We Grow Our OwnWhat we grow, what we cook, what we eat …

Following on from my video blogs giving tips on how to get your chilli seeds to germinate, and also how to make sure they grow from tiny seedlings into big healthy chilli plants and how to pollinate your chilli plants so that they produce chillies, this video blog explains how to deal with the most common diseases and nasties that can try and harm your lovely chilli plants!

Thanks again for all of the entries and votes in this month’s competiton.

Voting was close right until the end, and then there was one runaway winner with almost 50% of the vote. So, this month’s winner is …

If you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that I always bang the drum for local producers and local suppliers. The other day I had the pleasure of meeting Susie, who is the co-founder of ‘Brown & Green’ an ethical supermarket with branches in Derby and Trentham Estate near Stoke.

Thank you for all of the entries for this month’s competition.

Remember that you choose the winner of this month’s competition, so once you have chosen your favourite, continue down to the bottom of the blog, and complete the form to register your vote. You might want to cook some of these recipes too to help you decide which one is your favourite.

The vote closes at 12 noon on 29th June, so get voting!

Here are this month’s finalists …

As promised earlier in the month, here is this month’s Cultivate, Cook & Click Competition.

So, here is a reminder of the rules …

Two of the many loves of my life are Far Eastern Food & chillies, and this recipe covers both of those!

This is the first in what will be a more regular feature where I share some of my favourite recipes. I can guarantee that these will not be overly complicated, as I like my food to be delicious, and on my table as quickly as possible!

This recipe is a hot and sour Thai soup, and is great if you have any leftover chicken from the Sunday roast.

Well either I made the choice of ingredients too hard this month, or you were all too busy in the garden growing your fruit and veg, as I only had one entry that met the rules for the competition this month!

So, this month’s winner is ….

Supporting local producers is always high on my list of priorities, so I made sure I paid a visit to the Derbyshire Food Fair at Hardwick Hall this weekend.

Regular readers of my blog will remember that I have always been very surprised about how my blog has taken off and all the things that it has lead to, such as becoming the chilli guru for Wahaca, appearing on TV on Market Kitchen, and also as a contestant on Britain’s Best Dish and getting to the national finals.

After the overwhelming response to last month’s Cultivate, Click & Cook competition, I have decided to set this up as a monthly competition, to encourage people to cook with whatever is in season.

So, here is a reminder of the rules …