07-08-2025
Working Life: My interest in gardening isn't random... my great grandfather was head gardener at a stately home
Chloe Dempsey, fermenter, forager, gardener (@fermentforagegrow)
When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I worked in content management at Zazzle on Union Quay for a while and then as an administrator in VoxPro.
While at Voxpro, I met Ciara Parsons, a permaculturist. Voxpro (now Telus, near Mahon Point) had gardens for the benefit of staff as a lot of them lived in apartments and didn't have gardens of their own.
Ciara looked after the garden at Voxpro and she told me about a course in Kinsale College where you can study subjects like permaculture design, sustainable horticulture, and plant identification and use.
Covid prompted me to re-evaluate my life, when I found myself working a lot from home.
I saw that I could be making better use of my time than spending hours commuting every day from Fermoy to Mahon Point.
I started experimenting in the garden and kitchen and got into fermenting and foraging.
I lost my mum in 2020 and that made me think about my life too — that we should follow our dreams. I signed up for the course in Kinsale College.
My interest in gardening isn't random. My great grandfather was head gardener at Bearforest, a former stately home near Mallow.
It was a big deal to be head gardener; you had to train for seven years and were responsible for growing food for use in 'the Big House'.
I guess you could say there's a green thumb in the family. It's funny how things thread through time.
During my college course, I did my placement at the Fermentation Shed at Ballymaloe Cookery School.
I learnt so much there about water kefir, kombucha, and kimchi, fermented goods with potential health benefits.
I now run workshops on gardening, foraging, and fermenting with schools, and with social enterprise and not-for-profit groups such as CECAS in West Cork, Regenerate in Kinsale, and formerly with Common Knowledge in County Clare, where Harrison Gardner runs his build school.
Later this month (August 14), as part of the Cork on a Fork festival, I will lead a Wild Walk and Garden Tasting evening, which involves taking people on a walk through Fitzgerald's Park, showing them how to identify edible and medicinal plants.
Afterwards, we'll head to Proby's Kitchen for a water kefir demonstration, talk, and a nourishing tasting of foraged foods.
To book tickets, visit
