them might be another source of stress - yet another line on our to-do list! Here is another way of approaching the year ahead. Rather than imposing New Year resolutions at the start of the year, ask yourself: what story will you be telling at the end of 2022? We believe there are so many ways your 2022 story could be a better one, especially if you are trying to create a healthier, more sustainable way of life for you and your family. Ways to Build a Better Story in 2022 Here at Airfield, we continue to be inspired by Letitia and Naomi Overend who left Airfield Estate in trust to the people of Ire...

Climate change is one of the most urgent issues currently facing humanity. Human emissions of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) are a primary driver of this change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2021 report states that “it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land”. This has led to more extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. It states that “strong, rapid and sustained reductions” in greenhouse gases are necessary to stabilise warming global temperatures and mitigate the worst of these impacts. The work we do in Airfield to educate on sustainable farming and food production has never been more relevant. Food production is a complex system tied to emissions at many steps....

This month's Cuppa with features John O'Toole, Director of Operations and Sustainability at Airfield Estate. Where do you want to see Airfield in 10-15 years time? Having been part of Airfields evolution for the past 15 years I have seen a significant transition from the Overends family home to a visitor and educational amenity in the heart of a city location, which in many ways fulfils the Overends/Airfield Trust request. In the next 15 years, I would like to see Airfield being equally transformative forging research and consumer behaviour change resulting in positive influences related to both food and environmental challenges, that face us every day. It’s time to go beyond the walls of Airfield and expand our reach. Wouldn’t it be great to enhance Airfields financia...

March We are in the ‘in between’ time when the crops of winter are beginning to fade out and new spring season crops starting to kick in. The start of the wild nettle season is upon us toward the end of this month. When there is a bit of heat in the sun you’ll find young nettle shoots popping up all over the place. It’s best to let the growing season take hold before picking. And when you do pick, take the young nettle tops which keeps the roots there and allows the patch to thrive for an extended growing season. Nettles make great soup, with an iron content like spinach. Nettle tea is also a very healthy drink, full of the minerals of these wild plants. During March, you’ll find carrots and parsnips and perhaps Irish cauliflower in some regions. Young spring cabbage is exc...

Sustainability is at the core of everything we do here at Airfield Estate, and this includes how we facilitate private events. All the food served during events at Airfield features heavily produce, meat, and dairy from within our own 38-acres. In our work to build a more sustainable food system here, our food garden is certified-organic by the Irish Organic Association and our farm practices regenerative farming. It's not just the food production that focuses on sustainability, but also the disposal. We're home to a anerobic digester, which allows us to speed up the process of breaking down the waste in our brown bins so it can find its way into our gardens even faster. Any waste from the gardens themselves, from grass clippings to apples that drop before they can be harvested, gets...