This weekend I returned from a short trip back east to a message from a friend who told me that he had lemons and jalapenos waiting for me. Lemons are easy. Limoncello and preserved lemons, as well as candy lemons are an annual thing for me. But jalapeños I haven’t done yet. So I started thinking of creative ways that I could use my hot little friends.

After the success of Dilly Beans I decided its time for me to go back to canning roots and try some of the tried and true local gems that people have been making for ages. Forget innovation. Forget variation. Some things are good for a reason.

So here we go. Another recipe I’ve heard about for a while but had never tried is Cowboy Candy. Cowboy Candy is candied jalapeño peppers. Just like with the beans, people rave about these things. They talk about the stuff like it’s crack. Like once you start you’re gonna be fiending in your bedroom crying for another jar. Every recipe I’ve come across comes with the same warning. “Make more than you expect. You’ll go through faster than you think. Your friends will take your entire inventory.” If everyone is this wild about them they must be onto something.

They’re supposed to be amazing on burgers, with cheese and/or crackers, on top of meat as a glaze, as a condiment or straight out of the jar with a fork.

The following recipe is found all over the Internet. I don’t even know who to give credit to at this point. Maybe it’s public domain by now? I found it the recipe I followed on a Facebook canning group. But you can find it, word for word, on several sites.

Cowboy Candy
3lbs Jalapeños
2 C Apple Cider Vinegar
6 Cups Sugar
1/2 t Turmeric
1/2 t Celery Seed
3 t Minced Garlic
1 t Cayenne Pepper

The peppers that my friend brought over were red and bit small. So I decided to pick up some larger green ones from the grocery store. Together I felt they made a nice mix, added some variety, and looked appropriate for the holiday season. I used 2 pounds of green and 1 pound of red peppers.

I’ve made many recipes with many hot peppers in them before and generally don’t wear gloves. However this time you’re going to be slicing at least 3 pounds of jalapeno peppers over the course of probably 20 minutes. It is well worth your time to wear a pair of latex or rubber gloves during this process. You will appreciate this when you need to rub your eye, scratch your nose, or God forbid, use the restroom.

Start by slicing off the very top of the pepper to remove the stem. Then slice the pepper into little 1/4 inch rounds.

When you are finished set the peppers aside. In a large pot combine the apple cider vinegar, sugar, and spices. This is the one point where I deviated from the recipe. I read online that many people found this recipe to be very sweet and they reduced the sugar. I reduced the sugar by one cup. However, I doubled the recipe for the brine.

Bring the brine to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for five minutes. Then add the pepper slices and simmer for four minutes. You don’t want to be standing right over the pot while the stuff is boiling. The combination of vinegar and peppers coming up into your eyes and lungs is quite overwhelming. I had the fan on over the stove throughout. Use a slotted spoon to remove the peppers and place them into clean jars. Leave 1/4 inch headspace.

Return the remaining brine to the heat. Boil it hard for six minutes. Then use a ladle to pour the brine over your peppers in the jars, again leaving headspace. Use a clean paper towel and a dab of white vinegar to clean the rims of the jars.
Process half pints for 10 minutes and pints for 15.

It was suggested that the leftover brine makes an excellent marinade, addition to sauces, or a condiment in and of itself. I went ahead and jarred up what I had left and processed it alongside the peppers.

As with everything pickled these bad boys need to sit for a little while. The suggested time is three weeks. We’ll see how long these last in my pantry before the wife finds them.

I also plan on adding these to my repertoire of easy to make Christmas gifts. Although slicing the jalapenos took a little bit of time the actual process for cooking and preparing the cowboy candy was very easy.

Do you have a favorite family recipe for pickled or candied produce?

Happy canning.

The growing season here in the North of England is finally drawing to a close, the very last pods on my indoor plants have ripened, and everything has been harvested.

It seems like the perfect time to have a quick round up of my favourite chillies and peppers of this season, before I get started on next year’s grow list.

First up is a sweet pepper, and after three years growing it, still my favourite sweet pepper in terms of flavour and appearance. The Sweet Chocolate.
Like most sweet peppers, the Sweet Chocolate belongs to the annuum family. The fruits can grow as large as 20cm in length by 8cm across. The fruits of the Sweet Chocolate are thick-fleshed, but unlike many of the thicker fleshed sweet peppers, the Sweet Chocolate doesn’t seem particularly prone to blossom end rot in our cool, damp climate.
The peppers have a much richer, sweeter taste than a lot of sweet peppers. There’s a fruity undertone to the flavour as well, like many of the chocolate/brown peppers, it has an almost passion fruit flavour and aroma when cut open fresh. Because of their rich flavour these peppers are great stuffed and roasted. I’ve also smoked and dried quite a few of these for my Chipotle Blend.

Next up, sticking with the chocolates, is the ‘Black Naga’, or in reality Chocolate Naga. If anyone remembers my post from earlier in the year, you’ll know the score with this one. The story goes that somewhere deep in the Naga Hills of India/Bangladesh, amongst a field of Raja Naga chillies a single plant was found to bear black pods, and that’s where the seeds that produced this plant are said to have come from.

I’ll be honest, I was dubious from the offset with this one. There’s a lot of bold claims get made to sell seeds in the chilli industry, and a lot of us chilli heads can’t resist the chance of growing something different and special. Before I even grew this out there was speculation that it was just a Chocolate Naga variety, or even a Chocolate Bhut. 

As the plant grew and the fruits ripened it became apparent that it was more of a Chocolate Naga than an actual ‘Black’ Naga.
Either way, the chillies themselves were beautiful. Very nice looking pods. Very aromatic and flavourful when cut open. As I said of the Sweet Chocolate, there’s an undertone of passion fruit in the scent.
The chilli itself wasn’t as hot as I expected. Hotter than your average habanero, but not as hot as a Red Bengal Naga. I found this was in no way a bad thing, as you could get more of the Naga flavour into a meal without it becoming incredibly hot.

If I’m honest though, I won’t be growing this plant again. out of four plants only one grew as a true chocolate, the other three were red, and the plant that did grow true wasn’t a good enough yielder. It was a pretty large Chinense bush, but it only really yielded 6 or 7 decent sized fruits. Tasty as it was, it was a waste of space……

Continuing the chocolate theme, the next chilli on my list was an absolute pearl, and, unlike the Chocolate Naga was a really prolific fruiter. The Ecuadorian Brown exceeded all my expectations of it, and they were pretty high in the first place!

Every resource I’ve found online for the Ecuadorian Brown describes it as being a Chinense, but it really isn’t. It looks Annuum to me. Perhaps a Chinense/Annuum hybrid at most, but it’s definitely not pure Chinense. The chillies weren’t particularly thick fleshed, but they were very flavourful. In terms of heat they were pretty mild, a similar kind of heat range to a Jalapeno.

I’ll definitely be growing these chillies again next year. I have few seeds left from this season and I’ll be planting them all. Hopefully if we have a better Summer next year I might be able to save a few of my own seeds, and perhaps start working on a hybrid…….

Next up is a chilli that I’ve been looking forward to growing for a few years now. Unfortunately last year I was sold completely the wrong seeds and so I had to wait til this year to grow out this legendary chilli from true, reliable seed stock.

The Fatalii.

This is an incredible chilli. Since the first time I tasted it I knew it would be a chilli that’d command a lot of time and attention from me in the coming years. I’m not alone in my opinion either, I know a lot of growers and cooks who hold the Fatalii in very high esteem. It’s got such an amazing, almost citrus flavour, and the heat is just perfect. Hot as hell, but not ridiculously so.

The Fatalii is a Chinense heralding from Central Africa. I find it’s a really versatile chilli to cook with, despite the fact that it’s flavour is quite distinct and recognisable, it lends itself very well to most dishes. The Fataliis I’ve grown this year have been the main source of flavour and heat for my Super Sauce and my Golden Syrup.

I’ll definitely be growing Fataliis again next year. Not only is it a great tasting chilli, but the plants also cropped very well, so well worth the space they take up.

Finally, a chilli I’ve grown for a few years now, a personal favourite, the Bengal Naga. I absolutely love this chilli. I think the first time I tried a jar of Mr Naga-Naga Pickle I knew this would be a chilli I’d have to grow. It’s taken me a few years to perfect my method, they need starting very early in order to get a good crop, but well worth the effort in the long run.

Anyone who likes their Indian and Bangladeshi food should appreciate this chilli and its flavour. A lthough, much like the Fatalii I find it lends itself well to all sorts of dishes. We threw one of our last Naga pods into a pan of Bolognese the night before last and it was absolutely beautiful. Probably the hottest Bolognese I’ve ever eaten, but so tasty. 

These are just a handful of the chillies that I’ve grown and enjoyed this year, just the main ones that have really stood out and made an impression on me, there’s more, I could go on for days, but I’ll save that for later. I hope this has been in some way informative to read, and if there’s any questions you have about any of these chillies, don’t hesitate to hit me up, I’m all ears!

I’d love to hear which chillies have been your favourite in your gardens!

I saw a recipe that used a large flour tortilla for a quiche and a little light went off above my head, really-my husband tried to make sure it was a compact fluorescent so I wouldn’t waste energy .  It got me thinking of quesadillas, but as a pie, so you don’t have to cook each serving individually.

I’m not one for just meat and cheese dishes.  I love vegetables, so I added lots of them.  Since there was already plenty of filling, I  opted not to add eggs and milk, but that would work as well. Vary the combination to meet your family’s tastes.  This dish is very flexible.  A quick saute and everything goes into the pie.  Top it with cheese and a short bake in the oven is all you need.  I had no left overs, and wished I had added even more veggies so, be sure to load yours up.  I will next time round.

You’ll need:

1 10 inch flour tortilla (sometimes called burrito size)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 cup sweet peppers, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup sliced pickled jalapenos

2-3 cups cooked chicken, diced (see how to have grilled chicken on hand here or deli-chicken works too)

1/2 Tbs paprika

1 Tbs coriander chutney (available at middle eastern grocery)

2 tsp chipotle hot sauce or 1 tsp chipotle powder

1/2 tsp smoked salt (optional-but its so good)

2 cups shredded cheddar or your favorite

Preheat oven to 425F

In a cast iron or similar skillet, saute your vegetables with a little olive oil for about 5-10 minutes until softened.  Add your paprika, chutney and chipotle.  Stir. Add grilled or deli chicken and stir to mix.  Taste your mix and if you want it a little more smokey flavor, sprinkle with smoked salt.

Place your tortilla in a greased 9 inch  pie plate and push down and out to seat.

Pour the chicken/vegetable mixture in and spread into an even layer.  Spread shredded cheese on top.  At this point you could add and egg/milk mixture (2-3 eggs beaten with a splash of milk) if your pie isn’t as full as you would like.

Place pie in the oven and bake until filling is bubbling (about 15minutes) or until egg are set and browning (about 20-25 minutes).  Remove and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.  Slice and serve.  Enjoy!

I thought this would make a wonderful idea to bring to a holiday party. Some mixer, vodka, and a variety of pickled vegetables and olives as toppers. But the idea of toting several quart jars around with me in December wasn’t appealing. Then it hit me. Why not do them in the same jar?

I started reading the NCHFP’s directions on pickling each of the individual vegetables. The real difference was that asparagus and brussels sprouts are processed for 10 minutes whereas the beans are only processed for 5. So I did some asking around and found someone who said that they processed their dilly beans for 10 minutes and they still come out crunchy. And with that was born the idea for the holy trinity of Bloody Mary toppers. But the idea of those three things hanging out in a jar together seemed awfully green to me. So while I was at the store I picked up those miniature red, orange, and yellow peppers as well as purple pearl onions.

Bloody Mary Pickle Mix
Asparagus
Green Beans
Brussels Sprouts
Mini Sweet Peppers
Pearl Onions
Garlic
White Vinegar
Pickling Salt
Water
Dill
Black Peppercorns
Mustard Seed
Dried Red Chiles
Red Pepper Flake

I decided to go with the same brine and seasonings as my Dilly Bean recipe, except that I also add mustard seed to the jars.

Let’s start with the Brussels sprouts. First off, did you know they grow like this?

I never really thought about or imagined what Brussel sprouts look like as they grow, but I guess I thought it was more like tiny cabbages coming out of the ground. Turns out they grow on gigantic stalks that look like DNA. My wife picked up two of these stalks to use for Thanksgiving. It turns out that was twice as much as we needed so we had one left for this project. She told me ahead of time that she’d started by cutting the little sprouts off of the stalk. However she quickly discovered that simply snapping them off was much quicker and more efficient. So if you buy your sprouts like this, simply start at the bottom and snap them off, working your way around to the top.

These bad boys are going to be cut, blanched, boiled in brine, and then sitting in a jar for who knows how long. So you want healthy, tight, clean little sprouts. I started by trimming the stem just a little bit and then pulling off any leaves that weren’t firmly wrapped around the sprout or had blemishes. Then I sorted them into two piles, big and small. I cut all the big ones in half so that their total size were about equal.

Get a pot of water boiling and drop your sprouts in. Set a timer for four minutes. Blanching helps start the cooking process to make them tender, improves the color, and can help kill harmful bacteria. After four minutes immediately remove them and place them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

For directions on how to blanch the pearl onions see my entry on pickled beets.

Get an assembly line going for your jars. Put the dill, garlic, black peppercorns, mustard seed, red pepper flakes, and dried red chili in each jar. Then start working on your Tetris skills. Each jar needs asparagus, green beans, brussels sprouts, mini sweet peppers, and pearl onions.

I found it easiest to stack the very vertical beans and asparagus against one side of the jar and then fill up the remaining space with the oddly shaped items. The onions and garlic fill the little recesses left over. Try to get a fairly even mix of vegetables in there so that the last person to the jar isn’t stuck with four green beans and a half of a brussels sprout.

Follow the directions from the dilly bean recipe to make your brine. Pour your hot brine over the vegetables. Add your clean lid, clean ring, finger tighten it, and place into a water-bath canner.

Process for 10 minutes. Once the time is up remove the jars carefully and set them on a tea towel or cutting board where they can have a chance to cool slowly and undisturbed.

And there you have it. First off, these are some of the coolest looking jars that I’ve ever made. Second I think they’ll do well as gifts or as favors to the host or hostess of a holiday party that you are attending. Since they are pickles remember to make them three weeks ahead of the date that you need them so they have time to brine. Also my peppers are desperately trying to float to the top. I found out afterward that to avoid this you can take a small knife and cut one or two slits and each pepper. This will allow the air to escape and the pepper will suspend in the liquid.

Set this jar out with some picks and a bowl of olives and your guests have their choice of what to place on their Bloody Mary. Alternatively this would also make a good accompaniment to a cheese or antipasto platter.

Do you have a different combination of pickled vegetables you enjoy? What are your favorite Bloody Mary toppers? Let me know.

Happy canning.

Very simple recipe! Simply cut in half 1 red, yellow and green peppers and add these to 1 quartered red onion and 1 box of mushrooms and place all into a large resealable freezer bag. Then combine the below ingredients in a bowl and then pour over the vegetables. Re-close the bag and shake contents. Allow to marinate for at least 3-4 hours and then throw on the grill for 15-20 minutes. Great hot as well as left overs to chop on salads or add the sandwiches!

1-1/4 teaspoons garlic powder
1-1/4 teaspoons dried oregano
1-1/4 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
2/3 cup red wine vinegar

In the midwest, when you think traditional northern food and you may think of Lutefisk…… think again as there is no using that ingredient in my near future.  Bratwurst!  The traditional sausage loved by Wisconsinites because of their large German ancestry.  Think of the south and you are familiar with the flavors that I like to cook with, peppers and chilis.  I had purchased a bag of small sweet peppers (as seen here), which I like using on salads, and decided to stuff them with bratwurst and a red chili sauce; I call my recipe Wicked Wisconsin Peppers!  

The red chili sauce really is the star of this dish.  The roasted red peppers are a very appealing sweet flavor up front, and then a touch of heat from the guajillo chilis sneaks up at the end but isn’t too hot that it melts your tongue.  There are layers of flavor as the parmesan also adds its familiar nutty flavor.  I was shocked by how great the bratwurst tasted with the red chili sauce.  Top the peppers with a little shredded jack cheese after baking and enjoy!

This came out so well that I have to share it.  The amounts are for a one dish meal for two so adjust as needed.

• Chop a small onion and one pound of any sweet pepper except green and braise gently about 20 minutes in 2 TBS olive until well cooked and slightly browned.
• Start bringing enough water to a boil to cook 8 oz fettuccine
• Add 3 TBS pesto, 1/4 cup Kalamata olives (roughly chopped), 1/8 cup capers, 2 cloves garlic sliced thin, 1 tsp black pepper, and 1/4 cup water to the pepper/onion mixture, stir and cook gently.  You will want it to mostly dry out before you toss it with the pasta.
• Cook the fettuccine. and grate some parmesan.
• Toss cooked fettuccine with sauce and serve in soup bowls garnish with lots of parmesan.

Note: If you do not have any pesto laying around 1 TBS dry basil and some chopped walnuts or chopped pine nuts will work just as well.

Good food does not have to cost a fortune and food that is good for you can be mighty tasty with minimal effort.

Gordon

• 2 pork chops
• 3 sprigs of thyme (optional)
• 2 red bell peppers, seeds removed and slice into thin strips
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• salt & pepper to taste
• parsley, chopped
• chili flakes (Optional)
• butter

For the Sweet and Sour Peppers

Melt a knob of butter in a pan over medium heat and begin caramelizing your onions. Stirring frequently. Once your onions have caramelized, add the bell peppers, and season with salt and pepper, you can also add chili flakes or any other seasoning if you are going to use them. Once the peppers have gone soft, deglaze with the sherry vinegar. If needed, let the sherry reduce until you have a nice sauce. Turn off the heat and add the chopped parsley (basil is also nice). Transfer to a plate and cover.

For the Pork Chops

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and place it back on med-high heat. Melt another knob of butter in the pan and place the pork chops in. Also add in the lightly smashed garlic and sprigs of thyme. Cook for about 2-3 minutes a side adjusting for thickness of pork chop. After flipping the chops the first time, start to baste the chops using a spoon. Once cooked to your desired doneness, let them rest for 5 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

Recipe by friend of The Paleo Secret, Justin Kent 

All through early fall there has been a plethora of peppers in our garden. Jalapeño, bell peppers, Anaheim and a variety of small sweet peppers abound. Quite frankly, I have peppers coming out of my ears. There are also spring onions, lots of them, so I was excited when I saw there were still  beautiful heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market perfect for whipping up a fresh Pepper Pico de Gallo. The traditional version does not call for the sweet peppers but they add nice flavor, color and crunch. I also like to add a little dash of olive oil to bring the flavors together but I’m Californian and  like to add olive oil to everything so feel free to leave it out. You can adjust the number of Jalapeños depending on how spicy they are and how spicy you like it. Enjoy with chips or as a flavorful topping to any mexican dish. Ok, that’s 7 peppers down…

Ingredients:

3 small heirloom or Roma Tomatoes, diced

3 small Sweet Peppers or 1/2 lg Bell Pepper, seeded, diced

2 Spring Onions including tops, diced

1 Garlic clove minced

2-4 Jalapeños, seeded, minced (leave in a few seeds if you like it hot)

2 Tbsp Cilantro chopped

juice from 1 Lime

pinch of Salt and Chili Powder

dash Olive Oil (optional)

3 dashes of your favorite Hot Sauce (optional)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Bam! You’re done. If  you are serving as a dip or topping leave as-is. If you are using in a wrap or burrito, place in a colander and allow it to drain a bit before use so tortillas don’t get soggy. Buen Provecho! X, Jacq

This quick and easy recipe can be eaten for lunch, dinner or a midday snack. It’s simple to make, inexpensive to purchase, and won’t blow your daily calorie count (about 90 cals).

Ingredients:

• 1 13 ounce can of Member’s Mark Chicken Breast
• 1/4 cup of mayonaise (I prefer Helman’s)
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• A few squirts of regular yellow or dijon mustard
• A dash of black pepper to taste
• 3 cucumber slices (optional)
• 1 Large Red, Yellow, Orange or Green Pepper (I use yellow)

Instructions:

1. With a spoon, mix chicken breast, mayonaise, diced celery, mustard and pepper together in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
2. Take your pepper and stand it upright. Slice the pepper down the center so it is halved.
3. Carve out the seeds and insides of the pepper
4. Scoop chicken salad mixture into the pepper, using whatever sized helping you prefer
5. Top with cucumber slices and enjoy!

1 Seminole Pumpkin (My Mother’s Garden, Wimauma FL)
Pumpkin Tangerine Cake

1/2 lb Sweet Pepper Medley (NC)
Creamy Swiss Chard and Bell Pepper Medley

1 Eggplant (GA)
Baby Bok Choy & Eggplant Stir Fry

1/2 lb Baby Bok Choy (CA)
Baby Bok Choy & Eggplant Stir Fry

1 lb Fall Glo Tangerine (FL)
Pumpkin Tangerine Cake

3 Gala Apples (WA)
Rice Pudding with Caramel Gala Apples

Lots of things have been going on both in and out of the garden recently. So much so that I haven’t had much time to sit down and write about it.

As I’m sure you’re aware, this time of year is harvest time for many vegetable crops. This means lots of time spent in the garden gathering our spoils and even more time spent in the kitchen preserving them.

The gherkin and courgette pickling that has been ongoing throughout Summer has finally drawn to a close with an overall lower yield of gherkins for the year, but a much higher yield of courgettes which kind of balanced it out.

We’ve been harvesting chillies and sweet peppers in small batches for the past month. Most of these so far have been smoked, although a lot of the yellow and golden varieties have been frozen in preparation for the Golden Syrup.

So far, of the sweet peppers, the Romanos we grew have been by far the most prolific with really heavy yields. Although out of all of the sweet peppers they definitely had the thinnest pod flesh, so perhaps a bit of a false economy.

The Big Bananas, Sweet Chocolates and Dutch Purples have produced comparatively smaller yields but with much heavier thicker fleshed fruits. This, however isn’t always a good thing in our cold, humid climate, as I find it’s the thickest fleshed peppers that are the first and most common to develop blossom end rot.

I have been working on a chipotle mix to be used in the sauce range. 

I’ve been combining a selection of sweet peppers, Jalapenos, various other mild chillies in the smoker and powdering them in order to get a chipotle mix that has the maximum amount of smokey flavour to heat ratio.

This year I’ve been using Apple wood, Maple wood,  and Oak in the smoker. The result is a dark, rich smoke,   not as sweet as the Cherry Wood I used last year.

With the onset of much colder weather over the last couple of weeks it’s been time to cut our losses and harvest the last of the Squashes and the two Courgettes we left to turn to Marrows. We had a decent enough harvest. The Winter Squash mix seeds I planted produced some interesting fruits, although the plants weren’t particularly good yielders and a lot of the fruits were disappointingly small if I’m honest. As with last year I think I spent too much effort on fancy looking Squashes and not enough on the old trusty Pumpkin, which we know is tried and tested. Thick flesh, not too tough skin, great sweet flavour.
We have three good sized Pumpkins, but next year I want a lot more.

The Beetroot did far better than last year, thinning out the seedlings definitely helped the remaining plants to grow far bigger roots.

Business-wise we’re really moving forward now. The illustrations for the bottle labels are finished courtesy of our incredibly talented illustrator, Miss Harriet Wood. Be sure to check out her work at www.misshazard.com.

We also now have a brilliant designer on board, a good friend of mine Monica Tuffs is taking care of our logo, label designs and general company image. Monica has already captured exactly the feel we want for the company and has already sourced printers for the labels. You can find her work here at http://monicatuffs.blogspot.co.uk/

Sat in our conservatory we have our first five hundred empty sauce bottles, which I am slowly and painstakingly working my way through sterilizing…….

We now have our very own London business address and mail redirection service, so we can put an address other than our own on our bottles to meet with Trading Standards regulations.

We have just received a kilo each of 7 Pot Brain Strain, Yellow Fatalii and Chocolate Bhut Jolokia from good friend Naga Nick down in Somerset.
We were hoping to survive solely on chillies grown at home this first season, but the demand for the sauce has already exceeded what we can produce in our greenhouse this year and Nick has very kindly helped us out. This is still in keeping with our company ethos of producing food in a sustainable manner by cutting down on precious food miles and not using imported chillies.

Next year we will be buying a 30ft polytunnel to erect in the garden and from that point on we should be able to grow enough chillies at home to meet the demand. Hopefully.

Right, I think I’ve waffled on for quite long enough. I noticed the first ground frost this morning, which means I have a busy day ahead of me picking and smoking chillies……..

Chard (Buffalo St, Vinewood Knoll, Fields of Plenty)

Heirloom Tomatoes (Singing Tree, Buffalo St, Fields of Plenty, Farnsworth, Vinewood Knoll)

 Salad Mix-Lettuce, mustard greens, Arugula, Snow Peas, Radish Greens, Nasturtiums

(Fields of  Plenty, Singing Tree , Farnsworth, Vinewood Knoll)

 Peppers (Singing Tree, Buffalo St, Farnsworth, Fields of Plenty, Vinewood Knoll)

 Hot Peppers (Farnsworth, Vinewood Knoll)

 Cilantro (Singing Tree)

Parsley (Singing Tree, Farnsworth, Buffalo St)

 Flowers (Fields of Plenty, Buffalo St, Farnsworth, Singing Tree)