History of the Chilli Farm 

From small beginnings…  

It all started with a few chilli plants growing in a Devon back garden in the 1990s. 

We started growing chillies as a hobby in our back garden greenhouses when we moved from the city to rural Devon. We never realised that chillies would be so easy to grow, so delicious and so completely addictive!

In 2001, we had an opportunity to rent a polytunnel and decided to give it a go, to see how many different varieties we could grow. Suddenly, we had lots of chillies and didn't know what to do with them all. Fortunately, at about the same time, farmers markets had started to become popular and so we took our amazing crop of fresh chillies to the markets and some local shows.

We got an immediate positive response from members of the public and realised there was a widespread fascination with chillies; it was great to be able to share our interest and help people discover with us, the huge variety of shapes, colours and tastes of chillies, as well as the varying levels of spicy heat.

So many chillies were grown that they couldn’t possibly all be sold – so, the first foray into cooking and preserving began!  

Our very first product was our Hot Apple Chilli Jelly, made very simply by boiling up apples, sugar and a little chilli. We went on to create other preserves using sugar and vinegar as natural preservatives. As well as being a natural way to preserve chillies, we found the taste was so much better, with no after tastes or gloopiness, which often results from artificial additives. We still stick to our original method of preserving and still make all our products in small batches, retaining their lovely home-cooked flavour.

We also experimented with drying and smoking techniques;  as lovers of Mexican food, it was really satisfying to be able to oak-smoke our Devon-grown Jalapenos and create the wonderful, classic Mexican Chipotle chillies. 

Following our successful drying techniques, we went on to try out an Aztec-inspired recipe by combining a secret mix of dried chillies and chocolate - a sure-fire winner!  

In 2003, we gave up our day jobs and started to grow and cook-up chillies full time, employing a few helpers and becoming a limited company. We also created a website so that we could sell our chilli products all around the country.

The business expands…. 

Cooking everything in small home kitchens started to become rather a juggling act and space became scarce, so the next step was to look for a site where we could increase our production. In 2005, a local farmer agreed to sell us 10 acres of fabulous South Hams farmland!  

On this amazing new site, we were able to build a big barn to house a production kitchen and storage for all our products – by this time we were getting through a fair few jars and bottles!  

We then added 6 huge polytunnels – one to house our chilli plant nursery, four for our crops and one to serve as a show tunnel – which still houses a breath-taking display of hundreds of chilli plant varieties every year!  

Opening a shop…  

Once the big barn was up and running, a small section of it was set aside to use as a shop, so that locals could pop in and pick up their favourite products as well as wander through our display tunnel to see where the chillies were grown and where their food was coming from.

Our site is in such a beautiful rural location with far reaching views, it was decided to build a proper extension to the big barn, so that we had a proper place for visitors to come and spend a bit longer with us enjoying the scenery and the chillies.  

In 2011, six long years after we had moved in, there were enough funds to extend our barn and we built our fabulous farm shop; you can now stop for a drink and enjoy the views for as long as you want. Instead of the make-shift shop, we now have a light and airy, wood clad farm shop.

In 2014, we added another 2 polytunnels to our main site and gave up our lease of the rented polytunnels, so with less time moving between sites, there is more time to spend on plant care.

Still growing…  

After 20 years spent experimenting with chillies and growing the farm into the wonderful business it is today, Steve, Heather, Martin and Kaz took their well-earned retirement in 2022.

The New owners, Amrit and Jenny are thrilled to join the existing staff you know and love at the farm, getting stuck into learning the -ins and -outs of the business - nothing to sweat over though as Amrit and Jenny have always been avid gardners, and love all things chilli (no problem with taste testing there!).

Jenny has family connections to Devon, whereas Amrit hails from the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago, where chilli is a common cooking ingredient, and they certainly love their heat!

The farm is at the start of a really exciting new stage in its growth, and we look forward to bringing you more of everything that you love about South Devon Chilli Farm, so watch this space.

In 2023... 2 brand new polytunnels were added to the site; a new double-skinned nursery tunnel for starting off seedlings, as well as a new 50m crop tunnel to expand our production capacity. By the end of the 2023 growing season both tunnels were already filled to the brim! This additional growing capacity has allowed the Chilli Farm to produce a large number of additional plants for sale. 

In 2024... we have used our extra growing capacity to start working with the RHS at their high-profile events - this year we have featured at RHS Malvern, RHS Hampton Court and RHS Hyde Hall. We look forward to continuing to work with the RHS into the future.  

The Kitchen and Warehouse have also had their capacity nearly doubled in 2024 by the addition of a mezzanine level, and the business was delighted to be accredited as SALSA - a testament to the high levels of hygiene and safety that we employ across the business. 

Watch this space for more to come!