Pair think outside the box to keep pizza business firing

Sara Thomas and Angela Twigg, of Ludlow-based Mother Earth Pizza, have seen a spike in demand from customers wanting the pair to visit their villages after lockdown measures were eased.

It comes as the business has been been impacted by the cancellation of events such as weddings and festivals during the lockdown.

Angela said: "After having all our bookings at events cancelled this year we have been looking at new ways to make a living.

"We put a shout out on Facebook to see if any local villages would like us to pop up in there local area one night and serve our wood fired pizzas and loaded fries.

"We had an overwhelming response from people wanting us to visit their village and getting the contact details of local village halls for us to contact.

"We have since popped up at a few areas – Richards Castle, Orleton, Clee Hill, Clows Top – and we have totally sold out at most venues. Orleton have asked us to make it a regular event on a Thursday.

"We are looking for any other areas that would like us to visit.

"We don’t want to go anywhere that is already serving take out as we certainly don’t want to take anybody's business away from them. We have contacted Clifton-on-Teme, Highley, Stanton Lacy and Martley villages as we were requested to go there.

"The feedback so far has been wonderful from people and the support we have had is phenomenal. People are clearly fed up of cooking their own food and are happy to have fresh cooked food right on their door step.

"We book 15-minute time slots so we can adhere to social distancing so pre-ordering is essential."

The pair started the business in June 2018 after attending a cob oven making course in Wales.

"We made our very first clay oven in our garden from the clay from the land that we lived on so it cost nothing at all, just a lot of sweat," Angela said.

"At that time we ran a carpentry and plastering business called Hammered ’n’ Plastered but due to the nature of that work and us getting a bit older we were looking for some thing to do that wasn’t so back-breaking and tiring so as Sara was a qualified chef before working in some of the top restaurants we decided to make a clay oven that was mobile that we could take to events, festival, functions, weddings and cater for people.

"We did our very first trial day at The Bennetts End in Knowbury that was hugely successful and we took off from there.

"We’ve had to think out side the box and create our own work and people are really liking us taking the pizza local to them and the time slots works well for us too. We have had so much lovely feedback about our pizzas and people asking us to go back so its something we think we will continue to do for the current time," Angela added.