Updates

• September 27, 2024

The Art of Bonchi

  Those of you who have visited our farm may well have spotted a bonsai (or twenty!) dotted around due to Amrit's interest/mild obsession... we decided it was high time to pin Amrit down for a chat about them, and his new hobby of "bonchi"! What is a bonchi? A ‘bonchi’ is a bonsai Chilli. Chilli plants are not normally made into bonsai since they are not long lived, at least not in the UK climate. However, if you are prepared to try and overwinter the plant you can turn them into bonchi, which can be fun and it can provide a decent harvest for such a small plant. This Carolina Reaper is about 1 year old and was overwintered, having started off in Oct 2023. Amrit turned this Carolina Reaper into a bonchi and it was exhibited in our display garden at RHS Hyde Hall 2024 where we got awarded gold. The pot measures just 6 inches in length and the bonchi is under 25cm tall, including the height of the pot! What first drew you to the art of bonsai, and what is your favourite thing about bonsai? I like the idea of a miniature tree because it is a blend of art and horticulture. It takes a lot of horticultural care to keep a plant alive and thriving in such a confined pot. I have always grown bonsai as a hobby and there are a few dotted around the Chilli farm. So when I noticed that this Carolina Reaper was overwintering well, I decided to start training it. How hard is it to create a bonchi? How should a beginner get started, and what is the best variety to use? It isn’t hard at all. You simply need an old mature Chilli plant that has formed a thick woody stem. his also helps with overwintering since plants with thick woody stems will have a strong structure both above and below the ground. And from an aesthetic point of view, varieties with small fruits and leaves are better suited. So if you have a plant that you’ve grown all throughout 2024, you can prune it back hard and try over winter it for training into a bonchi. 

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• September 20, 2024

Growing Successes and Failures in 2024

The last time I wrote a blog it happened to be exactly the same time of year, last year. So instead of telling you what we are currently doing (pretty much the same as last year; harvesting tonnes and tonnes of chillies!) I’ll bring you up to speed with some of our successes and some of the new things we learned.  A common theme I have found this growing season has been the challenging the weather. Whilst it has not been completely awful, we didn’t seem to get the kick start to the season and planting that we usually enjoy, especially around May. As a result many growers I have spoken to, reported slow growth rates and even issues establishing seeds. This includes ourselves; we are finding the chilli harvest has been slightly delayed this year and is approximately a few weeks behind where we would like it to be. That said, Nature has a way of sorting itself out and when we look back at the figures we will probably (hopefully!) be surprised to find everything has averaged out.  Slugs have probably been our number one pest this year. The very damp Summer meant we have had slugs decimating new plants, established plants and fruit. I have trialled a few methods to prevent the slimy critters and so far the best I have found is a very weak coffee solution sprayed around the base of the plants and any ingress points along the edges of the tunnels. My reading suggests they are quite sensitive to caffeine and will actively avoid it or be killed by a caffeine overdose. The usual pests like Aphids we’ve managed to control effectively with our natural predators and with Pearl, our new cat, we seen very little rodent/rabbit activity.  Fertilising chilli plants has always been essential to get the best from them. This year I have added more Nitrogen to our fertilizing schedule. I’ve always been told and have read that too much Nitrogen is a bad thing for chillies, resulting in lots of vegetative/structural growth and little fruit production. As a consequence we have always used fertilisers that had minimal Nitrogen (N) components and have focused more on Potassium (K) and Phosphorous (P). I have researched a number of articles and papers that have studied the effects of Nitrogen with Solanaceae (the family of plants of which chilli is a member); whilst the majority of the Solanaceae family do produce too much vegetative growth if given lots of Nitrogen, it appears Capsicums do not behave the same way, or as previously believed. They do grow larger and have bigger structures, but continue to produce fruit and have more overall plant with which to fruit.   So, I have been caught out to a certain extent! We have some amazing plants with lots of fruit but I have had to net, tie back, flop back into place, double net and even triple net many varieties that would not normally need so much support. I can vouch for the added Nitrogen by the way, give it a go next year and see if you get a bigger haul, but be warned get ready with the plant supports!

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• August 13, 2024

Why are chocolate prices rising so quickly?

Inflation has calmed down somewhat from its peak of over 10% in recent months, however prices continue to climb in the world of chocolate. If you’re reading this, it won’t have escaped your attention that the price of our tasty chilli chocolate bars has gone up this year. You’ll also have observed the same in the supermarket aisles. The graph above shows a historic average price of about $2,500 per kilo. Recently we have seen highs of over $10,500 per kilo! There are a few key global factors that have brought about the astonishing rise in prices that we have seen of late… Supply challenges West Africa is responsible for the vast majority of global cocoa supply, however for 3 consecutive crop cycles in a row now, yield has been declining. This is due to a multitude of factors – ageing cocoa farmers who aren’t being replaced, ageing cocoa trees that aren’t been replanted, and last but not least, disease often caused by the changing weather effects of global warming. Financial speculation Where traders smell blood in the water, they will flock. And the volatility that has been observed recently has led to literally billions of dollars’ worth of speculation (betting) on continued price rises. This causes further “artificial” increase in prices over and above that brought about by the actual supply issues themselves. “Big Chocolate” companies like Cadbury and Mars use other methods to tackle increasing cocoa prices besides putting up the cost of a bar – they shave a little off their moulds to reduce the size of each bite, they reduce the overall weight of a bar by a few grams here and there, or worse they use more additives – sugars, palm or vegetable oils to name a few, to bulk out bars without adding any extra cocoa. At SDCF we don’t employ these methods. We can proudly say we don’t use any artificial ingredients in our chocolate bars – no bulking agents. We want to continue to use only the finest quality chocolate, tempered and poured by hand on our farm in small batches using our UK chilli powder. And so, we will continue to do our best to keep our prices competitive by keeping tight control of all our other costs where we can. This continues to be a challenge as we are now buying chocolate at more than double the historic price; unfortunately, we cannot absorb all of the cost increases we are seeing and still continue to operate. Hence, we are forced from time to time to apply a price rise to our chocolate bars. It seems that going forward chocolate will return to being somewhat of a luxury, craft item, as indeed it has been in the past; rather than a cheap, highly processed convenience food – which we think is a good thing!

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• July 30, 2024

New Beginnings at the Chilli Farm

  We talk to Kate, our new Administrator, to find out what she thinks of us so far!   Kate, you’re a Londoner born and bred, so how did you end up living in Devon? It was literally a big idea that came to me out of the blue! I sold my business and my house, packed a van and headed towards fresh air, sea and countryside. That was eight years ago and I can honestly say I’ve never looked back.   Did you ever think you’d end up working at a chilli farm? Of course not – why would I?! Back then, it never crossed my mind that I’d be working on a chilli farm in the middle of the South West, but what a great place to be. I’m surrounded by fields, nature, chillies and amazing people. I’ve only been here a few weeks but everybody has made me feel so welcome. Sometimes I have no words (which is very rare for a Londoner) – this job is already giving me the greatest experiences and excitement a girl can ask for!   Tell us more! A lot of people think that being an administrator is just a desk job but it’s so much more than that. I can be taking orders over the phone, to packing them up, and lending a hand serving our wonderful customers in our farm shop … and all by lunch time. Then there’s the opportunity to help the team get ready for the events we go to all through the year plus trying new products. There’s no chance of me ever getting bored.   Speaking of new products, what are your first impressions of what we make at the South Devon Chilli Farm? They’re just out of this world! The Chilli Jam is the best I’ve ever tried – I’ve already eaten four jars! Mum was a chef and she’d be so jealous to know that I’m surrounded by these amazing products.   Any favourites? Apart from the Chilli Jam, I love the Fruit & Spice Chilli Chocolate and the BBQ Sauces. I would never have thought you could get a chilli BBQ sauce! I’ve been using them to marinate pork ribs along with our Hot Dry Spice Rub. My latest new thing is stirring the Cool ‘n’ Smoky BBQ Sauce into baked beans for a quick snack – delicious. I can’t wait to explore further with chillies and wake up my tastebuds with the heat!   We grow a huge range of chilli plants here at the farm – do you have green fingers? I don’t know about green fingers. Purple, maybe, since that’s my favourite colour! I’m loving the ornamental purple varieties we grow like Purple Tiger, Explosive Ember and Purple Princess – all so pretty - so I might try my hand at growing some on a sunny windowsill.   Any final words? Just a big thank you to Jenny and Amrit for giving me this great opportunity. I’m so happy to be working here and cannot wait to continue my journey through the years with all the adventures that are in store. Here’s to new beginnings!!

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• June 4, 2024

Retiring? Maybe … !

Dave Cooper, our departing Head Chef, talks about past triumphs and future plans. Since I’m 66 this year it’s time to hand over the reins, but that’s not to say I won’t miss it here! I’ve really enjoyed my 11 years at South Devon Chilli Farm so I expect I’ll be back from time to time to help out with cover and when it’s busy. That said, the kitchen is always busy, regularly producing anything  up to 1000 jars per day to service our wholesale clients and online orders along with keeping our farm shop stocked, and then there’s extra needed for the markets, shows and events that we attend all year round. The logistics of it all can be quite mind-boggling when you’re making in such large quantities. It’s not just about throwing everything in a very big pot! You have to make sure that you order up the right bottles or jars in the right quantity in time for the run along with all the additional ingredients that go into the recipe, so it can be quite a juggling act. Autumn is always the peak time, though. It’s just as well that my 20 years as an army chef followed by long hours in the pub and restaurant trades gave me a strong work ethic because it really is all hands to the pump. You’re looking at  tonnes of chillies to harvest then mash down to freeze for ongoing production, and this usually coincides with the lead up to Christmas. Wholesalers often place bulk orders of 20 or 30 boxes of popular products at this time, and some retailers want large quantities of particular lines to make up their Christmas gift sets. All of this puts a lot of additional pressure on the kitchen but there is one order we got a while back that really stands out in my mind – 15,000 jars of salsa (5,000 of each kind), and all ready to deliver in a fortnight! Well, we somehow managed it but we did end up playing catch-up with our regular production schedule for quite some time after that! One of the most rewarding aspects of my role over the years has been the development of new product lines. It’s very much a collaborative effort, often taking three to four months from the initial idea, followed by the research and trial phases, before the product is finally on the shelf. I’m especially proud of developing our range of BBQ sauces, ketchups and salsas which will be flying off the shelves from now on as it gets warmer. We’ve also just launched a Smoked Apple Chilli Jelly which we’re selling alongside our original Apple Chilli Jelly which was actually one of  the very first products made - a successful marriage of homegrown chillies with apples from our own orchards when in season. We’ve also pickled the surplus chillies from last year’s Cherry Bomb crop; another first that has been well received. Amrit, one of our directors, comes from Trinidad and so we’re also looking at creating a line which captures the traditional flavour notes of that part of the Caribbean – watch this space! Now that I’m retiring, what next? I’ve always been interested in keeping bees, so when we recently installed a beehive at the Farm it was a great opportunity to pick up some tips. They arrived just in time to make the most of the flowering apple trees in our orchard so we’re hoping they’ll stick around to make lots of honey! Any honey-infused recipes in the offing? Well, let’s see how the bees get on but I might come up with an idea or two before I finally buzz off!

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