The Farm

The South Devon Chilli Farm is based at two sites in sunny South Devon, situated approximately halfway between Torquay and Plymouth. The farm now has a staff of 11 including the owners Jason and Steve and all year round there is always more than enough to keep us busy. We sow seeds in February each year and harvest the fruits from July to November, with lots of weeding and watering in between.

Our main site is 10 acres of land with a production barn just outside the village of Loddiswell. This is where we are open to visitors, with a small shop and in summer, a Show tunnel to display our many colourful shapes and sizes of chilli. Here we have the space to potentially grow lots of the other ingredients we need for our preserves and sauces, as well as the all important chillies. Also, because we own the land here, rather than rent it, we will eventually be able to undergo organic conversion.

South Milton, our second site, where we started out in 2003 with 4 rented polytunnels, is situated about a mile from the sea near Kingsbridge in South Devon. We can't see the sea but we can hear it on a rough day. Although we do not currently have organic certification, we do use organic growing methods. We only use organic fertilisers and we pick off greenfly by hand before they get out of control; usually the ladybirds and the parasitic wasps get the rest.

Prior to our arrival, the land in which we now grow our chillies was unused and largely undisturbed for many years, so wildlife abounds. We have Common Lizards, toads, frogs, Grass Snakes and we have been told there are Adders (although we have never seen them ourselves), plus plenty of bird life including Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Spotted Flycatchers.

In total we have around 2,500 square metres of chillies under cultivation in large polytunnels, that's around 10,000 plants. In 2007 we harvested well over a million chillies. At our farm in Loddiswell we have planted orchards of apples, crab apples, elderberries, blackberries and hawthorn to name but a few. We will also have beds of herbs and other edible plants growing during the summer.