Updates
-
Building a sustainable farm: 20 years of the South Devon Chilli Farm!
by Amrit MadhooBy Ben Robey, Operations Manager This year marks the 20th anniversary of the South Devon Chilli Farm, half of which I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. What appealed to me was that this was something different, not the traditional farm I grew up working on - we were one of the first not just in the UK but in Europe! There was a buzz about the place, it still had a start-up feel to it when I joined and it was an exciting opportunity. It also meant I could get my daily chilli fix! Everything starts with a seed here, hence our motto “from seed to sauce”. These are nurtured by the team in our nursery before being planted out in the spring ready for a summer harvest. Once ripened, the fruits make their way a few hundred yards from our polytunnels to our production kitchen ready for use in our range of award-winning sauces, preserves & chocolates. Everything is produced onsite and is handmade in small batches to retain a home cooked flavour & minimise wastage. The first product ever made on the farm was our “Hot Apple Jelly”, made from chillies grown in our tunnels and apples from our orchard – it doesn’t get anymore local than that! An ethos that is still the foundation of our recipes today; simple, natural & local. As you’d expect there’s been many changes on the farm over the years but the core principle remains the same; to build something sustainable. One of our main goals is to be as self-sufficient as possible, something that will give us more security in the long-run, which has proved more apparent over the last few years. We are now almost completely self-sufficient of seeds, each year our seed collection program gets bigger & bigger and this year we’ve collected more than ever! We are also dedicating more space than ever to our dried chillies, next year we are aiming to offer a full range of home-grown dried & flaked chillies as well as some exciting new products….. stay tuned! In addition to this we recognize the need to reduce our footprint and having already added more growing capacity earlier this year, we also have a solar project lined up for next year which we anticipate will produce enough energy over the summer months so that we are almost fully off-grid (more on this in the new year!). Balancing growth with ‘doing the right thing’ is no small task and we’re always conscious of the impact we’re having. We understand there is more to be done but we’re confident we’re on the right path. Here’s to another 20 years!
Read article
-
Report from our Fulfilment Manager Corrina
by Amrit MadhooAs Fulfilment Manager at the South Devon Chilli Farm, my days are filled with a unique blend of challenge and coordination, and the unmistakable aroma of our fabulous fresh chillies, sauces and jams. Our team works tirelessly every day to ensure that each step of the fulfillment process, from planting to packaging, is executed with precision and care. It's a labour of love that begins with selecting the finest seeds, nurturing them with devotion, and watching them transform into a kaleidoscope of colours and flavours. Harvest is an exciting celebration - a time to show our dedication and passion for all things chilli. This year's has been bountiful. Next up is preparation for the Christmas season as the team ensure that gift boxes are prepared, parcels are packed and our products are well stocked and ready for dispatch. The count-down has begun! And finally, for anyone needing a helping hand with their Christmas crackers this year...how do you measure the heaviness of a Red Hot Chilli Pepper? Give it a weigh, give it a weigh, give it a weigh now...
Read article
-
A word from Amrit and Jenny...
by Amrit MadhooWow! What a year 2023 has been... Our first full year as owners of the South Devon Chilli Farm, we've now seen through a full 12 month cycle of sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking, assembling, promoting and really getting to grips with our wonderful business.Now we have our feet firmly under the table, we're turning our attention to even more exciting new ideas for 2024. We have new recipes, new events, talks and attractions all in the works, and we can't wait to share them with you as they all develop and come to fruition over the coming year.Not forgetting of course everything we've already accomplished! Our new White Chilli Chocolate has been flying off the shelves, our stunning Favourites Chocolate Gift Set has launched in time for Christmas, as well as winning a Gold 5 Flower RHS Rosemoor award for our chilli show garden & delivering a talk at the RHS show on all things chilli. Phew! 2023 has been pretty eventful on the home front as well, with the arrival of little Lily into the gang.Cheerio!Amrit & Jenny
Read article
-
- growing
Autumn 2023 Update - from our Horticulture Manager
by Amrit MadhooHere at the Farm, as Autumn approaches, our tunnels are at full capacity with chillis ready to pick. We have already been harvesting hundreds of kilograms of chillis throughout the summer but the bulk of our crop is currently being picked. We are still waiting on some varieties to ripen, usually all the Superhot chillis, and hope there’s a bit more sunshine to help them along. Most of our chillis are processed on site by either mashing (in an industrial sized blender), dried (in an industrial sized dryer) or frozen (yep, in an industrial sized freezer). Along with the chilli picking we are extremely busy with seed collecting from selected plants. We will have collected in excess of a million seeds by the end of the season that all require careful preparation and viability tests. We keep our own seed to grow from for next year and the rest are counted into packets and made available to buy. If you have chillis growing at home you will, hopefully, be doing the same as us and harvesting the fruits of your labour. As the colder weather begins to return and the drop in daylight hours becomes more evident, chillis will gradually stop producing flowers and new growth. Fruit will continue to ripen if left on the plant and some growers who have the time and space will start the over wintering process. Check our over wintering tips if you would like to keep any plants for next year; https://southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/pages/growing-faqs?_pos=4&_sid=23bd70d89&_ss=r In case you hadn’t heard a little earlier this year we attended the RHS Rosemoor Flower show as an an exhibitor. This was an incredible experience for the whole team at the Farm and we were very pleased to receive a five Flower award at our first RHS event! Amrit and Jenny designed a show stopping chilli garden that received a huge amount of praise over the course of the weekend. Pictured is Amrit with the award.
Read article
-
Autumn in the Kitchen at SDCF
by Amrit MadhooHi, I’m Dave the head chef here at the South Devon Chilli Farm (yet to be photographed). Although if truth be told until recently I was the only chef! I now have a trainee chef called Matt and I am busy teaching him the ropes. I am ex-military and been working here for a little over 10 years. So it’s Autumn now, and time for us to take advantage of the abundance of apples in our orchard at the Farm. The apples all come from a mixture of heritage trees, planted on site several years ago. So firstly we pick the apples, then after a wash they are cooked down in order to extract the juice which is then strained and measured into batches. These batches are then stored to be kept until required for making our Apple Chilli Jelly. This is one of our very first original recipes. When it comes to the cooking of our Jelly, we are very proud to say we do not use any artificial setting agents whatsoever, just the apple juice, chilli, sugar and a small touch of lemon juice to help activate the pectin to set the Jelly. For our Elderflower Chilli Jelly we infuse the juice with elderflower before adding the other ingredients. The finished recipe is then loaded into our depositor and immediately measured into jars, lidded and left to cool before labelling and hitting the shelves for our customers to enjoy! Of course, along with the apples, the tonnes of chillies on all our plants are being picked and also need to be processed whether it be drying, cooking, smoking or mashing and freezing them - this time of year is a busy one for us all!
Read article
