Growing old gracefully.

Well things are (very) slowly ripening in the greenhouse. We could certainly do with a little more sunshine to speed things along.  Many of the plants are loaded with fruit but without the sunshine they're taking their own sweet time to ripen.

I haven't yet tried it but apparently putting a banana peel in amongst the plants is supposed to help as the banana gives off ethylene gas which hastens ripening.  With the green house holding temperatures well I've still got another month or so of growing season so I won't be resorting to the bananas yet, fingers crossed for some more clement weather.

Peach Habanero

Yellow Scotch Bonnet

7 Pot Habanero

Of particular note is the 7 Pot Hab, which is dripping with pods, some of which are a good 5cm in length.  Bearing in mind the fearsome heat of these pods (they get their name from being able to flavour a week's worth of stew) this single plant will provide for a good few bottles of sauce.  If you're a fan of the 7 Pot heat, you could do a lot worse than check out Upton Cheyney's Megalodon Sauce, possibly the only chilli sauce with it's own Facebook page.

(L) Peach Habanero (R) Yellow Scotch Bonnet

Cheyenne

The twisted Nepalese Snakebite 

I've finally got round to trying out the Nagatropolis chilli sauce that was a valentine's present from my long-suffering wife. It's a beautifully packaged sauce with its white graphics and paper-wrapped cap.  It's these little touches that set it apart from the mass-market sauces flooding the market.

The taste doesn't disappoint either.  The heat level is understandably high but without the acidic sharpness of some sauces.  I loaded a pizza with it the other night and was left suitably speechless and hiccuping (my usual state after any hot sauce - did I mention that my wife is long-suffering?).  The afterburn is a long-lasting and pleasant tingle on the lips.  What was surprising was the strength of the smokiness.  Whilst the label mentions smoked garlic, I certainly wouldn't describe it as subtle - not a problem for me as I love the taste but it did deter my wife who isn't a fan of smokey sauces.

All in all, a very tasty and very well made sauce, thick and sticky and with no harsh notes and certainly well worth the price tag.

Growing pains

Still snug and safe from the winter storms, the seedlings are rapidly growing in the Chilli Room.  The heated propagator is so efficient that the Joe's Long and Ancho have shot up to tower over the habs and are in danger of keeling over.  They'll be potted on within the next few days and the lid removed from the propagator to harden them off.

The seedlings are growing rapidly, if somewhat leggy.  Tine to pot on.

Not all of the overwintered plants have survived with a few dying in the last few weeks.  There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason why, with identical plants sitting next to each other where one thrives and one doesn't.  I've potted on a few into Root Pouches with fresh compost to kick-start them back into life and also extended the lighting time to convince them that spring is on the way.

Some of the overwintered 'sticks' have been potted on to fresh compost in Root Pouches

The plants from the Chilligrows have been overwintered with varying degrees of sucess.

Not all have made it through the winter.

Sadly the aphids have been attacking everything in sight and with the soapy water and fly traps failing to make a dent in them I've had to resort to an organic bug spray.  I'm not a fan of sprays but it's too early in the year for their natural predators to thrive and the artificially warm environment of the chilli room has has given the the aphids the perfect conditions to multiply.

The traditional Hallmark festival of valentines has just been and gone and suffice to say that this year Cupid must have had spicy tastes.  Not only did I receive chilli chocolate but a great looking Chilli Cheese bomb from Shorrocks Cheese. I've yet to taste it but any present that combines two of my favourite foods is bound to be worth waiting for.

Nothing says 'I love you' like a Chilli Cheese Bomb...  

Also in Cupid's quiver this year were these two sauces from Pip's Hot Sauces -  Nagatropolis and La Boca Del Diabolo.  I've not come across Pip's sauces before but looking at their website they seem to have a superb range of flavours and their presentation is second to none with their brown-paper and string wrapped bottles and the great looking white stencilled labels. Their Nagatropolis label has more than a passing resemblance to a certain sci-fi epic. Could this be a new line in cult-film and chilli crossovers?

...Unless it's Nagatropolis Chilli Sauce!

I'll report back on these sauces and cheese when I get a chance. Meantime, I've finished my bottle of Upton Chilli Hot Habanero Sauce (delicious as expected) and am now working through a bottle of Walkerswood Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce.  I love Scotch bonnets and this is a really tasty sauce with lots of spice and flavour as well as the heat of the fruity Bonnets.

Meanwhile, we've demolished several blocks of the Tesco Scotch Bonnet Cheddar.  This has to be one of the best chilli cheeses ever, with a fruity tingling heat and great texture.  Even non-chillihead friends love this cheese (although possibly not in the same quantities as we do...)

First Harvest

The time had arrived for the first harvest.  Picking the ripe pods will encourage the others to ripen faster and will avoid the risks of the fruit dropping off or rotting on the plant.

Scotch Bonnets

Trinidad Scorpions

Superchilli

Capa Conic

Loco

I took the opportunity to prune the plants whilst I harvested.  The canopy of some of the plants had got so dense that, with the damp weather, some of the plants had developed spots of mould on the flower heads.  I cut back these areas to allow more air to move around the plants an let some sunlight reach the  unripe fruit.

Some of the pods from this year's initial harvest, neatly sorted by type.

Golden Cayenne - This plant has been fantastic this year with plenty of large, healthy fruit.

Scotch Bonnets - the yellow ones are destined for Sunburn sauce.

L to R; Orange Magnum Habs, Fruit Burst Hab & Peach Hab

Paper Lantern Habanero - all off one plant and there are plenty more still to ripen.

The thinner, longer varieties were strung onto thread and hung to dry over a radiator. These will be grown to powder for storing and eventually adding to sauces and meals. The varieties with thicker flesh, such as Scotch Bonnets, Habs and the Scorpions were cut in half, packed in bags and frozen for blitzing and using in sauces later in the year.

L to R; Ring of Fire, Paper Lantern, Superchilli & Lemon Drop,  Golden Cayenne and a selection of green chillies.

There's more to pick this weekend, the only concern is when I'll find time to make the sauces I've got planned.

Not long left...

...before harvest time.

Some welcome Autumn sun is helping the chillies ripen and I suspect that we only have a few weeks left before the November frosts put an end to the growing season.

Looking like a good harvest this year

There's plenty of unripe fruit on the plants and a good number now turing red (or in some cases yellow). The Chilligrows are once again proving their worth with the plants growing at tremendous rates (despite or because of the brutal pruning they received recently).

The Chilligrow chillies looking promising

Trinidad Scorpion

I've not yet tasted a Trinidad Scorpion and am somewhat wary about doing so.  I've got two of these plants in the Chiligrow and although both have produced some fruit, I'll probably only retain one for next year (assuming it survives the winter).

Friar's Hat

The Friar's Hat has yet to ripen any fruit but there are plenty of the odd-shaped fruit on the three plants.  When they ripen, these fruit are reserved for the Frisky-Friar Jam that I made a couple of years back.  A tangy sweet jam, not too hot but perfect with cheese and crackers.

Peach Habanero in the 'Gurgler'  Flood and Drain hydroponic uni

I already have plans to redesign the 'Gurgler' Flood and Drain system that I built this year.  I'd like to use it with the plants in Root-Pouches so you get the benefit of the airflow from the flood and drain and also the air - pruning from the root pouches.

An amazing crop of Paper Lantern Habaneros

The Paper Lantern habanero is just incredible with the branches sagging under the weight of all the fruit.  With these chillies rated 350,000 to 450,000 Scovilles, I'll have plenty available for hot sauce production.

Scotch Bonnet grown in a Root Pouch

I love Scotch Bonnet Chillies, not only do they have an amazing fruity taste but the heat level is such that you can use them in everyday cooking or blow your head off if you prefer.  I love Caribbean food and these are the staple chilli for Jerk Seasoning. For one of the tastiest curries you'll find, try this Levi Roots recipe (but don't be a wimp, put the whole chilli in, seeds and all).

I've got a number of Scotch Bonnets on the go this year, including a yellow version for making my 'Sunburn' sauce, a fruity, medium hot sauce using Mango and Papaya.  Hopefully I'll have enough fruit to keep up with demand for this popular sauce.

Hydroponics are go!

Having a clean out of the freezer reveals all sorts of hidden goodies, including, in this case, four large bags of assorted chillies. What better way to use them than in a volcanic sauce.  It was very much a 'use up what's to hand' sauce so there aren't many ingredients, other than an onion, some garlic, cider vinegar and of course the chillies, which naturally makes it incredibly hot.  To counter some acidity from the vinegar, I added plenty of honey and some lime juice to take the edge off the sugar. The resulting sauce is sweet but with a zingy edge and has enough heat to keep your mouth burning for a while.  Being a mixture of chillies (habaneros, inferno, cayenne, hungarian hot wax plus a few others), the burn is all over the mouth and doesn't relent for a while.

I've yet to design the label for this sauce but it's already been christened 'Honey Trap'

What happens when half a kilo of chillies ends up in just five bottles...

Having completed the chilli house recently, my eye was on the next big project - a venture into hydroponic growing.  I'd spent some time doing some research and wanted a very simple system that I could make on a shoestring budget with minimal running costs.  That counted out aeroponics and NFT systems. I opted for a flood and drain (or ebb and flow) system based on the comprehensive instructions available from Fatalii.net

The principle is simple, when a submerged pump in the lower chamber switches on, it pumps nutrient enriched water into the upper box which is filled with an inert growing medium. When the chamber is flooded, the plant's roots are submerged and it can take on the water and feed it needs.  When the pump switches off, the water drains back into the reservoir, drawing fresh air down onto the roots.  This cycle is repeated anything from 3 to 6 times a day to ensure a steady stream of water, nutrients and oxygen reaches the roots, resulting in increased growth and less risk of disease or rotting from waterlogged plants.

Firstly I selected two large plastic boxes that would stack easily.  The bottom one (the reservoir) has been sprayed black to make it light-tight and then silver so that the sun doesn't overheat the water and nutrient mix.

Drilling a hole through the base of the growing box and into the lid of the res. This is for the overflow.

The overflow has a small hole drilled in the base to ensure minimal water is left in the top container

A mesh is fixed to the top of the overflow so the growing medium doesn't spill down it.

The submerged pump sits in the res and is attached via a hose to the top box

The custom-made screen that fits over the inlet hose to prevent blockage.

Filling with substrate.  I'd positioned the overflow badly but that's something to consider for Mk. II

Test running the system - you can see the water pooling between the clay pebbles.

The system in place and planted up. The hole in the res is so the levels can be checked and be topped up. 

So, now the system is completed, what's the operation like?  The tiny micro-pump in the res is capable of filling the top chamber in just two and a half minutes, much quicker than required (it has to run for 15 minutes because that's the smallest increments on the timer).  Once the timer switches the pump off, the whole chamber drains out in just two minutes.  This rapid drain ensures plenty of fresh air is sucked down onto the roots.

I planted the unit with a Peach Habanero and a Magnum Orange Habanero after carefully washing the soil out of their rootball. I have similar sized plants from the same seed stock growing in soil so it will be interesting to compare the results. The system has only be running for a day so far but, as yet, nothing's died and nothing has broken. Expect regular progress reports.

Away from the Heath-Robinson creations, there's stilll plenty of work to be done in the garden.  It was time to pot on the third wave of replacement seedings which had been growing well in the chilli-house.

This is a mixture of Scotch Bonnets (for making more 'Sunburn' Sauce), Habaneros and Dorset Nagas.

Squat Frog Habaneros and Dorset Nagas

Scotch Bonnets and Squat Frogs

Meanwhile, there's been progress on the Chilli Challenge - the mystery seeds are growing rapidly with some fine-looking specimens in the running...

Claudio & Diana's chillies

The two chillies above were both planted at the same time and kept side by side - it just goes to show how much luck plays a part.

Neil's chillies

Neil's chillies have been growing so tall that he's had to pinch the tops out to restrict their height.  Pinching out promotes more growth lower down and results with a sturdier, bushier plant that's less spindly and has more fruit-bearing branches.

If there are any more competitors out there with update photos, please send them in, we'd love to see how everyone is getting on.

Long time, no see

Well it's fair to say that there hasn't been an update to this blog for a while. 

There are lots of excuses I could trot out but the long and the short of it is that there hasn't been much to report.

Way back in March I admired my chilli seedlings, spoke encouraging words to them, patted them gently and then deserted them for close on a month. 

Upon my return from the somewhat sunnier climes of India, (complete with a bag of local chillies) I found the horticultural equivalent of a massacre. Over half of my precious seedlings had died. Even my mature plants, carefully overwintered had taken a beating. The scotch bonnets and nagas were infested with greenfly and despite root-to-root resuscitation eventually joined the compost-heap in the sky. 

Some of the surviving superhots

Some of the overwintered chillies in the hothouse

Why this is, I don't honestly know. The plants had been sprayed several times with organic pesticide but after a brief respites, the greenfly returned. The traditional remedy of spraying with soapy water only produced squeaky-clean aphids so finally I turned to a more rudimentary and brutal solution. I simply took the plants outside and blasted with a hosepipe on a fine spray. As unscientific as this drastic remedy might be, it not only removed the live aphids but also removed dying or dead leaves and cleared off the sticky residue that aphids leave behind which can inhibit photosynthesis. 

This is by no means a permanent solution and will require close scrutiny but it's eco-friendly and seems to have done the plants no lasting damage 

Meantime, to replace the missing plants I've initiated a second round of planting. Plenty of Scotch Bonnets, Dorset Nagas and assorted Habs have been sown and are progressing well on the (occasionally) sunny windowsill. Due to the late planting and the potentially iffy summer weather it's debatable if they'll fruit well this year but if I can overwinter them with more success this year then I'll have a headstart next season.

Replacement Scotch Bonnets

A second batch of superhots and Scotch Bonnets

Making the most of the sunshine

In other news, we recently visited the Eastnor Castle Chilli Festival and a good time was had by all. Despite the unexpectedly long queues (bought on by the unexpectedly good weather) we had plenty of time to peruse the chilli-ware stalls, sample the Indian and Mexican food on offer and even visit a slightly peculiar cookery demonstration (It was certainly an education learning how 'authentic Mexican cooking' uses soy sauce!)

That aside, there was plenty to attract the visitor, chilli-head or otherwise. The music was lively and fun, the food and drink was both plentiful and delicious and Clifton Chilli Club's Chilli Eating Contest was equally entertaining, hard-fought and wincingly brutal.

We did sample products from nearly all the chilli exhibitors on display and, by and large, were impressed. However, with so many small companies jumping on the chilli bandwagon, it's becoming harder to tell their products apart. 

It's not hard to make a chilli sauce and too many people are settling for a generic product with no unique selling point. Upton Cheyney use lots of home-grown ingredients in their delicious sauces and even smoke their own chipotles (still the best chipotle sauce I've ever tasted). Mr Vickies has the amazing Indian spices to define their brand. Grim Reaper foods have matched up their scorching sauces and chocolates with slick marketing and branding. Fat Man Chilli was impressive with the chillies in the sauce carefully matched to the alcoholic spirit used. There are plenty more to mention but all to many producers settling for a naga-laden hot sauce with no character or real flavour. Lets see some real originality in the flavour combinations.

Rant over.

Our modest haul from Eastnor Chilli Fest.  All of these products are fantastic and come highly recommended

Back in September we launched our chilli challenge at our wedding and I've received a few photos from participants.  Looks like some very successful growing, despite the odd weather.  Please keep the photos coming, I'm excited to see how everyone is getting on.

Claudio & Diana's

Lisa & Andy's (the ones on the right) 

Emma & James'