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

This year has been a little weird so far. First we got an allotment, then the chickens, then I won the competition to be Wahaca’s Chilli Guru.

However, the weirdest thing of all is that I have made my first appearance on TV!

A little while ago, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a contestant on ‘Britain’s Best Dish’ and I will be appearing on tomorrow night’s show on ITV at 5pm.

Time for a little bit of a catch up I think, since I have been a bit stingy with blog updates recently!

You may remember that recently I was lucky enough to win the competition run by Wahaca, the Mexican restaurant chain opened by Thomasina Miers, to be their ‘Chilli Guru!’

I’ve just had a very tiring, but such a fabulous weekend.

On Saturday I went to the West Dean Chilli Fiesta with Chris Jagger (@VolcanoChilli) and his wife Rosie.

As you know, I like my chillies. This year I’ve decided not only to grow twice the amount of varieties this year (19), but also to come over all Heston and experiment with different ways of growing them.

This week, since my greenhouse was becoming increasingly overcrowded, I decided to treat myself to a polytunnel, so that I would have more room to grow what I wanted.

I had a fantastic start to my weekend when I received an email from those lovely people at Wahaca to say that I had won their competition to be their resident ‘Chilli Guru!’

I’m looking forward to showing how anyone can grow chillies, no matter whether you have a sunny windowsill, or a garden the size of a small county. I’ll also be showing how versatile chillies can be, and how each variety of chilli is different in terms of flavour and heat, and can be added to all different types of food, even chocolate!

Watch this space for further details …

The lottie took a back seat this week, as I had to pot on the numerous chilli plants from the 19 different varieties of chillies that I’m growing this year.

I was worried earlier this year that the majority of the crop was going to fail, as they took such a long time to get going compared to last year. It must have been the long winter/cold spring, as they have most definitely cranked into life. It is a good job, as I’m now reaching the end of last year’s crop which were either dried, pickled or frozen, as I had more chillies than I knew what to do with at that point.

I always get a little annoyed that after a few weeks watering, the labels for all my chillies have either faded or smudged, although thankfully I can still tell which one is which.