I’ve instigated a chilli growing competition at work.
I initially planted up 3 ‘Riot’ seeds with identical compost and pots – however only 1 came up. Quite annoyingly it was the Project Management Team’s and now they are claiming victory. This did not deter me and I quickly planted some more in the greenhouse and took them in once they had germinated. As the ‘Riot’ seeds were generally quite difficult to grow I decided to change to ‘Ring of Fire’ for the other 2 teams.
Each team now has a small chilli growing on their desks. I’m not sure how this will turn out as the light isn’t fantastic and no-one really knows much about growing stuff but they are all quite small varieties so it shouln’t get too out of hand.
At home I have started to grow several new varieties this year.
Jalapeno (which most people know)
Ring of Fire (small upright variety with tiny red fruit)
Riot (much the same as above)
Cubanelle (A noon-bell sweet pepper)
Anaheim (long red tapered fruit)
Once exciting new development this year is the use of the Hydroponic Set.
I have set it up already – there’s a little heater and pump ensure the chillies get a regular supply of nutrients and I have to top up the tank of water with fertiliser/water every so often. The roots grow over this matting material which is kept moist but the pumped water flowing over the surface – any excess water flows back into the tank and get recycled. Very clever.
I put in the bell pepper and a Jalapeno so far with room for a Cubanelle when it decides to grow some more substantial roots…
One annoying thing – it wasn’t till I read the instructions on how to set it up that it mentioned to plant the seeds in a soiless growing medium – I presume so when you first put them in you don’t get a load of loose soil clogging up the pump. I hadn’t done this so had to get a bit creative. I cut the bottom out of a pot and washed the roots that I could see so that there was little soil. I then plonked them in and crossed my fingers…
A recent check shows that there is some new root growth so it seems to have worked. I must remember to put a photo up….
Just as a note to myself – this year I am growing:
Carrots, leeks, cabbages, red and white onions, potatoes, parsnips (if they ever come up), peas, garlic, tomatoes, courgette, marrow, globe artichoke, sweetcorn, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, redcurrant, blackcurrant and tayberries.
Filed under: Chillies
I’m not usually one to get annoyed by people producing condiments. In fact I applaud the pioneering manufacturers who shake up* the sauce world with a new recipe or two. For example, I recently tried a version of the classic Piccalilli with added chillies – it was called chillilli. Not only a great sauce, but a great name as well.
However, the incessant push to create a hotter sauce than the last one has led to someone to create the hottest sauce in the world. They have gone and bottled pure capsicum.
Before I start to question the sanity of this sauce I would like to point out a few chili related facts that might influence your opinion on the matter.
1. The hotness in chillies is caused by a compound called Capsicum – it’s found as an oil in the white pithy bit of the chili. This is why the seeds are hot – they are in close contact with the oil and this is also why it’s safer to nibble the tip than the shoulder of the fruit.
2. A chilli’s hotness is measured in Scovilles. Mr. Scoville came up with the measurment by costantly diluting a chilli mixture with more water until he couldn’t feel the effect any more.
3. The chillies that I generally grow are no more 100,000 Scovilles. These are generally considered to be ‘bastard’ strength.
4. Pepper spray is about 5.3 million Scovilles.
5. Pure capsicum is about 16 million Scovilles.
If you follow the logic it means someone has gone to the trouble of producing a product designed for consumption that Police in America have deemed as 3 times the amount needed to adequately suppress rioters, muggers, and would-be liberals.
Why would you do this?
It’s pointless. To me the art of producing a hot sauce is to deliver some flavour along with a kick – some kind of payback for enduring the heat is to taste something that you know no-one else has tasted without going through the same pain! But to distill capsicum and serve it as a sauce is just an exercise in macho-chili-pride.
I could come up with a few other tests of pure pain resistance if I wanted (sitting through an episode of The Walton’s for example…) but it’s pointless. What does it achieve?
I’m following through on this anti-silly heat stance by growing bigger, less hot chillies this year – you can do more with them in the kitchen but still get a reasonable burn.
I ordered several packets of specialist seeds through Simpson’s seeds this year and I am looking forward to sowing them all this weekend.
Pretty soon I will fire up the bad boy Hydroponic set and I shall be getting increased yields of fruit…
Roll on spring!
* I apologise for this shameful pun…
OK – So I’ve been a bit busy – hence the absence of a post recently! But as Mr Smith says, you only have to post every 3 months to be considered a blogger. That’s fine then – I’ve technically got a month left….
2006 was a bit of a busy year all round – getting engaged was the stand-out highlight of the year but it was also the year that we decorated the house in earnest.
We painted the lounge then immediately found out we had a leak in the shower-room above. This meant a long period of no showers and bathing with a jug to wash our hair…
After a couple of false starts with tiles and shower doors not coming we eventually got the bathroom finished. The tiling was great with big white tiles finished with metal strips running floor to ceiling. We put one of those big towel radiators in and moved the bedroom radiator under the window.
With the shower-room done we had to deal with the leak in the lounge – I stripped off all the paper and scraped off all the mould before my mum heroically papered the patch in the ceiling. A little bit of painting and we were nearly there! Kathy took the discarded mirror we found in the loft and painted it in the same colour as the skirting boards and we hung it over the fireplace (which had also been painted from a nasty wood finish). With the double glazed sash windows installed in the bedroom and lounge we then stripped off the old curtains and replaced them with shutters downstairs. A brave gamble but it paid off as now the room looks bigger and lighter – even though we thought the shutters might block the light slightly!
The bedroom was mostly painted – except for a wall where the wardrobes were – these were taken out and the cavity wall covering the alcove removed. The chandelier was put up in the bedroom as well as a new light in the 2 bathrooms and the lounge. Roy was a hero doing half a days work for next to nothing!
The wall was replastered and the skirting board replaced. The ceiling in the landing was also replastered as it was cracked and looked quite bad.
In the garden we had electricity in the greenhouse and a light in the shed. The shed was swept clean and all the junk stacked nice and neat – it made such a difference to see what was there! We also dug out the long border in the front-back garden, made a fruit cage (I’m actually good at CDT it seems! Stick that in your pipe Mr Hastings….) and planted over £50 worth of bulbs. They are now going to be killed by the late frost. There are inches of snow on the ground as I write this!
There is currently a running battle with the local cats, Kathy and tens of pounds worth of cat repellent.
The current score is Kathy 0 – Cats (number) 2. (boom boom!)
We had dining room furniture delivered thanks to Chris and his brother – he needed to store them somewhere and we have still not decided on a table yet!
I also got a ladder to check the guttering, re-fixed it as it was not level and used a healthy dose of mastic to stop the leaks. It now works like a gutter should do and doesn’t drip onto the window sill!
We also had a new alarm installed. With smaller motion detectors. Which means I have to retouch the paint in all the bloody rooms now!
Going into 2007 (as I’m a bit late with this post) we have ordered new wardrobes (nice white ones from Hammonds), painted the last wall in the bedroom and retouched the lounge where it got damp from the NTL botch job (grr!).
I have also cleared the study of all boxes and shoved them in the loft – I have also set up a complete work area with monitor, docking station, wireless router, and linked in 2 400gb redundant hard drives, The printer drivers have been loaded to our laptops and the camera port is plugged in.
All it took was 10 plug sockets and 6 USB connections… We’re the reason energy prices have gone down recently…
Stuart and his boys from All Aspects (shameless plug there) returned to do a stellar job on the new path. Black and red diamond Victorian tiles to match the porch (please notice if you visit!) with black rope edging. The front has been re-rendered as the window people did a shit job finishing up and I have levelled the front garden to a gentle slope away from the house to make sure water drains the right way. (ie away from the walls!). Weed matting has been purchased and will be layed down before the Cotswold stone chippings arrive next week. A small bit of cementing of the new diamond border with more rope edging is still to be done but once this is in place and the stones go in we have finished the front!
Phew! We’ve done more than I thought!
In 2007….
Things to do on the house!
1. Get wardrobes installed (Late Feb!)
2. Get new curtains in bedroom and stop using an old curtain propped up by a ladder….
3. Paint the skirting board, banister and hall walls and ceiling. (So that’s everything, thinking about it!)
4. Cement new border and lay stones over weed matting.
5. Dig out veg patch and create brand new potato area. (That’s Po-ta-to, Mr. Frodo)
6. Get carpets laid!
Non-house activities:
1. Get married!
Other goals:
1. Blog more
2. Get an eye-test.
3. Try and do a regular form of exercise on the weekends with Kathy.
4. Try and ski somewhere at least once!
5. Play poker regularly.
6. Use my mountain bike at least bi-monthly!
7. Set up hydroponics set and grow loads of chillies!
8. Set up ftp access to the hard drives and make sure they backup properly.
9. Host at least one dinner party.
10. Take Kathy’s gran and granddad to the RAF base with the Wellington bomber.
Filed under: Chillies
Get a load of these bad boys……
Please see me for free chillies as soon as possible!
Filed under: Chillies
Most of the Apache have turned red now – I have so many spare I have brought some into work!
The Joe’s Long have just had the first couple turning this week. I should get a good crop off both the Joe’s Long that I planted.
The Hot Mix (only one left) has performed well – a little bit spindley but with lots of fruit – however none have turned yet!
Inspecting the greenhouse this morning I found it to be a little cold – I will have to start using the heater soon so keep the frost off. That means a lot of work for the autumn with digging and putting down some gravel around the veggie patch to make it all a bit neater. So much to do, so little time!
We finally had our Engagement Party last weekend – it was great. It was a different mix of people and a few friends came who I hadn’t seen in a while (like Mr. Bowers and Mr. Wilson) which was nice. Kathy also had some friends from Poole who I’d never met before. The party went by so quickly after a slow start – no-one turned up until 5 and then there was a rush! It all blurred by – Gareth (from work) did the cooking, Ben did the tiger impression, Andrew managed to use his Dad voice in the middle of a crowd (“Did you just kick stones at the cat?”). Most people left before 12 apart from the hardcore group who stayed up burning any wood we could find in the shed until about 3am. Luckily I was stopped before I burnt down the entire shed! (I wasn’t allowed to burn the spare door we had…spoilsports!).
Hardcore people included, Jon and Emily next door, James and Ruth, Kathy’s parents, Emma and Mark. We suffered the next day.
Food went down well – although in retrospect over 1kg of cous cous was a bit too much as I now have had cous cous for the last 3 days and there is no change for the rest of the week! More kebabs were needed - I underestimated the numbers and how hungry people would be. I used some of the Apache chillies in the chicken kebabs – 3 chillies in the marinade for 6 large breasts. It gave it a real kick….maybe 1 or 2 would of been sufficient but, hey, whats the point in growing them if you’re not going to use them?
I must mention a disappointing aspect – a uni friend bailing at the last minute. It was the second party in a row that he has said yes then no at the last minute – it seems that London to Reading is a journey too far for some. At least it makes a hard decision easier when compiling my wedding list!
Filed under: Chillies
OK – So I never properly blogged about my chillies and this won’t be a good reference for the future if I don’t get on with it so here is a brief history of the chillies this year.
I started in mid feb with 3 types. I had the Hot Mix and Joes Long from last year and I bought some new Apache to try as well.
They all germinated bar a couple – I started them off in the kitchen with a propagator (This next year will see the electricity in the greenhouse being used more effectively!).
I pricked them out after about 6 weeks – I pinched out a couple but wasn’t sure what I should be doing so I’m not sure I did any good to them – especially the Apache which I later found out didn’t need it.
They all grew OK – once the first flowers had set I started the feed – Tomatorite. Same dose as the Tom’s.
The first fruit had set by July sometime and the first red fruit was in Mid-august.
The Hot Mix and Joes are still yet to ripen but are producing lots of fruit. I have 1 Joes in a 9 inch pot and another in the ground inside the greenhouse. Both are about the same but I would recommend the pot for the future – easier for feeding and maintenance.
The Hot Mix is in the ground and the 3 Apaches are in pots.
Apaches seem to not mind being outside too much – the results are much the same for either. They produce lots and lots of small red fruit. Too many branches come from the base of the stem however and I have lost quite a few through moving and general clumsyness! I would recommend keeping on top of these and clipping the bush to a managable shape from the start – it will always produce enough fruit. I started to take off new flowers in mid-august to ensure ripening of the other fruits – this seemed to work.
The support of all chillies was a nightmare this year – I have subsequently bought some new round supports for the pots next year.
Space is also an issue – I will grow only necessary chillies this next season – maybe some minatures on the staging tables but limited to 3 in the Hydroponic set in the greenhouse and some in pots.
As for the varieties – I would like 2 apaches for a good looking pot plant outside, several minatures such as Prairie Fire, Riot or Rooster Spur, a large sweet pepper, a Jalepeno and another large mild variety.
I was talking to Andrew at the pub on Saturday (incidentally – it was great to see Tim W and Michelle again) about how I have several unfinished posts waiting for me and how I never seem to get round to completing them.
This is one of them – written a week ago and I got 2 lines in. He recommended just finishing them in one sitting or they’ll never get done. So thats what I’m attempting to do here – please forgive any typos etc!
We went to the Chilli Fiesta in West Dean 2 weekends ago. Its a horticutltural college which has a fantastic walled garden which specialises in growing all kinds of fruits. They have an annual Chilli Fiesta which has all kinds of stands selling chillis and chilli related stuff.
Its a fantastic day out – aside from the several thousand types of chilli sauce that you can try there are clothes, gardening products, plants and lots of food on sale.
So, in order to minimise typing time here is my top ten things that I enjoyed about the Chilli Fiesta! (Yes – this post is in top tens and chillies!)
1. Getting growing tips from the head chilli gardener at West Dean – now I finally know when to pot out, pinch the tips, how to ripen quicker and all manner of other things. I learnt more in the 25 min lecture than I have reading all manner of gardening books – mainly because no-one specifically mentions how to care for chillies in the books I have access to!
2. Trying all the sauces and dips – from the mild to the obscenely hot.
3. Wandering around the gardens getting tips for all our other vegetables – its a fantastic garden in its own right.
4. Seeing all the different types of chilli you can get – Black Pearl (not yet avaiable in seed) was great. Black leaves and small black round chillies. I want one!
5. Buying my new hydroponic set for next years chillies and peppers…. There was a reason to get electricity to the greenhouse – and hydroponics be thy name. Increased yields, automatic watering without using a hosepipe – constant nutrients to the roots. Its like porno* for gardeners!
6. Food! Feed me! Good selection of food stalls – best (as ever) was the hog roast! Dead pig in a bun with mushed up apples – you can’t get better than that. Unless you add chilli sauce of course.
7. Beer! There was the usual old man farmer type selling his tipple from the back of his van – I had a nice pint and came home with a four pack of great tasting ales.
8. China chilli mug – yes – I am that sad that I spent £7 on a chilli china mug. And we bought an over mit with chillies on it. And the only reason I don’t now have a cooking apron with chillies all over it is because the man in front of me bought the last one. Bastard.
9. Checking out the minature varieties like Rooster Spur and Prairie Fire. These ‘might’ be useful for some purpose that I’m not allowed to mention. Or something.
10. Buying some support for our pots – finally – the chillies won’t be supported by random bits of twine and crappy old bits of bamboo!
*Only there are no naked people.
