The Open Sourcerer

OT: Quick update on the Chillies

It’s just over 5 weeks since my Chilli seeds were removed from their packets and started off in the airing cupboard.

A few people have kindly enquired about their current status. Here’s a few pictures…

There haven’t been any major dramas and although the rather dull light we had through February hasn’t been ideal the plants seem to be doing fine. Our greenhouse is now clean and I noticed recently the automatic windows starting to lift after some prolonged sun so shortly they will start getting taken out during sunny days, but returned when it gets cold.

The next update will probably after potting-on.

OT: The Chilli Planting Begins

It’s that time already. Gosh how the time flies when you’re having fun.

This morning, following the great success with last year’s germinations, I have sown the seeds for this year’s Chilli harvest.

This year I had to be a bit ruthless. I have more varieties to choose from than this but limited greenhouse capacity so I’ve gone for a mix of strengths, sizes and tastes. There’s (clockwise from the top left):

• Portugal, a Jumbo Cayenne type that sounds great,
• the now [in]famous Dorset Naga, probably the hottest Chilli in the world,
• a Jalapeño which my wife bought for me, and as these are quite mild will be good for the family,
• Thai Mound, a very hot and tiny birds-eye type,
• Fatalii which are a yellow Habanero style that has a good reputation for flavour (citrus) and also for overwintering well,
• and finally a regular Cayenne chilli which my Sister-in-law very kindly gave to me at Christmas with a copy of the Grow Your Own garden magazine.

I used the same technique as last year. That is take a small plastic tub (the kind we get Indian and Chinese Takeaways in round here), lay a sheet of absorbent kitchen paper (we use recycled, non-perfumed and unbleached paper) in the bottom and then dampen liberally with tepid water. When I say liberally, the paper is pretty much saturated and there is small amount of water that will collect in the corner of the tub if you tip it up a bit. I then write on the side of the tray the two varieties I will sow in the box and then just lay the seeds on the moist paper keeping a decent distance between them.

Here’s one I prepared earlier

I repeated this exercise with the other chillies, and some tomato seeds to try and give them a head start too. Once the seeds are sown, I put the lids on the tubs and put them in our airing cupboard. Last year germination was really quick compared to the more traditional pot sown seeds I’d done in the past. The tubs need to be checked every day and as soon as the seed starts to sprout I cut a small section of the paper that the seed is on and place that in a small (3″) pot with some some good seed compost. Then they stay on our south-facing window sill in the lounge until the weather warms up enough for them to go outside.

OT: The 2009 Open Sourcerer’s Chilli Harvest

This morning I collected the fruits of the chillies I started growing on the last day of January this year.

Over the last 8 months or so, they’ve gone from this:

To this:

And now they are all gathered in, apart from one Naga plant that still has 6 good but unripe Nagas which I’ve moved into our porch where it should be a little warmer. I have read that you can over-winter some varieties. I’ve not tried that before, so will try it this time.

I had a pretty good crop overall. The Habanero Scutaba was the most prolific cropper but not as hot as I would have liked although they are quite variable. I will be drying the large ones and eating/freezing the smaller.

The regular Habanero produced an admirable crop of very hot chillies from just one plant whereas the Congo Trinidad failed to impress with regards to production. I haven’t tried them yet so can’t comment on their strength.

The small Nepali Orange and the Zimbabwe Bird Pepper are both quite hot and cropped well. Most of these have gone in the freezer.

The Naga Jolokia, although not having produced that many fruits (I have eaten about 5 or 6 of them already) are really quite astonishingly hot. I’ve never eaten anything anywhere near this hot before. Simply amazing…

Next year I will be pinching out the growing tip of the plants when they reach about 8 inches or so. Seeing commercially produced plants that are much more compact and yet have an abundance of fruit is clearly the way to go. Mine were quite “airy” and tall. I think a more compact form seems to suit them better.

I need to say many thanks to my darling wife for watering my plants when I forgot and for putting up with half of our total greenhouse capacity being taken over by Chillies. Another reason for going for the nipping-the-growing-tip method which I will try next year.

OT: Update on The Open Sourcerer’s Chillies

What seems like many moons ago, I posted a brief article about starting this year’s Chilli crop. I “planted” the seeds much earlier than usual (last day of January rather than sometime during March) and I used a different sowing technique to see if the germination could be speeded up. Here’s that first post with a couple of pictures of how I started the seeds off. I said back then that I would also plant some in the more traditional manner, but to be honest I had such excellent results from this trial I did not need to start off any more seedlings at all.

This is how they look now after just 10 weeks. I am delighted with their progress. The germination on soggy toilet paper in the airing cupboard worked really well compared to simply planting the seeds in potting compost. I found that some of the seeds had germinated within a week and most had come up within 2 or 3 weeks. By comparison, pot sown seeds have usually taken anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to just show.

As soon as the seed started to sprout I carefully cut it, and a small section of the paper it was growing on, from the rest and planted it in a small 3″ pot with regular seed/potting compost. Within 4 weeks all the seedlings were potted on and growing well. Only a few seeds failed to germinate completely, but that is to be expected. I think from 30 odd seeds I have ended up with 23 good strong plants.

Some of the most vigorous have already been potted on into 4″ pots. There are about a dozen still to be done. They all look very healthy and happy (if a plant can actually look happy that is).

These photos were taken today in our greenhouse. The plants get taken out when the day is sunny and the greenhouse is warm. On cloudy and/or cold days they have remained indoors on a south facing window sill in the living room. By the end of April I will start to harden them off and by mid-May I would expect them to have taken up permanent residence in the greenhouse.

One variety I am especially keen to grow and eat this year is the Naga Bih Jolokia. Here is one of the 4 plants of that variety looking especially radiant. For those who were not aware, the Bih Jolokia has been recorded as the hottest Chilli in the world.

This is the best looking crop of plants, this early on the year, that I have ever grown. I’m now quite hopeful of a good crop this year although a great deal will depend on the sunlight we get through the summer months. But hopefully in a few more months time I’ll have a couple more photos of fruit laden chilli plants to show off!

OT: This year’s first Chillies

As some of you will know I’m a big fan of Chillies. Especially the hot ones and I also really enjoy growing my own too.

For this year’s crop I have decided to start them off quite a bit earlier than I have in the past. It will mean me looking after them for longer until it is warm enough for them to go out to the greenhouse but the extended growing season should help with the yields I hope. So this is a bit of an experiment and I’m going to document it for other budding chilli aficionados.

As you may recall I managed to get some seeds for the Naga Bih Jolokia at the West Dean Chilli Fiesta last summer. Today I have planted the first half of my Naga seeds and some other varieties too.

In addition to planting earlier, I have also decided to try an alternative germination method for half of what i will grow. This method seems popular around some of the forum and – to be honest – it is a technique I used very successfully many years ago as a young man attempting to “grow his own”; if you know what I mean… The other half of the Naga seeds and other varieties I will plant in a more traditional way over the coming weeks.

This alternative technique is easy but different. Rather than dropping your seed into some potting compost in a tray or small pot, the seeds are placed on damp kitchen (or toilet) paper and put into the airing cupboard. Check regularly and keep moist until the seeds germinate (some chillies can take a month or so) and then immediately the seedlings are moved into small pots filled with compost – with a bit of the surrounding paper material- and grown on indoors on a sunny window sill until the weather is warm enough for them to be taken outside during the day into the greenhouse and brought in at night and then, once May (typically) arrives, they can stay out permanently.

Apart from the Naga and the Congo Trinidad varieties, all the the other seed packets were left over from last years season so I hope they will germinate OK:

• The top tray has 5 of the Naga Jolokia seeds and a half dozen of a variety called Congo Trinidad which is an extra large red habanero type and significantly larger and more ribbed than the average red habanero.
• The next tray has a few regular Habanero, a very hot and quite “fruity” chilli, and some Zimbabwe Bird Pepper which are a really small fruit but very fiery. I grew these last year and had a pretty decent crop.
• The final tray has some Habanero Scutaba, a smooth-skinned and flavourful variety of habanero that is more red in colour (normal habanero tend to be more orange), and some Nepali Orange, again a small variety that packs a real punch!

Once things start to happen I’ll drop by with another report and hopefully by mid October this year I’ll have a great crop of very hot chillies…

Feel the heat of the Open Sourcerer

OK. Sorry for the bad title but I couldn’t think of a better one.

This is very off-topic but something I really, really love (even more than free software probably): The Chilli. I really get a kick out of hot food and I also enjoy growing them too.

Today, the 11 October, was a sunny warm day for the time of year and it seemed the right day to reap the harvest from my small greenhouse.

I had 6 plants in total grown from seed which were started off in late February. My BW has helped nurture them through our rather damp and grey summer and the results have not been too bad. I have been consuming chilli straight from the plant for the last couple of months and have also given some to friends/family too so, so I am quite pleased with the crop although the harvest wasn’t a large as some years in the past.

The larger round chilli (top left) is an Italian variety my Sister-in-law bought for me last Christmas. What a great present! A tiny pack of seeds and from it I get these really nice peppers. Thick fleshed, good slightly fruity flavour, not too hot [for me at least!]. Perfect for Arrabiata or Piccante sauces with pasta or sliced on Pizza.

The long chilli is the very well known Cayenne (top right). These are typically used to make a great spice powder that is usually known as Cayenne Pepper and this is not the same as regular Chilli Powder. They taste great, not too hot once again, but are great grilled and eaten whole or added, at the last minute, to curries. The plant these chillies came from I actually bought from the Chilli Fiesta at West Dean Gardens. I try to go every year. It’s a chilli lover’s delight and attracts many thousands of visitors in just two days.

The small chilli are all very hot and will be eaten throughout the coming winter in stews, curries and anything else that I can squeeze them into. My family – especially the kids – don’t really like heat that much so it is one of those foods that I mainly get to indulge in all by myself.

Preserving them is pretty easy. The big chillies will be dried in the airing cupboard then stored in a dark place along with all my other spices. Once dried they will keep almost indefinitely it seems.

Here are some I prepared earlier. These have been drying for about a month in the airing cupboard and are now totally bone-dry.

The small chillies I simply washed, cleaned, dried and put into small bags and they have gone in the freezer. This is a great way to keep them. Just take out a few when you need them and by the time you have got from the freezer to the chopping board they have nearly fully defrosted and are almost as good as they were when picked. As these small chillies generally get cooked and are for flavour not texture, the cell damage caused by freezing is not really an issue. Again, they seem to keep almost indefinitely.

If I had had a larger crop, I would have made some Chilli Pickles too. This is a brilliant way of preserving them and is just fantastic in a cheese sandwich. I still have some Chilli Oil Pickle in the cupboard that I made about 15 years ago. It still tastes great too!

Next year I have a real treat in store

At the Chilli Fiesta this August I managed to find seeds for the Naga Bih Jolokia. This was the first year they have become available to the consumer apparently. I hadn’t seen them before at any rate. In late January or early February I will start them off indoors to give them the longest possible growing season. Hopefully this time next year, I’ll be writing and showing off some home-grown Nagas…