From plot to plate: The Bristol restaurant focused on sustainability with its very own farm

We visited Pasture's very own farm that boasts a vineyard, its own bees, a storage container full of micro-herbs and fields of fresh produce - all to be found on your plate at the restaurant

Just a stone's throw from Ashton Court where, this summer, Bristol's Pasture restaurant team served up some of its delicious fare for Bristol Balloon Fiesta goers, owner Sam Elliott has turned the land next to his house into a farm which supplies fresh produce to his restaurants.

For the past five years, Buttercliffe Farm has developed into a thriving spot that enables the team at Pasture, as well as immersive dining experience Radius, to select what they grow, and then harvest it and serve it up to restaurant guests when the time comes, all within a few hours, making for the freshest fruit, vegetables, herbs and garnishes on plates. The farm isn't open to the public, so we took a visit to share a glimpse into what's going on behind the scenes of one of Bristol's biggest and most popular names on the foodie scene.

As you enter the farm, which spans a total of around three acres, the first thing you notice is row upon row of grapevines in the farm's very own vineyard. The team have planted 3,000 vines within the grounds - a mixture of two different types of grape, pinot noir and seyval blanc.

Currently the vines are regularly tended to and cut back before they can produce the fruit, as a means of making sure the vines are as healthy and prosperous as possible. There is also a small nursery of around 50 vines which are grown to replace any of the main vines which don't do as well.

Planning permission for a winery on site has already gone through and building will be getting underway in the not-so-distant future, and diners at Pasture's restaurants will eventually be able to enjoy a glass of farm-made wine, it is hoped. However, at time of writing you can already sample some wine vinegar made using the grapes, which is often used in dishes. It's just some of the many things being produced by the farm team.

The farm team consists of 'farmer Tom' (Tom McPugh), Morgan Matthews and Javi Cazorla - all three are extremely talented and knowledgeable in their respective fields and have been given free rein by Sam to explore different plants, produce and ways of utilising the farm each season. Tom doesn't shy away from showing any invited guests around his 'pride and joy', and he (as well as every member of the team and staff we spoke to during our recent visit) said he was "extremely lucky" to be in his role.

"To get to do something I'm passionate about every day is something I'm very grateful for," he says. Tom is responsible for what is grown in the farm, as well as how everything is laid out.

Each season he comes up with a master plan, which is framed in the farm's office on site for his team to see. He also loves building the bigger structures, including the polytunnels which house a number of different key ingredients to the menu. Among the rest of the team, Tom is also always researching new ways of planting and harvesting, and these can be seen in various shapes and forms as you wander the grounds - be it plants helping each other to grow, or other ingenious farming hacks from around the world.

For him, having studied agriculture but leaving to work on the farm before he could get a qualification, Tom is learning on the job but is already the expert farmer on site. "We finish work every Friday, but there'll be times when I will come by to water the plants on a weekend if the weather gets too hot, or I'll be thinking about ways we can do something for the next harvest. We're also all here talking to everything we grow, too, as well as each other - we're a close team."

Meanwhile Morgan, who came to the farm after being furloughed from her job during the Covid-19 pandemic, says she enjoys the finer details and more fiddly aspects of the farm's work. She too expressed how "lucky" she is to be in her role, adding that it brings with it a real wellness and is really a positive job for mental health - even in the wetter seasons.

"Coming from my old job, I couldn't imagine doing anything else", she says. "I'm very lucky."

Javi is not only responsible for the grapevines in the vineyard, but is also a sommelier and is responsible for pairing the wines that go, in particular, alongside the dishes of the extremely popular Radius tasting menu experience. He'll also be responsible for the winery when it is built on site.

All three of this exquisitely brought together farm team never miss a beat when asked questions about the farm, or other aspects of the business, and are always looking for innovative and more sustainable ways of doing things.

Together with farm dog Susan, who is owned by farmer Tom and who even many of the chefs and restaurant staff have met during the company's staff only farm days or volunteering at the site during the week, the team work all throughout the year - often with help from Sam, and even his wife and children (and their own dog).

Morgan mentions how 2023 saw the team of three bid farewell to one another around a week before Christmas, toasting a drink on site before they went their separate ways to recuperate ready for the next year's work.

There are often times when staff from the Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham Pasture restaurants will visit the farm, gather ingredients, and enjoy a meal cooked by Sam using the restaurant's first ever oven - it can be seen standing proudly under a grapevine covered canopy, next to the long wooden tables and benches at which staff will sit and enjoy some delicious food together.

The restaurant group's sustainability manager, Alec Wilkinson, even spent much of his Covid-19 lockdown at this spot when he didn't have a garden or outdoor space of his own to enjoy. "I would take on some shifts here on the farm, or just hang out getting some fresh air," he says.

"With the restaurants shut, we'd put together veg boxes that people could buy, using the produce we'd grown on the farm. So nothing went to waste."

When they deliver the freshly harvested farm produce through the doors of Pasture and Radius, they say, diners are always keen to know more about the food and the people who have been growing it. And this is something that chef owner Sam, alongside Alec, really hopes there'll be more of.

The farm, at the time of our visit, was luscious and rich with hearty looking fruit, veg, herbs, edible flowers and more. From hefty tomatoes and carrots of all colours, to giant pumpkins, courgettes, and leaves of plants that tasted like lime (and were used as the main flavour in drinks on the Radius menu), or as if you were biting into an actual apple (with juice and all).

Now spread across more than one field, the main area of the farm uses the 'no dig' method, follows organic practices and strives to work to permaculture principles. No pesticides or chemicals are used on site, and the team give back to nature by ensuring there are spaces for local wildlife to thrive (without the need of eating any of the plants). There's a little pond, a bug hotel and they even keep their own bees, the honey of which is to be used in many a creation by Pasture and Radius chefs.

In fact, the only issue they have had when it comes to wildlife nibbling away at some of what they've grown, has been the local deer - but a quick friendly bark from Susan soon sees them off.

Expanding the site has meant that a second field (which doesn't follow the 'no dig' rule) is beginning to see some produce coming through, and a storage container on site makes for the perfect environment (it's decked out with lights, dehumidifiers and dark spaces) for Tom and Morgan's 'micro-herbs' to thrive.

The most impressive aspect of the farm, and something the team hopes will ever grow, is just how in-demand it is by the restaurants, and how quickly produce makes it from the farm and onto plates. More often than not, the farm and what is growing there at any given time, will shape the menus in the restaurants, and is proving that Pasture has the needs of its local community, as well as its impact on the environment, at the forefront of its mind at all times.

And, with more and more people taking more of an interest in where the food on their plate is coming from, the team hope that their farm is the talking point that will bring more people through their doors.

Stay tuned for the second part of this feature, when we visit Radius at Pasture and sample the tasting menu, which is packed full of the farm's produce.