Over-wintering chillies

Hello Friends,
We've had lovely Autumn weather here, but it can't last much longer, so I've been busy getting tender plants under cover & cropping the last few courgettes too, before pulling up & composting the plants.

I'm a keen chilli grower, & although I only have space for a couple of types each year, I always sow some seeds & usually get a good crop. Our best ever crop was a few summers ago. We grew the long red cayenne type & the crop was sufficient to freeze some to use in recipes as 'fresh' & to dry a supply for the next couple of years.

In fact, we're still using a big jar of chilli flakes we zizzed up ourselves in the food processor from that crop!

Over the years, we've tried various varieties including Padron (a mild tapas chilli), Cayenne, Pinocchio's nose (each chilli a foot long!), scotch bonnet/habanero types & Prairie fire. The scotch bonnets were a colourful Caribbean mix, which amazingly did pretty well even in a classic overcast mizzley East Midlands summer. A few of these things go a long way, as they are throat-numbingly hot. I used them to make a hot pepper sauce (a recipe I found online from Barbados). It was too hot for me, apart from diluted with mayonnaise, but being married to someone with an asbestos mouth has its benefits & it all got eaten! I've been using up the rest of the fiery fiends in a hot pineapple chutney, where they give it a good flavour too. That's something I didn't know about the Caribbean chillies, they're not just about heat, they do have a distinctive flavour from other chilli varieties.

My favourite variety to grow is Jalapeno 'Summer heat'. The germination rate seems good, they generally behave themselves & produce a really decent sized crop.

 This year's was particularly good & I've picked & frozen several bags for the freezer. Jalapenos are really versatile because they are hot without being incendiary, & I use them in pizzas, chillies, curries, fajhitas, quesadillas, tortillas & stir-fries, as well as in chutneys & jellies.

A couple of years ago, I heard that it's possible to over-winter chilli plants. Our winters are too cold for them to survive, but in their natural habitat, they are apparently perennial plants. I brought a couple into the house in the autumn & tried to coax them into staying alive. By January, they were looking like proper mingers, but they gradually started back into life in Spring & I had a decent crop from them, which I was able to start picking over a month earlier than those I sowed afresh from seed. It may have been beginner's luck because I tried again last year & they by-passed the minging stage & went straight to 'dead!' 

This year, I'm trying again. I've selected 3 plants which looked in good nick, pruned them back to new growth & have sited them on a bedroom windowsill. 

There is no heating on in there yet, as I'm notoriously stingy with heating until it's actually cold. So far, they don't seem to mind. The sulks & strops will come later (them, not me!) when the radiator starts to make the air too dry.

If they all turn their toes up & cark it diva-style, then I've lost very little, but if they make it through, I should be picking a few lush chillies in early summer. If not......well, it won't be the first time I've been beaten by a plant!

This week, I heard that I've won a cookery competition I entered recently......I wasn't very coherent when the organisers phoned to tell me because Albert Whiskers raced into the room after me (like the phone call was going to be for him?) & started biting my legs!  It was a 'Love food, hate waste' type of competition. I have to have my photo taken in store tomorrow, so am glad I sorted out my nightmare roots. I'll share my recipe in a blog post soon, although I accept that everyone may not be as evangelical about leftovers as me!   

Have a great week - Autumn has so much of true loveliness to offer us.
Till next time,
C x