I love seeing great gardening in the city. It encourages me to make the most out of my little cement-floored backyard, which currently houses some herbs, a potted strawberry plant and a tomato plant that’s supported by butcher’s string. I brought my friend Sorcha, whose dreamy Dublin 7 garden is brimming with courgettes, tomatoes, rhubarb and all manner of beautiful flowers, in search of some urban inspiration at Airfield House in Dundrum.
Airfield Trust was established in 1974 in order for Letitia Overend (then 94) and her younger sister Naomi (then 74) to share their 38-acre farm with the city, as a place to get away from the hustle and bustle, and learn something about farming. Letitia passed away in 1977 and Naomi saw the development of Airfield into a public space until she passed away in 1993. Airfield closed for a redevelopment process respectful of the sisters’ ethos in 2011, reopening in phases between October of last year and April of this year.
After a quick walk from Ballally Luas stop, we arrive at Airfield early on a Friday evening. A sign at the front gate tells us the public are welcome at 10am and 6.30pm to see the Jersey Cows being milked. We pay the €5 entry fee to the gardens and scuttle through to the farm where we join a group of dazzled toddlers to see the Jersey cows being milked while their roommates of friendly goats and a (less friendly) pregnant sow look on. We meander back to Overends Café and feel very, very far away from the city.
“The inspiration for Café was very much guided by the Overend Sisters themselves and their desire for Airfield and their beloved farm to be used for recreation and education,” Overends Café and Restaurant manager Robert Scanlon tells me. “We wanted the restaurant to represent both those wishes, a place to come and relax and enjoy a lovely lunch or dinner. But also be able to learn more about where the food has come from.”
Horticulturist and food grower Kitty Scully and farmer Eamon Young are seen as very much a part of the kitchen team. “They both often visit the kitchen, in Kitty’s case on a daily basis. She delivers her much loved and cared for produce up to the kitchen door, by wheel barrow – no vans or trucks needed!” They’ve been harvesting tomatoes, peas and beans throughout the summer while autumn promises apples, plums, medlars, beetroot, pumpkins, kale, celeriac, and parsnip among its bounty.
We eat a gloriously vibrant tomato salad that is simply dressed with rich olive oil and accompanied by a creamy curd made in-house. A garden green pea risotto is bright and al dente, with, I suspect, a healthy dose of cheese to make it super yummy. The mains are a joyous lamb dish served among bulgar wheat and broad beans, with a moreish booze and black olive sauce on the side which we would have liked a little more of. A plate of baked hake comes with more of those beautiful tomatoes while a plate of fluffy baby potatoes appears, their delightful skins intact and a sprinkling of sea salt the final flourish.
Garden fruits such as strawberries and blueberries are displayed beautifully in a jelly with chamomile ice-cream for dessert, while a light Rum Baba cake makes use of seasonal apricots (not from the garden this time but there are high hopes for future Airfield apricots).
What we find on our plates is beautiful produce from the Airfield gardens delicately celebrated; a simple menu that doesn’t over-complicate the ingredients. While the breakfast and lunch prices are accessible (pancakes bacon and maple syrup for €6.50), dinner is a little steeper at two courses for €25 and 3 courses for €31. We’re here on a special deal that offers a three course meal and an after dinner tour of the gardens for €36. Bat Conservation Ireland are leading our particular tour and we head out after dinner with a group of about 20 fellow diners to look for Common Pipistrelle bats around the grounds. It’s a tour that fits in perfectly with Airfield’s somewhat quirky past. As I read more about Letitia and Naomi, I admire more their delightful eccentricities and independence; the way they named their Jersey cows after Gilbert and Sullivan characters and fiercely protected their family farm against the pressures of a growing city.
Overends and Airfield makes me feel a bit giddy. Over dinner, I look out the window to my left and I can see the poly-tunnels where the tomatoes I’m eating were grown. This kind of blows my mind. I’ll be looking for more places like Overends where I can see my plump tomatoes making their way from the farm to my fork.
Overends Café
Airfield House, Overend Way, Dundrum, Dublin 14
t: 01-9696666
Words: Aoife McElwain / Photography: Mark Duggan
