Urban Farming in Copenhagen

The New Nordic food movement seems to have succeeded in bringing everyone’s attention on locally sourced, seasonal and organic food. What used to be a practice of only a few pioneers on the Danish food scene, has been growing like never before, and the city’s landscapes have become the focus of attention. The Locals are becoming conscious of cultivation and foraging, and restaurants and residents alike want to source their food directly from their own backyard, rooftop and, why not, the harbour.

Below you will find information about restaurants working with urban farming in Copenhagen and surroundings, as well as a list of interesting urban farming projects taking place in the Danish capital.

Urban farms in Greater Copenhagen

Bella Byhave
Ørestad, Copenhagen

Bella Byhave is a voluntary based urban garden community in the new Ørestad neighbourhood. Here you can help practice your green fingers together with other local hobby gardeners! Here you can grow flowers, herbs and vegetables. As a member of the urban garden, you get a small tasty supplement to your cooking at the same time the urban garden helps to strengthen the social life and the neighbourhood community.

Bioteket
Valhalsgade 4, 2200 Copenhagen N

Bioteket is a volunteer-based green culture hub for sustainability, where science, culture, and green activism flourishes together. Established in 2016, Bioteket is a hidden gem in Nørrebro. It is made of upcycled and refurbished shipping containers on two levels: Workshop, laboratory, and growing space for mushrooms on the ground level, and a greenhouse that accommodates the growth of plants, fish, insects, social events, and sustainable ideas on the first floor.

Birkemosegaard
Oddenvej 165, 4583 Sjællands Odde

The farm has been owned by the same family for 4 generations since 1906. Birkemosegaard is a biodynamically/organically grown farm and has been so since 1968. Since 1985, the farms has supplied organic and biodynamic goods to customers in Copenhagen. Their so-called “Thursday boxes” have become particularly popular and can be picked up by the locals at misc. locations in Copenhagen. The boxes are always filled with the season’s freshest ingredients, all organic or biodynamic. This way, Copenhageners have easy and direct access to some the best ingredients from the countryside.

Byhaven 2200
Hørsholmsgade 25, 2200 København N

Byhaven 2000 is a lovely community garden in a public park at the corner of Hørsholmsgade and Stefansgade in the city district of Nørrebro, a multicultural and trendy neighbourhood of Copenhagen. Its work is entirely based on volunteers.

Grantoftegaard
Pederstrupvej 69, 2750 Ballerup

Grantoftegaard is a peri-urban organic farm and an eco-social farm with a farm shop, goats, chickens, and horses. The farm has kitchengarden plots, vegetable gardens and nature. It handles some 800 hectares of land spread across a large area of which 65% is used to grow different types of grain, clover and grass. The grain is mainly used for flour. The farm grows approx. 5.5 ha of delicious, organic vegetables - both open air and in an unheated greenhouse. All tplants are from seeds either sown directly in the field or germinated in the greenhouse and comprise some 50 different kinds of vegetables and herbs per season. The rest of the land area is allocated to the farm's 100 cows and 700 sheep.

Impact Farm Nørrebro
Sigurdsgade 26, 2200 Copenhagen

Impact Farm Nørrebro is a transportable 2-storey urban farm in Nørrebro, growing vegetables and create green jobs. We work for sustainable development and local value creation.

Krogerup Avlsgaard
Krogerupvej 3B, 3050 Humlebæk

In Humlebæk, 10kms from Elsinore, Krogerup Avlsgaard run an organic farm with 120 hectares of organic plant breeding and a versatile horticulture, including a taste field, where they handle a diverse vegetable production for testing as well as for the farm's kitchen and farm shop. They also have “Fælleshaverne” which is a large community garden where you get access to organic and ready-to-cultivate land, a large selection of organic seeds, your own solo garden and a community where cultivation and harvesting in the shared gardens.

MULD
Eriksholmvej 26, 4390 Vipperød

MULD is a small organic and self-sufficient farm with a dining room, where they organise gatherings in the rural countryside right outside of Copenhagen. Mulddamgaarden, short name MULD (Soil in Danish) is a small specialty farm with one mission: ‘Shortcutting the way from farm to fork’ MULD grows as many different crops as they can and keep various animals, in order to get as many ingredients for good food as possible, all year round. MULD does not serve meat, vegetables, fruit, berries, herbs, honey or eggs that have not been grown or bred at its own premises.

Rabarbergaarden
Holløse Gade 21, 3210 Vejby

Rabarbergaarden is an organic and holistic farm, with agriculture, market garden, farm restaurant, farmshop, organic nursery, school gardens and education. In focus is a world where food production is in balance with the earth and nature. They thus work for small scale farmers' opportunities to feed their community and create local jobs, and thereby creating sustainable and vibrant communities throughout Denmark.

Sundholmskvarterets Nabohave
Telemarksgade 12-16, 2300 Copenhagen 

Nabohaven is a user-driven urban garden in the Sundholm quarter on Amager, where residents and garden-loving people in the immediate area can grow vegetables, plant flowers, play, barbecue and have fun together. What comes up from the ground is common, and everyone is welcome to join. Every Monday between 2-5pm, several of Nabohaven's regular volunteers meet, and here there is always the opportunity to come by with questions and good ideas.

ØsterGro
Æbeløgade 4, 2100 Copenhagen Ø

On top of a former car auction house, lies Denmark’s first rooftop farm, ØsterGRO. ØsterGRO was started by three fiery souls in 2014. Today, two of the founders, Livia and Kristian, have teamed up with a handful of people to run the farm and its eatery, Gro Spiseri covers 600 m2 with fields of organic vegetables, fruits, greens, herbs and edible flowers, a greenhouse, henhouse and three beehives. ØsterGro is organized as a community-supported agriculture (CSA) and sells its produce, in cooperation with the farms Seerupgaard and Stensbølgård to 40 members. The members pay in advance for half a harvest season for a weekly share of the harvest.  Though it’s hidden well above ground, the place is well-visited by people that want to experience the farm’s special atmosphere and enjoy a good, organic dinner.

Øens Have
Refshaleøen, Copenhagen

Within months, the entrance of Refshaleøen will be enriched with Øens Have, a new green oasis in the centre of the city. The area will be transformed into a vibrant and green area of urban farming and wildlife and a place to grow local produce based on a diverse variety of plants, herbs and vegetables. The project is headed by the Danish team behind ØsterGro, who envisions Øens Have as the North's largest area of urban and organic farming. The motivating force is to create urban farming that will inspire and encourage more green and sustainable living and a place that increases the synergy between nature, agriculture, and the capital city. The plan is to involve more people in urban farming and to create a community around this, as Øens Have offers many different activities to participate in. As a guest, you’ll be able to enjoy food and drinks in the Øens Have restaurant, purchase local produce and ingredients from the farmer’s shop, become a volunteer in the vegetable fields, attend different workshops, or simply enjoy the green and flourishing surroundings located in the heart of Copenhagen.
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Restaurants working with urban farming in Copenhagen

noma
Refshalevej 96, 1432 Copenhagen

René Redzepi from noma is one of the persons behind New Nordic Cuisine in which foraging is an important element, so it is at noma, with its urban farm and glasshouses by the upcoming district of Refshaleøen

noma – the story of the restaurant, that turned Denmark into a gastro-nation.

Noma isn’t just any Michelin stared restaurant. They’ve become the true frontrunners of the New Nordic Kitchen Manifesto – ensuring the development of it throughout the nation. They wish to revive the authentic use of local ingredients and cooking methods such as foraging.
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Amass
Refshalevej 153, 1432 Copenhagen

Amass has its own 800-square meter garden situated directly in front of the dining room where they grow vegetables, herbs and other ingredients for the restaurant, including fish, which feed the plants inside the glasshouse.

Amass is one of the most sustainable restaurants in the Nordics with a zero waste principle. They serves contemporary, organic cuisine with a strict focus on locally sourced ingredients.

At Amass the menu is ever changing and influenced not only by terroir and the weather, but also by carefully examining every ingredient and by using the techniques that pay the highest respect to each ingredient.
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GRO Spiseri
Æbeløgade 4, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø

GRO Spiseri is a small eatery located on the rooftop of a parking lot in the residential district of Østerbro. Here, they co-exist with the rooftop farm Østergro, which is used by the restaurant as well as by local residents, who grow their own veggies and meet share them around the year. Østergro and GRO spiseri are amongst the most iconic examples of how an urban space (a parking lot) can have a double functionality and create life for the local community.

Have dinner among heads of cabbage and lettuce at Gro Spiseri at Denmark’s first rooftop farm

GRO spiseri is not like many other restaurants, and you can immediately feel the passion from the people working there. In the kitchen, four guys work closely together to shape the menu and select natural wines to accompany the food. Here, there’s no head chef and no hierarchy. The dinners take place in the cozy greenhouse, which is heated up by a multifunctional oven in the kitchen. One long table makes up for 24 seats, and all the guests often end up chatting with each other.
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Ark & Bistro Lupa
Nørre Farimagsgade 63, 1364 Copenhagen

Source most of their ingredients from local farms within 2 hours from the restaurants and closely collaborate with a mushroom farm, Funga Farm, right next to the restaurant. At Ark they believe that mushrooms are a mighty force to be reckoned with and contribute toward the promise of a more sustainable future.

Vegan casual fine dining restaurant where flavours, textures and culinary craftmanship meet a sustainable approach to the entire restaurant experience.

The restaurant has sustainably produced furniture and a light, Scandinavian look and feel but is in fact owned by two Australian chefs; Jason Renwick and Matt Niall who are opening Bistro Lupa in 2021 as well. It will be a more casual sister restaurant to the fine-dining Ark. At Lupa they are also focusing completely on plant based cuisine, with a high level of craftsmanship and friendly service. Their food takes inspiration from the  local environment but also across the globe. For both restaurants they get  Most of their supplies from within a 2-hour drive to the location, and many of them deliver the  products by a 15 minute bike ride.  
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Bæst and Mirabelle
Guldbergsgade 29, DK-2200 Copenhagen N

Bæst and Mirabelle, by Christian Puglisi, not only have their own own organic farm, Farm of Ideas, but produce their own mozzarella and Stracciatella on the first floor of the restaurant, in the organic-focused street Guldbergsgade in Nørrebro.

Bæst is an organic, Italian-inspired restaurant in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen. The restaurant has its own adjoined bakery Mirabelle.

At Bæst, which literally means "beast", ambitions of creating an authentic Italian restaurant are set aside to create a unique Italian-style Copenhagen restaurant, where great Italian produce such as extra virgin olive oil and sun-ripened tomatoes co-star along with the best local produce sourced from talented organic farmers in Denmark. Every morning a team of chefs drive from Nørrebro to the farm and harvest vegetables and collect milk from the cows. They bring it back to the kitchens of Relæ and Mirabelle Restaurant & Bakery - where they become beautiful fresh dishes for the restaurant guests to enjoy that same day.

Farm of Ideas is an organic, small-scale farming operation, dedicated to pushing the boundaries of sustainable agriculture. Alongside providing produce to all the restaurants within the Relæ Community, it hopes to spur dialogue among chefs and farmers that will lead to meaningful changes for the world’s food systems. Farm of Ideas is a place where gastronomy, agriculture, the city and the countryside can meet; for this is where the magic happens.
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Kadeau Copenhagen 
Wildersgade 10B, DK-1408 Copenhagen

Much of the produce at Kadeau Copenhagen originates from the restaurant’s own farm on Bornholm Island where they also have another restaurant: Kadeau Bornholm.

The two Michelin-starred Kadeau is a small piece of Bornholm in the middle of Copenhagen. 

Originally, there was only one restaurant Kadeau in Denmark, and that was situated on the island Bornholm. But in the 2011 the people behind Kadeau decided it was time to share the Bornholm delights with Copenhagen. Ever since, they have served high class gastronomy in the restaurant in Christianshavn. Here the menu is inspired by Bornholm specialties and Danish ingredients.
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Brace 
Teglgårdstræde 8A, DK-1452 Copenhagen

Head-chef Nicola Fanetti’s cooking at Brace is inspired a lot by foraging as a kid and as working at noma

Behind a picket fence in the heart of Copenhagen, Brace perfectly matches the Nordic with Italian gastronomy.

Restaurant Brace brings together north and south in a modern fusion of Nordic and Italian cuisine. The kitchen will let you in on new interpretations and experiments, though still cherishing old traditions and all the products are organic, locally sourced and sustainably farmed. You may have mamma’s favorite dish made with Nordic ingredients, or typical elements from the north with an Italian touch. 
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Vandvid
Ben Websters Vej 3, DK-2450 Copenhagen SV

Vandvid is a floating restaurant with focus on urban farming and local, organic food with their own little farm on top of the deck, in the “Venice of Copenhagen”, Sluseholmen, a canal-district in the southern part of Copenhagen Harbour.

Vandvid is a restaurant experience in the South Habour of Copenhagen, where you eat your dinner inside a floating houseboat.

In the summertime they have facilities for swimming in the clean water of Copenhagen Harbour, and they grow some of the fresh herbs and vegetables right on board. They receive organic vegetables and top quality meat from producers at a small Danish island called Glænø.
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In-depth articles

Urban gardens and wild nature - Urban farming expert, owner of OPENgardenCPH and one of our local contributors covering Copenhagen's culture, gastronomy and urban development 

VisitCopenhagen’s sustainability guide

Useful links

A list over smaller and community driven urban gardens in Copenhagen is available right here

Byhøst - has long been the banner bearer for wild food. Wild food means food that utilizes the raw materials that grow in nature.

Havhøst is the largest member organisation gathered around regenerative ocean cultivation in Denmark

Sanketure - offers guided tours in nature with Thomas Askov and Nina Christensen. They lead tours to discover the edible from nature and there is plenty to taste and a wide variety of plants, flowers, berries, leaves, fruits and mushrooms will become a part of a new pantry that opens for you.