Algy's Farm Shop and Café, off the A1067 at Bintree, between Norwich and Fakenham, will be serving traditional pizza and pasta dishes between 5.30pm-8pm every Friday night, starting from March 6.

It coincides with new late opening hours for the shop, which opened a huge purpose-built new building last April, more than four times bigger than its previous home, while a new café was opened alongside it in October, in the revamped former farm shop building.

Locally-sourced food and drink inside Algy's Farm Shop at Bintree (Image: Denise Bradley)

The shop sells locally-sourced food and drink, fresh bakery goods from the café kitchen, and homegrown vegetables from the surrounding 1,000 acre arable farm.

And it is part of a successful diversification strategy which also provides an increasingly broad range of customers with seasonal specialities such as asparagus, pumpkins and Christmas trees.

Owner Algy Garrod said the Italian night - which will fire up his multi-functional trailer-mounted mobile pizza oven in the café kitchen - was one more way to bring new revenue streams into the farming business.

Algy Garrod making pizzas in his mobile pizza oven, as he launches his Italian night at Algy's Farm Shop in Bintree (Image: Denise Bradley)

"Historically we have done pizzas, but we are restarting this spring because when we built the new shop, we took down our pizza shed," he said.

"Now we are combining that with late night shopping and opening an Italian restaurant on Friday evenings, so you can shop until 8pm, book a table and sit down to eat freshly cooked Italian food, and my legendary pizzas.

"We are now open seven days a week, and this is our first foray into extended opening hours."

The new cafe at Algy's Farm Shop in Bintree (Image: Denise Bradley)

Mr Garrod said the shop and café are now "generating far more revenue than our 1,000 acres and farm contracting", with 20 people employed in the farm shop and café, including part-timers, compared to one on the farm.

"The farming is still really important to us, but I am also farming people now," he said.

"My biggest market is the fact that I have a busy road right next to me and there are hundreds of cars going up and down it – the difficulty is trying to get them to pull over and stop.

"We are trying to enter a marketplace that is really saturated. We are trying to offer something a little bit different - personal service and a story.

Locally-sourced vegetables inside Algy's Farm Shop at Bintree (Image: Denise Bradley)

"We started with Algy’s popcorn, homegrown vegetables, now home-produced bakery goods made form local produce wherever possible. We have got a nice environment and we put events on throughout the year at Halloween and Christmas.

"It is not an easy buck – we have invested heavily now. It gives our business a future and it gives me a route to generate money in different areas. For instance, I am just about to start buying cut flowers for our customers. That is a completely different ball game for me.

"Now I have a market place, it is up to me to offer more for my customers, and work out what services I can provide for them.

"I am still farming and we have still got an active contracting business which are both still really important. But farming is extraordinarily difficult and challenging.

"This is something we are doing hand in hand. It gives us more options."

A pepperoni and chorizo pizza made in the mobile pizza oven at Algy's Farm Shop and Cafe in Bintree (Image: Denise Bradley)

Dishes from the new Italian menu at Algy's Farm Shop and Cafe in Bintree (Image: Algy's)

Algy Garrod making pizzas in his mobile pizza oven, as he launches his Italian night at Algy's Farm Shop in Bintree (Image: Denise Bradley)

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