A WORCESTERSHIRE farming couple are bringing a slice of the Mediterranean to the county with a pop-up pizza restaurant they have created in a converted horse trailer.

Toby and Lydia Whatley live in Callow End near Worcester and grow spelt on their family farm in Bromyard, which they stone grind into flour for bakeries, farm shops and restaurants across the UK.

Now they’re taking their flour business, called Toad’s Mill, one step further - by converting a new horse trailer into a pizza pop-up restaurant which they plan to take to weddings, parties and food festivals across the country.

Using dough made from their own flour and seasonal toppings sourced from local producers, each pizza will be hand-baked in a wood-fired oven.

The couple, who studied at Harper Adams University, near Telford, and the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, believe they can serve up 50 pizzas every hour from their black and copper-liveried trailer, decorated with a smart wooden bar and pretty bunting.

Bookings are already firing in for parties and weddings throughout the summer and they will be at events including Hereford Food Festival and Colwall Festival, both in June.

Next month, they plan to take the new venture - Toad’s Mill Kitchen - on the road for village pizza nights at sites across Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

The first takes place on Thursday, March 15 in Eckington, near Pershore, where Toby, Lydia and their team will be cooking from 5.30pm.

“We know we’ve got an amazing product with our light white and wholemeal spelt flour,” said Toby, aged 28, who trained and previously worked as an agricultural engineer.

“It makes fantastic bread, pancakes, brownies and pizza bases, and we’ve just entered it for our first Great Taste Award.

“But we wanted to add value to our flour, by giving our customers the finished product - and there’s nothing more delicious than a wood-fired spelt pizza, particularly when it’s made with incredible ingredients all made or farmed here.”

Spelt is an ancient form of wheat which is thought to date back to 5000BC. Since the beginning of the 21st century, spelt has gained widespread popularity as a common wheat substitute for making artisan breads, pastas, and cereals.

Fans of Toad’s Mill include French-born celebrity baker Richard Bertinet who now runs a business in Bath; a brewery which has expressed interest in using the spelt for brewing craft beer and several London food emporiums now stock bags of its flour, each marked with the name of the field from which the spelt was harvested.

“We’ve always wanted people to buy a product with provenance,” added Lydia, aged 27. “And now we can do that with Toad’s Mill Kitchen pizzas.

“We’re passionate about British farming and what better way to explain everything that’s brilliant about it than by bringing a fantastic finished product straight to the consumer?”