Five Acres: In Conversation with Bryde Dixon

Five Acres, a “seed-to-plate canteen” and “micro-farm shop” beloved by members of the St Andrews community, opened in May 2023, but its journey to Market Street began fifteen years before it opened. The cafe’s co-owner Bryde Dixon is originally from New Jersey, but she has lived in Fife since 2008. She met her husband Nat during their first year at the University, and they spent their first date “making ravioli in the Regs kitchen”. Bryde and Nat remained in Fife after graduating in 2012, and two years later, they “rented five acres of land and bought [themselves] a polytunnel”, founding Falkland Kitchen Farm. Bryde expresses that she and Nat aim to produce “great quality vegetables, grown in a way that is good for people, the planet, and our community” at their farm, and this tremendous effort was celebrated with a BOOM award for the best small organic farm in the UK from the Soil Association in 2021. 

Before opening Five Acres, the produce grown at Falkland Kitchen Farm supplied restaurants in the surrounding area, filled boxes for their “home delivery veg box scheme” and was served at their food stall at the Bowhouse market. Motivated by a storefront vacancy on Market Street, co-owners Bryde and Nat established Five Acres, serving as a “permanent home” for their dishes inspired by and sourced from their farm. Five Acres always offers four salads, a stew, and a toastie, but their menu and the ingredients they use change every week, delighting customers enthused by the ever-changing menu while simultaneously reflecting the ripe and in-season produce available at the farm.

The dishes at Five Acres always taste fresh and hearty, and Bryde emphasises that food simply tastes better when plants are nurtured through every step of the growing and cooking process. Bryde’s joy when tasting “tomatoes straight from the vine” and “radishes pulled from the ground” is parallelled in the eager Five Acres customer base that flocks to the cafe for “local” and “seasonal food” with the “convenience of a grab and go” meal. I gladly indulged in an asparagus and quinoa salad, lemony Greek potatoes, minted pea purée with confit leeks, and a fennel, rocket, and blood orange salad at Five Acres this week, thoroughly enjoying my lunch. Each salad tasted delicious independently, but when enjoyed with a bit of each on my fork, their differences complemented each other perfectly, heightening the bright flavours of each ingredient.   

Bryde and Nat’s recipe and dish inspiration from their farm guides their menus and allows them to incorporate influences from culinary experiences they have gathered throughout their lives. The co-owners share a fondness for and commitment to cooking, and this dedication granted Nat a scholarship to study in London, becoming a Cordon Bleu trained chef. Through reading cookbooks and visiting different countries, the couple has had the opportunity to experience cuisines outside of Scotland. Bryde expresses her appreciation for food as “an expression of the flavours of a specific place”, and the couple applies this gained culinary information to the dishes at Five Acres, mingling the flavours of Indian, Sri Lankan, Peruvian, Moroccan, Greek, and Persian cuisines with their culinary practices and the produce from their farm. Along with showcasing their produce, Bryde and Nat “wanted the kitchen to be a real focal point” of the cafe, allowing customers to observe their process of cooking from scratch, making the journey from seed to plate “central to the customer’s experience” of dining at Five Acres.

Bryde and Nat strive to connect with the Fife community, and Five Acres is a manifestation of their diligent work to provide St Andrews with a culinary experience unlike any other establishment in town, combining their personal goals with those of the community all while raising their two-year-old son Eli. Five Acres features decor and food from local businesses, spanning from prints by Rosanna Morris, dried flowers from Keeping the Plot in St Monans, and crockery from Crail Pottery to Scotland the Bread flour, Wild Hearth bread and pastries, East Neuk Sea Salt, Angry Kulture Kimchi, and East Neuk Market Garden veg bags (@eastneukmarketgarden on Instagram). Ultimately, Five Acres (@fiveacresstandrews) is incredibly grateful for the support they have received from their community who have made the cafe “a place with soul”.

Image provided by Bryde Dixon