Following heavy rainfall this week and a forecast of continuing poor weather, we have regrettably taken the decision to cancel the 2011 Chilli Fest. The field used for event parking is currently flooded.

Rising water levels would compromise the safety of our visitors.

The House & Garden, Tearoom & Gift Shop will be open as usual on Sunday, as normal visitor parking is on hardstanding.

Award wining Mexican restaurant group Wahaca have launched an exciting online drive
to find a chilli fan, with a quirky sense of humour and passion to become the star
of Wahaca’s video, to “demonstrate how to plant your seeds, the fun and games of
pollination and insect defence and harvesting”.

Wahaca is wishing to inpsire the public to grow their own chilli seeds back home in
a fun and easy way

Entrants simply have to send a film of themselves(on their mobiles, digital camera
etc) doing something that brings their chilli passion to life and upload it to the
Wahaca Facebook page and short convincing paragraph as to why they are great.

Deadline for entry is 1st June

Winner will be selected by the Wahaca team and finalists will be chosen by public
vote.

The Prize – a Flip video Camera, Chilli growing tuition, a free meal at Wahaca and
the stage to be a star.

www.wahaca.co.uk

http://blog.wahaca.co.uk/2010/05/are-you-hotter-than-charlie-dimmock-spicier-than-alan-titchmarch-you-could-be-our-chilli-expert/

I really should be planting my chilli seeds now but it’s still a bit cold with all of this snow we have been having so I have decided to leave it a few more weeks, maybe until the middle of Feb, I will just see how the weather plays out.

Everything has been a bit neglected of late because i’ve been so busy, things are calming down a bit now so you can expect to see more very soon.

In the meantime if you are wondering how to get your chilli growing off the ground then take a look at these posts from last year:

Growing Chills – Intro

Growing Chillis – Part 1 : Getting Started

Growing Chillis – Part 2 Germination

Growing Chillis – Part 3: Potting on

Growing Chillis – Part 4: Watering and Feeding

If you have any questions please get in touch

Well it would seem that the majority of people are having great success with their chillis growing but the chillis are a little slow to show so i propse to extend the closing date from September 1st 2009 to October 1st 2009 to give everyone a little extra time to get the biggest pecker possible. ..not to mention it gives me a bit longer to finish the website off.

If anyone has progress pics of their plants then please send them to me so i can put them on the site!

if you missed the competition don’t worry there will be another one next year!!

Yorkshire pudding batter can take just about any herbs and spices you throw at it, so give it a go and see which variations you prefer.

Basic Recipe

• 280ml Milk
• 3 Large free range eggs
• 115g plain flour
• pinch of salt and pepper

Then if you want to flavour them try any of the following

Chilli powder, curry powder, dried chilli and lime zest, mixed herbs, rosemary, thyme,  paprika etc etc

You can even make sweet ones using lavendar, coconut, coconut milk (instead of milk), sugar, honey, chocolate etc etc

For my chilli ones i like to use 2 teaspoons of crushed chillis and a pinch of smoked paprika.

Method

Simply mix all of the ingredients together in a food prcessor and whizz round until you have a smooth batter.

When ready to cook:

1. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Tip a little oil in the bottom of each section of a muffin tray and place in the oven until smoking
3. Pour a little batter into each section and then cook until golden.

Amongst other things i finally got round to fixing the greenhouse, after some nasty little kids chucked some rather large bricks at it.

I decided to go for clear, solid 3mm, uv protected polycarbonate, which is a bit more expensive than glass but after a bit of hunting around i managed to get a it for less than a 1/4 of most the quotes i had (the most expensive being over £200)

Its much easier to deal with than cheap horticultural glass, which is bloody lethal, even when in whole sheets.

It was a bit more complicated than last time i had to fix broken glass in it as it required removing some of the beading and fixing a crossbar that had been smashed by a big lump of concrete.

Some bits are a bit messy where i managed to get sealent on the glass, but that wil peel off when dried, Im quite proud of my handywork as before we bought the house i could do nothing practical like this.

It’s not to late to join in if you haven’t already got your pack, just visit the competition page

check out the competition link at the top for more info on how to enter.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54536346179

Ill be naming all of the images as soon as possible but in the mean time if you are desperate to know what something is then please let me know.

Over the next few weeks i will also be adding some more info, recipies and things to do with chillis so please stay tuned.