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• December 2, 2025

10 Steps to Preparing Chilli Plants for Winter

Read our step-by-step guide for overwintering chilli plants — how to prepare chillies so they survive through winter and remain healthy. It’s aimed at gardeners or anyone growing chillies who want to keep their plants alive and productive during the colder months.  🔧 Key Steps / Advice   Choose the best plants you have avaialble to overwinter - to give them the best chance of survival! Older plants can be more vulnerable during overwinter; ensure no infestations before bringing plants indoors. Act before temperatures get too cold - low overnight temps will weaken your plants and give you less chance of success.  Pick any remaining fruits on your plants and freeze them! Prune your plant down to 10-15cm above the soil level, above a node. Removing dead or dying leaves, old stems or weak branches to reduce disease risk and stress during winter. Repot your plant in fresh compost - gently tap the root ball to loosen some of the compost and get rid of any dormant aphids or pests hiding in there. You DON'T need to WASH the roots (though you can if you really want to) Label your plant so you don't forget what it is! Give your plant a very light water in its new pot, to settle the soil down. Place your plant in its overwintering spot - ideally in the house on a sunny windowsill or other area.  Check moisture levels every week or so during the winter and keep the plant slightly moist - you won't be watering regularly. Start feeding your plant again once you see signs of fresh growth in Spring!    💡 Why This Matters & What to Watch Out For Overwintering properly can extend the life of your chilli plants beyond a single season, giving you harvests earlier next summer. Mistakes (over-watering, leaving plants outside in frost, not pruning) can lead to disease, dieback, or total loss of the plants. The method helps especially in colder climates (like the UK) — helpful if you don’t have a greenhouse but want to keep chillies year-to-year.

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• November 17, 2025

Three Markets, One Chef, and a Lot of Mince Pies: My Recipe for Surviving Christmas

Cooking for not one but three Christmas markets this year means — triple the workload, double the caffeine, and an impressive increase in mince pie consumption. How have we pulled it off, you ask? Well, it’s simple… (a bit like me)... The schedule gets adjusted to handle three times the volume, we learn new boundaries, and we break a few records along the way. To put into context, a standard bottling day for me is approximately 950 bottles, but this year I pushed it up a touch and managed a whopping 1546 bottles in a day!!!! Of course, it doesn’t come without its challenges. Every day brings something different — from a possible machine failure that throws a spanner in the works, to those moments when I’m simply exhausted and feel like I’m barefoot climbing a never-ending staircase made of Carolina Reapers. So how do I keep motivated? The answer lies in my colleagues. They’re my support network — the people I can chat with between cooks about the days gone by, the weekend plans ahead, or the eternal question this time of year of how many mince pies is too many? (Spoiler: we haven’t found the limit yet.) Those small conversations, shared laughs, and mini snack breaks take the edge off the pressure. They help me reset, refocus, and get back into the flow of cooking — one batch at a time. From Chaos to Christmas Cheer As we edge closer to the launch of our three Christmas markets — and our peak season in the farm shop and online — the focus shifts for myself. Now it’s all about monitoring stock, refining schedules, and making sure every jar and bottle is ready for you to enjoy. It’s been a steep learning curve this year, no doubt about it. Jumping from one market to three felt like trading a gentle simmer for a full rolling boil. But I’ve risen to the challenge and produced exactly what was asked of me with some help from colleagues along the way and with a bit of extra heat for good measure! So as you browse the stalls this Christmas, take a moment to appreciate the fiery goodness waiting inside those jars and bottles. Every flavour, every spoonful, every bit of spice tells a story — of long days, laughter, teamwork, and maybe one or two mince pies along the way. Chef Dan — out. 🔥🎄

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• October 9, 2025

A Chilli Head in Chilli Heaven

Imagine having a hobby, passion and obsession, and the opportunity to work in your dream job? This aptly describes what it’s like being a Chilli Head working at the UK’s oldest, largest and most established and varied chilli company – The South Devon Chilli Farm: ‘The Home of British Chillies’ Before we get to how or why I came to work here… What is a Chilli Head? The term is used to describe someone who loves everything to do with those hot south American fruits, whose varying heat levels now seem to dominate almost every continent, and every cuisine.  From sowing and growing plants, to cooking, eating, preserving and discovering, this is a hobby almost without comparison (although Petrol Heads may disagree!). Sometimes a Chilli Head could simply be someone who loves spice so much, that it is liberally poured, sprinkled, dusted or stirred into every meal – I mean who doesn’t like habanero sauce over beans on toast? But the most surprising aspect of the chilli world is the sheer number of varieties that are globally available.  When I started my journey, the consensus was that we had around 1000 to 2000 to choose from.  In just a few short years this number has doubled and continues to grow as hobbyists forge their own varieties. So, I am a Chilli Head. I have been since my first curry in 1988, followed by the emergence of Jamie Oliver making it ‘cool to cook’ (and that boy loves adding spice to his dishes). Since those formative years I’ve been the one who enhances his beans on toast and virtually every meal in between. But it wasn’t until I left my corporate life and the tandem life of a musician behind, that I needed to find ‘something to keep me out of trouble’ as my wife so kindly put it.  Also, my 5 children were growing up fast and no longer found my jokes funny… Side Note – the perception of a chilli head is that we eat the hottest chillies imaginable.  Actually, most chilli heads (and you reading this may just be one yourself) is that we find our own level and stick to it.  I can eat up to habanero level (around the same as a scotch bonnet – around 250,000 Scoville units) but you’ll more likely find me knocking on the door of a decent jalapeno as it gives me the flavour and heat without the ‘pause for thought’ or questioning my life choices… Side Note Two – REAL fresh jalapenos, like the ones grown here on the farm, are very spicy – nothing like the sad small things found in supermarkets or in a jar of vinegar.  If you can, buy some fresh from SDCF and see for yourself!   Discovering My Green Fingers The ultimate adventure of my chilli journey would be to grow, pick and cook my own chillies. An Idle wander around a well-known DIY store one day led me to discover that mini chilli plants are a thing.  So, I bought a few.  Now, just to set the scene, I can kill a cactus, so I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. However, thankfully we now have the internet where, surprisingly, I could find every piece of advice (good and bad) possible in caring for my new ‘babies’. Those first 5 plants exploded with life and, following a few simple rules, produced actual fruit – we ate well that summer! Around the same time, I had become aware of the one destination every chilli head must head to – a pilgrimage of sorts, and that’s to the South Devon Chilli Farm. Making the family go on numerous holidays to Devon (other counties are available) meant I could indulge myself in coming down to this special place.  You are first met with the road sign letting you know your search is at an end.  Once parked up, you enter the shop which is quite simply like Chilli Christmas.  There are a mind-boggling number of sauces, jams, chutneys, chocolate and dried chillies, that mean you are sampling hot sauce from the word go, scooping up bottles of it as you decide each one is your favourite. Then there’s the seed selection (which we’ll come back to). Before picking out what I’d grow in late winter the next year, the sign to the Show Tunnel caught my eye.  And those words did not disappoint.  It was indeed a true showcase of the sheer number of different plants and varieties grown on the farm each year. Wandering down one aisle, then back up the other, you are immersed into a different world altogether.  Each variety of differing colours, heat levels, shapes and sizes of chillies, are (thankfully) accompanied by little information cards so that, if you’re canny enough, by the time the rest of your family catch up, you can just uber knowledgeable. Another Note – it may be worth pointing out here, that should you be tempted to pick and try one of the chillies on show, check first that all your children have, between them, enough cold refreshments in their backpacks, to put out the resulting fire.  Out of the show tunnel you can peek into the other 6 large polytunnels containing the ‘crop’ that the chilli farm grown for all their produce and seed stock. As you peer into each one, you are met with the view of tree-top rows of chilli plants and a kaleidoscope of colour bursts making you wish you had a bigger greenhouse back at home. Back at the shop it was time for seed selection.  The challenge is to narrow it down from the 100 or so to choose from.  Do I go for heat? Early fruiting? Purple varieties just because they look so cool?  Luckily the staff have seen bewilderment before and soon help you make more sensible choices. And so, each year I’ve ordered everything from the chilli farm, from seeds, sauces, gift packs (you should have seen my parents faces light up as I presented them with a lovingly gift-wrapped extreme sauce set), plug plants and even fully grown plants. In addition, I’ve made full use of their advice and encouragement along the way. Hello Neighbour? So just a short couple of years ago I found myself living not 5 miles from my favourite place in the whole wide world. Having spent a few years running my own hospitality businesses, I had finally reached the time of life to hope for at least 1 day off, so was looking for something new. During one of my weekly visits to the chilli farm, I suddenly wondered how lucky those who worked at the chilli farm were.  I mean, I knew the place back to front, could grow, make sauces and even advise others new to the chilli community what to do (and importantly, what not to do). My epiphany led me, in mid-March, to checking the website for vacancies – there were none but I thought I’d ask anyway. Detailing what I thought was my all-encompassing array of knowledge (I’ve since found out I knew but the basics) I contacted the farm, and Jenny (one of the owners), more in hope than expectation. To my absolute delight I was asked to pop down for a chat, which must have gone well, and I joined almost immediately! As I write this, I’ve been here for over 7 months and can genuinely tell you it excites me every day.  And every day is different to the last.  I also get up before my alarm every day too (no, it’s not age related) which is unheard of. There is so much more than I ever thought in running a successful commercial chilli farm and the tasks come in cycles. From sowing, potting up, packing and sending out, plant care in both the nurseries and polytunnels, picking the finest fresh chillies to order, to using the ride-on mower (just mind your head in the orchard). And so much more.  And maybe, once the Christmas Markets have finished and I get the chance to drink a little chilli vodka by the fire, I may just let you know what a Year On The Chilli Farm is like. Until then I’ve got to get the day’s Jalapenos out of the smoker. Life’s a good ‘un.

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• October 4, 2025

A Deep Dive Into Chilli Heat

Introduction Have you ever wondered where the heat in a chilli comes from? The answer lies in a fascinating interplay of chemistry, genetics, plant physiology and environmental conditions. Most chilli growers know or at least have heard that the heat of a chilli is caused by chemical compounds called capsaicinoids, of which capsaicin is the most famous. But there are others including dihydrocapsaicin, nordihydrocapsaicin etc. There is a receptor in humans called the TRPV1 receptor which is responsible for detecting capsaicinoids which then leads to the feeling of that burning sensation when you eat a hot chilli. Interestingly, birds can eat chillies without feeling any heat sensation because their TRPV1 receptor is insensitive to capsaicin. This is believed to be an evolutionary adaption since birds are one of the main agents of seed dispersal. Despite being odourless and tasteless, capsaicinoids are very potent and studies have shown that humans can perceive them at concentrations as low as 1 ppm. Two of the most frequently asked questions we get are “Why are my chillies not hot?” Or “I have grown these chillies before and this year they are not as hot as the ones I have previously grown.” And similarly, we get the opposite questions such as “why are my Pimento de Padron or Trinidad Pimento so hot?” I have trawled through as many of the peer-reviewed published studies as I can find which looks into chilli heat. And my aim is to summarise the key points in this blog. Spoiler alert… the heat of a chilli is determined by both its genetics and environmental factors. But much more about this below. The myth of poor-quality seeds Firstly, there is a myth which is sometimes purported that the variability in the heat of certain chillies which are supposed to be hot, or a specific heat level is due to poor quality seeds. There is nothing inherent to the quality of the seeds which can affect the heat of a chilli. It is sometimes suggested that when a chilli is not the desired or expected heat that it should be that it is due to seeds from cross-pollinated plants, i.e. seeds collected from plants that have not been isolated to reduce the likelihood of cross pollination. As I will describe later on, the reasons for heat production in chillies is complicated, involving a mix of genetics and environmental factors. On the point about poor isolation of plants, there is a possibility that a plant grown from seeds collected from open pollinated crops is a random hybrid. However, whilst this is a possibility, the probability of this occurring is low. I would argue that it is extremely unlikely that a random hybrid was created and then these seeds collected and the first generation (a.k.a F1 – which stands for first filial generation) grown from these seeds were good enough to result in a fruit that bears all the resemblance to its expected lineage except that it’s heat was different. Indeed, all F1 hybrids will be a 50/50 mix of both parents; hence, it is very unlikely that an F1 will be identical to one particular parent in all aspects apart from heat level. Chillies are easily self-pollinated – the anthers (the male reproductive organ where the pollen is located) is less than 1mm away from the stigma (the uppermost sticky part of the female reproductive organ of a flower which is receptive of the pollen). I should caveat the part about poor isolation of plants by saying that there are studies which have shown that apart from the genetic controls on capsaicinoid production, there are quantitative genetic inheritance effects which control the level of heat over generations. What this means is that, unlike simple Mendelian inheritance (where traits are controlled by a single gene with clear dominant/recessive effects (e.g. eye colour in humans), quantitative traits are influenced by: Many genes (polygenic inheritance) - each gene contributes a small, additive effect to the phenotype. For example, in human height, dozens (even hundreds) of genes contribute to the overall variation. Environmental influences - the environment (nutrition, climate, lifestyle, soil fertility, etc.) also plays a large role in shaping the phenotype. Additive effects + interactions: Additive gene action - each allele adds to the trait in a cumulative way. Dominance and epistasis - genes can interact with each other, modifying the effect. What this basically means is that with intentional crosses and back-crosses over successive generations, there is the tendency for hotter varieties to get hotter and vice versa, and mild varieties can become milder or even heatless. This, of course, relies on intentional breeding efforts over multiple generations to lead to a specific resulting heat level that one is seeking. So, again, it seems to me that the likelihood that this happens via non-isolated plants unintentionally over many generations is very low, especially when grown at the of scale 100’s of plants. At this scale the natural averaging process that comes with harvesting fruits from so many plants could easily offset any undesirable and unintentional hybrid.  I will discuss these genetic influences in more detail in the sections below. Where do the capsaicinoids occur in chillies? Capsaicinoids are produced and start to accumulate in the epidermal cells of the placenta 20 days after the flower opens. Epidermal cells are cells which are near the surface of plant tissue. The placenta is the white tissue that is on the inside of a chilli to which the seeds are attached and is more prominent closer to the stem. It is easily visible when you cut open a bell pepper since there is more placental mass in these large peppers. The capsaicinoids accumulate in blisters on the surface of the placenta and is easily visible as yellow-coloured droplets. These blisters are very thin and can easily break, which results in the yellow-coloured oily liquid running down the insides when the fruit is cut open. The genetics and chemical process involved in capsaicinoid production There is one key chemical compound called vanillylamine which is vital for the production of capsaicinoids. Vanillylamine is an organic compound that plays a central role in the biosynthesis of capsaicinoids and it is derived from vanillin which is the same compound responsible for vanilla flavour. The dominant gene which controls the ability for chillies to synthesise or produce capsaicinoids is called Pun1 or C which is mapped to chromosome 2. It is this gene which is hypothesised to cause the production of capsaicinoid synthase, which is an enzyme that is needed for the final step in the production of capsaicinoids. In other words, capsaicinoid synthase is hypothesized to be the molecule that is produced as a result of the expression of the Pun1 gene. Heatless varieties usually have mutations or deletions in the Pun1 gene. There is also a second location on the chromosomes of chillies for the control of capsaicinoid production and it is called loss of vesicle (Lov). This second location have been found in Capsicum chinense and Capsicum chacoelse. In these species, varieties that have no heat are missing the blisters (or vesicles) which fill with capsaicinoids, hence the term ‘loss of vesicle.’ Interestingly, despite the studies which have hypothesized that capsaicinoid synthase is produced at Pun1, there have been experiments which have shown that heatless chillies can produce capsaicinoids if they are stored under specific conditions such as continuous light. And curiously, if placental extracts from heatless fruits are exposed to vanillylamine and other associated chemicals, they can produce capsaicinoids. This suggests that Pun1 may not actually directly be responsible for producing capsaicinoid synthase, rather it may be more of a regulatory gene in the overall process for capsaicinoid production. The above genetics follow simple Mendelian control patterns of dominant/recessive inheritance. However, there is also evidence of quantitative genetic inheritance (as described above) which influence the heat of chillies. Studies have shown that there are significant additive gene effects when cross breeding chillies which means that repeated back crossing and selection can lead to increases/decreases (depending on the parent involved) of capsaicinoid content. These studies have shown that there is a lack of distinctive classes of heat level in cross-bred chillies, which indicates that heat in chillies is quantitatively inherited. This is all very complicated, so my takeaways are: There are certainly specific genes in chillies that control the ability of a plant to produce capsaicinoids at all. If these genes are absent the plant simply can’t produce any. Once the genes which are needed for capsaicinoid production and accumulation are present in parents, it is then down to quantitative genetic inheritance effects which influence the heat of an offspring. Finally, once the right genetics are in place, the environment then affects the actual amount of capsaicinoids which are produced.   Environmental factors Any environmental changes which causes stress to a plant will affect the heat level of a chilli. It has been shown that stresses such as elevated night-time temperatures and lack of adequate watering can increase the amount of capsaicinoids which are produced in a fruit. There are studies which have shown that there is a lot of variability in the heat of chillies on the same plant. So, it is not surprising that when you grow a few chillies in a greenhouse or windowsill at home you can get chillies with lots of different heat levels. These growing environments do not maintain constant conditions, and certainly here in the UK, there is very little consistency in daylight, temperatures etc. across the growing season. These effects on chillies across a single plant or let alone several plants may not be easy to identify if the average person is comparing the heat of Carolina Reapers for example. Reapers are so extremely hot that it would be very difficult to tell the difference in heat across several fruits if you are doing a taste test. However, if you are comparing the heat levels of Pimento de Padron peppers for example, then it is easy to tell which one is hotter than the rest – it only takes a small amount of capsaicinoids in these peppers to cause them to be hotter than expected. We often get asked why our Pimento de Padron peppers are hotter than those from the supermarkets, and the answer is simply that we aren’t growing ours in controlled environments compared to some of the large industrial growers in Europe. And it is quite likely that producers in Spain for example, if they aren’t growing in environmentally controlled spaces, benefit from more stable conditions across their growing season compared to the UK. We might easily get a couple of days of blisteringly hot weather followed by a week of cloudy cool conditions. Since introducing Trinidad Pimento to the UK which are heatless, we have been asked why they are are sometimes hot. This can either be from the fresh fruits we sell or the plants or seeds that customers buy and grow. Despite what I said at the start about the myth about poor quality seeds and non-isolated plants, when we grow Trinidad Pimento for seed collection for the season ahead, we ensure that we taste several fruits from each plant to rule out the possibility that we may have inadvertently grown a plant from an unintentional hybrid (however unlikely this may be). But despite these measures, anyone growing Trinidad Pimento or any other heatless varieties that are genetically capable of producing capsaicinoids, can end up with hotter-than-expected fruits due to environmental effects. In a study conducted by the famous Paul Bosland from the Chilli Pepper Institute at the New Mexico State University, they demonstrated that the environment has a very strong effect on the heat level of chillies. And astoundingly, their study revealed that the environmental component can have a stronger influence on heat level than the genotype! So the next time you are growing chillies, pay attention to the environmental conditions that you can control, such as watering. And if you do end up with hotter than expected fruits you can be sure that your environmental conditions have certainly had a role to play. References Blum E, Liu K, Mazourek M, Yoo EY, Jahn MM, Paran I (2002) Molecular mapping of the C locus for presence of pungency in Capsicum. Genome 45:702–705. Blum E, Mazourek M, O'Connell M, Curry J, Thorup T, Liu K, Jahn M, Paran I. Molecular mapping of capsaicinoid biosynthesis genes and quantitative trait loci analysis for capsaicinoid content in Capsicum. Theor Appl Genet. 2003 Dec;108(1):79-86. doi: 10.1007/s00122-003-1405-y. Epub 2003 Sep 13. PMID: 13679988. Garces-Claver A, Gil-Ortega R, Alvarez-Fernandez A, Arnedo-Andres M (2007) Inheritance of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, determined by HPLC-ESI/MS, in an intraspecific cross of Capsicum annuum L. J Agric Food Chem 55:6951–6957. Guzman, I., Bosland, P.W., O’Connell, M.A. (2011). Heat, Color, and Flavor Compounds in Capsicum Fruit. In: Gang, D. (eds) The Biological Activity of Phytochemicals. Recent Advances in Phytochemistry, vol 41. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7299-6_8 Hall, R.D., Holden, M.A. & Yeoman, M.M. The accumulation of phenylpropanoid and capsaicinoid compounds in cell cultures and whole fruit of the chilli pepper, Capsicum frutescens Mill. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 8, 163–176 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00043153. Harvell K, Bosland PW (1997) The environment produces a significant effect on pungency of chiles. HortScience 32:1292. Iwai K, Lee K-R, Kobashi M, Suzuki T (1977) Formation of pungent principles in fruits of sweet pepper, Capsicum annuum L. var. grossum during post-harvest ripening under continuous light. Agric Biol Chem 41:1873–1876. Iwai K, Suzuki T, Lee K-R, Kobashi M, Oka S (1977) In vivo and in vitro formation of dihydrocapsaicin in sweet pepper fruits, Capsicum annuum L. var. grossum. Agric Biol Chem 41:1877–1882. Harvell, K. P. & Bosland, P. W. (1997). The Environment Produces a Significant Effect on Pungency of Chiles. HortScience, 32(7), 1292–1292. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI.32.7.1292. N. Sukrasno, M.M. Yeoman, Phenylpropanoid metabolism during growth and development of Capsicum frutescens fruits, Phytochemistry, Volume 32, Issue 4, 1993, Pages 839-844, ISSN 0031-9422, https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9422(93)85217-F. Stewart C, Kang B-C, Liu K, Mazourek M, Moore SL, Yoo EY, Kim B-D, Paran I, Jahn MM (2005) The Pun1 gene for pungency in pepper encodes a putative acyltransferase. Plant J 42:675–688. Stewart C, Mazourek M, Stellari GM, O’Connell MA, Jahn M (2007) Genetic control of pungency in C. chinense via the Pun 1 locus. J Exp Bot 58:979–991. Zewdie Y, Bosland PW (2000) Capsaicinoid inheritance in an interspecific hybridization of Capsicum annuum x C. chinense. HortScience 125:448–453. Zewdie Y, Bosland PW (2000) Evaluation of genotype, environment, and genotype-byenvironment interaction for capsaicinoids in Capsicum annuum L. Euphytica 111:185–190.

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• September 19, 2025

Sustainable Chocolate

In a country 2.5 times the size of the UK, where only one-third of the population has access to electricity and daily power outages often exceed eight hours, Chocolat Madagascar has taken bold and proactive steps to secure a sustainable and resilient energy future. Madagascar grows rare, fine fruity flavour cacao, accounting for just 0.2% of the world’s cocoa production. As both a Malagasy (Madagascan) cocoa producer and chocolate manufacturer, Chocolat Madagascar is the premium export brand of Malagasy Chocolaterie Robert, the factory based in the capital Antananarivo. The company is critically reliant on stable electricity to maintain its bean-to-bar production. With an energy load of 350 KVA, any interruption threatens operations, equipment, product quality — and ultimately, the factory’s profitability and global competitiveness. To address these risks and enhance energy independence, Chocolaterie Robert has invested in a state-of-the-art hybrid power system. This includes over 486 photovoltaic solar panels with dual German-engineered inverters, generating 421 megawatt-hours (MWhr) of clean electricity annually. The renewable energy is fed into the national grid, reducing CO₂ emissions and advancing Madagascar’s transition to green power. To ensure uninterrupted production during grid failures, the company also installed, in July 2025, a 550 KVA backup generator manufactured in the UK and Turkey — fully compatible with biofuels. This auxiliary system guarantees continuity during extended outages. “In Madagascar’s uncertain energy environment, our investment ensures production continuity and improved lead times, reduces environmental impact, and reflects our core values of sustainability and innovation.”— Hery Andriamampianina, Technical Director, Chocolaterie Robert As part of a broader sustainability drive, the company has also converted its boiler to run on briquettes made from cacao shells — a byproduct of its own chocolate production — which now powers its cocoa butter press. This innovative approach positions Chocolat Madagascar as a leader in sustainable energy practices in Africa, reaffirming its deep commitment to ethical, environmentally responsible, and value-added production at origin. We LOVE this news as SDCF runs entirely on renewable energy sources so we are delighted that our suppliers are doing the same!  

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