Cork on a Fork festival to showcase sustainability trategies
The Rebel County’s premier food festival is highlighting more than the county’s delicious dining. Community participation is a strong strand to the festival now food education, grassroots activism, and local biodiversity is helping Cork to produce some of the best food in the world.
Producing that premium produce, however, is becoming ever more challenging, especially in the face of environmental pressures, and the COAF Green Strand offers an insider’s view of local food systems, the problems they face and how local organisations are rolling up their sleeves to tackle them and how ordinary citizens can get involved to make a real difference.
Best of all, many of these hands-on immersive events offer a chance to roll up your sleeves and get involved as well as an opportunity to taste delicious local food.
Taking place over three days from Friday 14 - Sunday 16 August in a variety of venues around the city, this packed schedule includes talks, debates, masterclasses, hands-on demos and plenty of opportunities to eat the best of Cork produce, while learning how to become a part of the action plans to improve local food security.
Kicking off on Friday in St Peter’s Church, North Main St with Serving Up Sustainable Food to the People of Cork, food writer Joe McNamee hosts as food activist organisation Cork Food Policy Council addresses the issues and showcases practical sustainability initiatives.
This includes an introduction to bokashi, the indoor and odour-free Japanese composting process; citizen science and how local Corkonians can take matters into their own hands to monitor and clean-up local rivers and waterways; and a new Dutch farming concept enabling a farm just outside Cork city to produce premium, chemical-free food for local families.
Elsewhere in the city on Friday, The Hideout Café and Art Gallery hosts A Green Lunch Celebration, serving up wild nettle soup, fresh salad wraps, and homemade lemonade while Douglas Tidy Towns will host a free Herb Garden Workshop at Douglas Community Park, led by renowned botanist Jo Goodyear.
Saturday’s theme is cultural heritage and biodiversity with Togher Community Gardens launching their cookbook, including free tastings of delicious dishes using the garden’s produce, while Cork City Library launch Market Gardens of Cork: Heritage and Biodiversity Exhibition, a fascinating historical archive charting the histories of the families that fed Cork city for generations and contrasting lost traditional systems with modern food production.
Community gardener Niamh Cawley leads green-fingered children through a child-friendly Make Your Own Seed Bombs in the Children’s Food Tipi at Bishop Lucey Park, while Murphy's Farm Community Garden in Bishopstown welcomes all for a Farm-to-Fork Cook-Up, cooking organic veg from their own gardens.
Sunday sees a stellar panel of high profile food activists, including GIY’s Mick Kelly, led by food writer and host Kate Ryan for Seed Sovereignty with Sow Diverse. Also featuring seed activists Patrick and Randa Howell of Sow Diverse and the progressive small farmers organisation, Talamh Beo, the panel will focus on taking back control of local seed networks from agricultural conglomerates to secure corporate-free biodiversity. The event is immediately followed by a Heritage Seed Swap in the Christchurch Courtyard.
Cork on a Fork Fest is a Cork City Council festival, supported by local businesses, Fáilte Ireland, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Visit Cork, Cork Airport, Cork Business Association, LEO Cork City, the Irish Hotels Federation Cork, MTU, Science Ireland, headline sponsor Musgrave and a host of event partners.
For the full programme, booking information and ticket details, visit www.corkonaforkfest.ie.