If you think of a Polish guy, chances are you will not imagine him holding a bunch of chillies or eating Manzanilla Chilli Jam, yet here I am, in the South Devon Chilli Farm, where we grow, cook and distribute the best and the freshest chillies that are available on the market!
My story with SDCF started in the summer of 2025 when I joined this lovely family run business.
I was looking for a place where I would be appreciated for my hard work and where I could enjoy observing nature during lunch breaks, that’s why I chose South Devon Chilli Farm.
As someone from Central Europe, I haven’t had that many hot dishes in my life - just a few whilst being on holiday.
Polish cuisine is based more on sour, fermented, and pickled foods, so at first, it was hard for me to imagine how I could use chillies in my home kitchen.
Thanks to Dan, our chef, who one day opened my eyes, or should I say burned them :D when he was cooking some orange looking sauce and decided to give me a spoonful of it, to do a taste test.
Turned out, it was the Reaper Chilli Sauce that meant an enforced 20 minute timeout on the bench with a glass full of milk :D
Side Note – If you want to see me struggling with some of the hottest chillies on the planet, check out our YouTube channel, on the video titled REAL LIFE SCOVILLE SCALE you see me and Amrit (one of the directors) going up the scale, all the way to the top.
After that, I began to appreciate the flavour hidden behind the heat, and I started experimenting with the chillies.
Firstly, I made sourdough bread with cheese and our fresh jalapenos, which turned out to be quite amazing.
Secondly, as a truly Slavic person, I made a chilli apple cider vinegar, from a mixture of apples from our orchard and about five different varieties of chillies. It was such a fun little experiment, and it ended up so nice. I use it as a salad dressing, or I dilute it to drink, which helps with blood sugar management, weight loss, and cholesterol levels.
Thirdly, I try to change our traditional Polish Christmas dish, Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew), by adding extra heat and guess what? I honestly think that Bigos was missing a bit of Ring of Fire in the first place!
Fourthly, I am in a progress of making my own fermented chilli sauce. So far it smells amazing in my kitchen, and I cannot wait to try it! Fermented foods are so good for you, they improve gut health through probiotics and enhanced nutrient absorption, and with the addition of chillies because they also provide antioxidants.
Lastly, I am about to try and change my in-laws view on chillies this Christmas..... I’ll be taking a small gift to Poland, our newest product, Chilli Vodka. It might be hard to persuade them to try my spicy Bigos, but if I start with the vodka first, I might succeed.
Wish me luck!!!
Make Damian's spicy Bigos yourself using his very own recipe!
From Damian, Warehouse Co-ordinator at SDCF