South Devon Chilli Farm Press Release, 5th September 2011.
South Devon Chilli Farm are holding the official opening of their new chilli-themed Farm Shop and Café on the 21st of September, 2011 (from 9.00am to 10.30am). David Fitzgerald from BBC Radio Devon will be in attendance to cut the ribbon.
The directors of South Devon Chilli Farm, Jason Nickels and Steve Waters, are very pleased to announce the official opening of the new building on the farm: “The view from the new café is wonderful. Our customers have been saying what a difference the new shop and café have made,” said Steve.
The new building has taken 12 months to complete and has resulted in a bright, airy and welcoming space for eating, drinking and shopping. The shop shelves are filled with chilli preserves, sauces and chocolates made on-site with chillies grown on the farm. The shop also stocks a range of chilli-based products from other chilli specialists (UK-based and abroad).
Customers visiting the farm can enjoy tasters of all the South Devon Chilli Farm range of products and wander through the chilli display area featuring over 100 varieties of chilli plants. The farm is free to visit and is open all year. The café is available for special events and there are plans to add evening opening in the near future.
The new café has an array of chilli-themed dishes as well as traditional Devon café options such as cakes, Cream Teas, pasties and jacket potatoes. For chilli fans, the menu includes Mexican dishes such as Burritos, Quesadillas and an ever-changing list of spicy specials.
South Devon Chilli farm can be found near Kingsbridge, on the B3196 just North of Loddiswell. There is ample parking with a large disabled parking area immediately outside the shop.
South Devon Chilli Farm Wigford Cross Loddiswell Devon TQ7 4DX
This product saves time when you need a fresh-chilli taste on your nachos or pizza - also great just stirred into a cooking meal. Medium heat Jalapeno chillies grown on our farm preserved in wine vinegar.
It would be interesting to know how many of these recent varieties are stable, i.e. not hybrids that will revert and need the F1 treatment each year (provided the parent plants are known).
Wed - June 8th update - some pictures, but still no name for the chilli:
We have been working to perfect the Bhut Jolokia chilli chocolate and have had a lot of very good feedback from the tasters we enrolled via twitter (www.twitter.sdcf.co.uk). Thank you to everyone that helped and all the supportive comments. We made the first 50kg batch this week and we are now just waiting for the two labels we need to package the product.
The Extreme range products all carry the skull-and-crossbones brand - to set it apart from our other products and to give good warning that the products are HOT. The Extreme chocolate brings our Chilli Chocolate range up to six.
Once the Extreme Chilli Chocolate is available, we will be packaging all six flavours into another 'HOT SIX' box - in a similar format to our HOT SIX chilli sauces.
Based on the reaction we've had so far, I think Lucy, chocolatiers here at the farm, will be making a lot more Extreme Chilli Chocolate this year!
I hope everyone had a great time at the Dartington Food Fair. What a great event. If you missed it, here's the link for next year: http://www.dartington.org/food-fair
I hope your seedlings have done well this year - you may be thinking about potting-on about now, so here's a few tips we have found helpful.
Re-potting. Once your seedlings have out-grown their initial pots, they will need re-potting. Chilli plants benefit from being potted-on gradually, that it, one size pot at a time. We pot from 3”, to 6”, then 9” and 12”.
We recommend a John Innes No. 2 mix. If the plant is going outside, add a little more grit or perlite to improve the drainage – black/dark-coloured pots are also recommended for outdoor plants.
Half-fill the new pot with compost. Place your index and second finger either side of the plant base, invert the pot and gently pull the old pot off. Gently tease-out the roots at the base of the root-ball. Place the plant into the new pot – check that the old soil level is about 2cm from the top of the pot, if not adjust the soil level in the pot. Place more soil around the plant’s root to fill the pot, and gently firm down the compost. Water-in well and leave to drain.
Flowering.
Flowers will begin to form when the plant begins to branch-out. Only a fraction of the many flowers produced will set fruit – usually the earlier flowers set fruit more readily than late-season flowers. Night-time temperature is key for fruits to set – ideally this should be between 18C and 25C. If you see excessive flower drop, this can be caused by night-time temperature of over 30C (not very likely in the UK); too much Nitrogen in the compost or feed; high winds or lack of pollination. Hand pollination can be done with a very fine paint brush.
Fruiting.
Fruits form at the base of the flower and grow out through the petals. The un-rip colour is typically green, but yellow and purple are also common. Once the pod reaches full size, the seeds start to develop and the heat level increases. Chillies can be picked and used at many stages of development – for example, Pimento de Padron is picked very early (when only a ¼ of its full size. Many chillies are traditionally eaten ‘un-rip’, such as Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax and Santa Fe Grande. To maximize the crop from a plant, keep it busy by picking fruits off as soon as they are ready for the use you have in mind – this will encourage more fruits to set.
Once you have some seedlings to pot-on (see picture below), it is time to separate them and pot them in individual pots. We tend to pot-on gradually, so we use 3” pots first. Using very loose seedling compost will help this stage. We like to use vermiculite on the surface and perlite in the mix.
Using a plant label or pencil, tease a seedling out by gently gripping one of the initial leaves (not the stem) and lifting the soil around the roots with your chosen tool to allow you to lift the seedling clear.
Try not to tug at the seedling as this may damage the roots. If you are going to pot-on all the seedlings, it is sometimes easier to gently tip out the whole seedling pot to allow the compost to break up.
We use John Innes No. 2 Compost to pot-on seedlings, but any good quality compost will be fine. Fill a 3” pot leaving ½” of space from the lip of the pot. Make a hole in the compost (about ½” wide and 2” deep) and place the seedling into the hole. Fill-in around the seedling root and firm the compost down.
If you have seedlings that have become a little ‘leggy’, you can bury them lower in the compost to make them steadier – leave about ½” of step showing.
Water the seedling well and allow to drain. Take care not to let the seedlings sit in water. You can give them a general liquid feed after pricking-out just to get them going. Place the 3” pots somewhere warm and bright.
The seedling should not need further feeding – it will feed from the new compost. Watch for aphids (tilt the pot and gently rub them off onto the floor). Seedlings will benefit from warm compost (20C), so a warming mat or heating tray (no lid needed in most cases).
A 3” opt will be fine for a seedling up to 4”-5”, and then you should think about potting on into a larger pot – say a 6” pot.
The picture below is a ‘Twilight’ chilli seedling that was pricked-out four weeks before:
In the next article we’ll look at potting-on, flowering and fruiting.
In the UK, March and April are the best months to get going with chilli seeds – this should then mean you are picking fruit from July onwards. Some chilli varieties are also suited to being sown later in the year, for example, varieties with fruits that are typically eaten ‘green’ or immature, and for varieties that ripen very quickly. Because chillies need warmth to germinate and grow, later sowings have been known to do better than an earlier sowing because there is less risk of their growth being checked by a period of cold weather.
What temperatures are needed?
Chilli seeds need warmth to germinate - 25˚C is about ideal for the highest percentage of germination. Chilli seeds are unlikely to germinate below 10˚C, and they will germinate most quickly when the compost is about 35˚C. Once germinated, a soil temperature around 20˚C is ideal. Germinating indoors during the Spring will make life easier.
What equipment will you need?
Since chillies do like to be warm, some sort warming equipment is helpful to keep an even temperature:
Free draining compost
3” pots and 6” pots
A dibber is useful for pricking-out seedlings
Plant labels
Warming mat or heated propagator (no essential, but very useful)
Liquid feed
What to do?
For each variety of chilli you want to grow, fill a 3” pot with good quality, free draining compost – to within 2cm of the top of the pot. Lightly firm the compost down, then sow the seeds evenly on the compost - we tend to sow thickly – then lightly dust some compost on top of the seeds – just a few millimetres (if you have some vermiculite, that can be used to cover the seeds instead). Stand the pots in a deep saucer of warm water until you see signs of water on the surface, then let the pot drain a little.
Keep the seeded pots warm (above 10C, ideally 25C) and inspect daily. Keep the surface of the compost moist. Once the seedlings start to emerge, find a bright position for them.
What varieties are good to start with?
We have found the following varieties to be very reliable and productive:
Cherry Bomb – Very attractive fruits, first to ripen each year. Good for salsa and stuffing.
Ring of Fire – A Cayenne variety. Prolific, good for cooking. Can be used green or red and dries very well.
Padron – Very popular tapas chilli. Prolific, picked immature and lightly fried. Delicious!
Aji Limon – A hot Peruvian chilli with fruits that ripen green to yellow. Very easy to grow and does not need support. Chillies have a lemon flavour and are good for salsas and cooking.
What next?
In part two will look at pricking out the seedlings and potting on.
Blog 
flowers produced will set fruit – usually the earlier flowers set fruit more readily than late-season flowers. Night-time temperature is key for fruits to set – ideally this should be between 18C and 25C. If you see excessive flower drop, this can be caused by night-time temperature of over 30C (not very likely in the UK); too much Nitrogen in the compost or feed; high winds or lack of pollination. Hand pollination can be done with a very fine paint brush.
Fruits form at the base of the flower and grow out through the petals. The un-rip colour is typically green, but yellow and purple are also common. Once the pod reaches full size, the seeds start to develop and the heat level increases. Chillies can be picked and used at many stages of development – for example, Pimento de Padron is picked very early (when only a ¼ of its full size. Many chillies are traditionally eaten ‘un-rip’, such as Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax and Santa Fe Grande. To maximize the crop from a plant, keep it busy by picking fruits off as soon as they are ready for the use you have in mind – this will encourage more fruits to set.
Try not to tug at the seedling as this may damage the roots. If you are going to pot-on all the seedlings, it is sometimes easier to gently tip out the whole seedling pot to allow the compost to break up.
The seedling should not need further feeding – it will feed from the new compost. Watch for aphids (tilt the pot and gently rub them off onto the floor). Seedlings will benefit from warm compost (20C), so a warming mat or heating tray (no lid needed in most cases).
