'We’ve created our own little ecosystem' – Mary Wilson on what it takes to own a farm-to-table restaurant
Mary Wilson, co-owner of Wilsons in Bristol, speaks to us about why she committed to farm-to-table dining, her strategies for facing climate change and why small farms matter.
'We’ve created our own little ecosystem' – Mary Wilson on what it takes to own a farm-to-table restaurant
Mary Wilson, co-owner of Wilsons in Bristol, speaks to us about why she committed to farm-to-table dining, her strategies for facing climate change and why small farms matter.
If you walk past Wilsons, the first thing you are likely to notice is a stained glass sign in the window. The sign is made up of vegetables, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions and leeks with the restaurant’s name curving across the top. Although not a vegetarian restaurant, vegetables are at the heart of the Wilsons’ identity and ethos. Mary Wilson – Wilsons’ co-founder – grows most of them herself.
Mary rents a small plot of land outside Bristol, which has grown in scope and ambition in step with the restaurant. The sign is so fitting it seems as though it was made for the restaurant. In fact, it came from Mary’s parents’ restaurant in Shepherd’s Bush, also called Wilson’s. ‘That’s the only reason we called it Wilsons,’ Mary explained. ‘It’s funny that they’ve got vegetables on them – it’s just so in keeping and perfect.’
The original Wilson's ‘opened at a time when having exotic fruit and vegetables was more interesting’ than local ingredients, Mary explained. ‘But it was also at a time when Alastair Little was just starting. I think those conversations were just starting…and my family has Scottish heritage so we have a connection to that as well, and that kind of seasonal eating.’
Mary grew up in her family’s restaurant, and learnt about hospitality through working there and in other restaurants in London. However, her agricultural education started in India. ’I went and lived on a growing project in India for a little while and learnt more about sustainability. It was quite a global community and it was a permaculture project so I learnt a lot more about low impact food and sustainability.’
After working on the growing project Mary pivoted from hospitality to studying biodynamic agriculture and permaculture in Sussex, initially intending to go back to India. ‘As I was studying in East Sussex my cogs started turning. I really enjoy working in restaurants, I really enjoy being a part of that world, but it’s super wasteful. And living on a biodynamic farm and tasting what food should really taste like…[I thought] I’ve worked in restaurants my whole life but I’ve never tasted anything that tastes like this.’
Mary opened Wilsons in Bristol with her partner Jan, who is the head chef at Wilsons. But although she now grows most of the restaurant’s vegetables, it didn’t start off that way. In the beginning she rented a small land share outside of Bristol, and began growing things to help save money. ‘I just started off by growing mustard leaves and herbs and edible flowers and things that you kind of end up spending tonnes of money on in tiny punnets.’
As her ambition outstripped the size of the land share, she moved to a larger plot of land, gradually increasing the scope of what she could grow. ‘I started off quite small because I was pregnant when we were looking for the land, and then had just had a baby when we got the land.’
Wilsons is now, as Mary puts it, its own little ecosystem. Far from just growing some herbs and flowers, Mary, along with a seasonal grower, produces almost all the vegetables for the restaurant. ‘We started off really slowly,’ she explains, ‘because the whole time I only wanted to do what was manageable. We only use hand tools. [We have] a really strong commitment to hand tools, composting everything from the kitchen.’
The farm and restaurant have become deeply intertwined, growing in tandem with each other. When a crop fails, the team at Wilsons don’t buy their veg elsewhere: they rewrite the menu. ‘We’re really lucky because the restaurant supports the farm so that the farm can support the restaurant.’ Mary explained. A potato glut became potato ice cream served with a chocolate mousse, excess herbs were churned into a vibrant herb sorbet served with meringue.
However, despite the kitchen team’s creativity and resourcefulness, such a strong commitment to true farm-to-table dining is inevitably challenging and sometimes precarious. ‘Last growing season, or the season that’s coming to an end now, was really disastrous for us at the restaurant,’ she says. ‘It’s not that we didn’t have everything that the restaurant needed, it's just that there wasn’t the kind of production and abundance that we’re used to until very late in the year.’
The weather has swung from being intensely warm and wet one month to unseasonably hot and dry the next. The unpredictable weather meant that the Wilsons was constantly playing catch up, with the kitchen rewriting the menu sometimes at the very last minute. ‘We were constantly having to say ‘We’ve run out of this thing’ or ‘this thing hasn’t worked’, which is stressful for them because with a week’s notice they’re like ‘Great, we have to write a whole new menu’ because this thing hasn’t worked. It’s definitely the effects of climate change but it’s consistently been happening for probably the past five, six years. And it just gets worse and worse and worse.’
While it would be easy and indeed understandable to admit defeat in the face of such relentlessly worsening weather, Mary remains unbowed. Far from wanting to move towards more intensive agriculture, she argues that focussing even more on a regenerative approach to farming is the best way to mitigate climate change’s impact.
‘It’s really easy to be like ‘nothing can be done!’ and to a certain extent that’s true. But I think the thing that everyone now collectively is getting back to is just you have to keep on building your soil. You have to use techniques where you’re adding loads of fertility, you’re adding loads of organic matter. We use green manures. We plant up all of our beds with green manures, the ones that are empty during the winter just so there’s roots in the ground. That helps drainage and it helps the soil stay where it is. It adds fertility and structure and everything you kind of need to stop the effects of all this weathering and wash off.’
Wilsons’ sustainable approach has been highly successful and rightly lauded. They were awarded a Michelin Green Star and have received glowing reviews in the Guardian and Financial Times amongst many others. But Mary is quick to point out that what they have achieved is not viable for all restaurants, consumers or farms. For more system-wide change, Mary argues, there needs to be legislative changes. ‘Practically speaking we have generations and generations of family farmers in this country who don’t get looked after,’ she remarks. ‘They already use some organic techniques, and if they were supported to convert I really, really believe that they would.’
This was a big impetus for her to grow more and more of Wilsons’ food. Not just to reduce the restaurant’s environmental impact, but also to make a point about the vital role small farms could play in our food system, if they had access to support.
‘That’s one of the reasons that we were so adamant that we had to grow our own for Wilsons. Yes it tastes better, it’s more creative for the kitchen, but also, for me personally, it’s kind of a radical thing for us to do. I guess as much as anything it’s a bit of a political statement. There’s three of us on the farm producing for however many customers we have per week.’
The deeply delicious and creative food at Wilsons is well worth trying on its culinary merits alone. But it’s also exciting to eat food which is the product of a fearless commitment to sustainability – Jan Ostle and Mary Wilson’s creative partnership truly shows just how radical vegetables can be.
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