Digging & Dreaming

How Many Chilli Peppers Is Too Many Chilli Peppers?

Chillies are a great crop to grow and certanily one of our favourites here at Organic Allotment. The thing that we really like about them is that, if you plan things and preserve things correctly, there's no reason that you can't be self sufficient in them. Imagine that... never having to buy a bland and disappointing chilli from a supermarket ever again? Pictured above are some fiendishly hot Venezuelan peppers we grew last year and dried at the end of the season that should keep us going until summer when this year's crop will be ready. The other good thing about drying chilli is that, unlike some crops, the drying process can actually improve the flavour of the pepper meaning there is no sacrifice of taste in eating them dried rather than fresh.

These factors combined probably explain why I've gone a little crazy planting chillies this year. The seeds were planted a few weeks ago as you really need a good long season to get them to fruit and ripen in time in summer. The seedlings should be ready to be potted up in a couple of weeks then moved on to the greenhouse in early summer when the last chance of frost has passed - you could probably get away with moving them eariler if you have a heated greenhouse though. Here's a list of the different chillies we're growing:

• Sunnybrook, Dulce Italiano and Marconi Rossa are all sweet peppers. I have had less success growing these in the past as the weather had tended not to be warm enough to ripen them to a sweet red. However, the results are so good when they do ripen that I always make space for a couple of sweet pepper plants every year.
• The Cayenne pepper seeds I'm planting were given to me as part of a seed swap last year. They are famously hot and pungent peppers taking their name from a river in Guyana. They are well known as a high-yielding variety and are perfect for drying.
• Purple Venezuelan grow on a plant that is almost entirely purple (including the leaves that have a lovely purple tinge). The final chilli is medium in heat but also has a pepper taste not disimilar from the Szechuan Pepper that is common in North Chinese cookery.
• Bartletts' Bonnet is an unusually shaped pepper that looks almost like a squashed bell. It is also very unusual and I have only seen it available on the brilliant Real Seeds website.
• Nigel's Outdoor is from Real Seeds as well and is unusual in being one of the only chillies that will tolerate growing outside in the UK.
• Early Jalapeno are a classic chilli that produces medium green bullet shaped fruits. The seeds are easy to get hold of and the peppers are the kind that are typically used in Mexican cookery.
• Bialka Shipka is a rare Eastern European hot pepper that tends to be light green in colour before it ripens and that is fiendishly hot.
• Ring o' Fire is one of the most popular hot peppers for home growing. It is no dissimilar to Cayenne and can be bought from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
• Padrón peppers are one of my absolute favourites as they remind me of many happy visits to Spain. There these small green peppers are served fried with olive oil and sea salt. Most taste sweet and mild, though some are particularly hot and spicy, so eating them is a kind of culinary Russian Roulette.

So that's an idea of all the peppers we're growing this year. I'd love to know what fellow growers have currently got in their propagators and greenhouses. And if you haven't planted your own peppers yet don't despair. It's a bit to late in the year to plant any now but there are plenty of great nurseries selling chilli plants so it's still possible to spice up your growing season.

 

Day 11 - Saturday 19th November 2011, INIFAT

Another great Cuban day. Hot again but with a wind that made the heat much easier to deal with. The day started at INIFAT with a great session on saving seed from Maria Benitez. The session was particularly good as the majority of the practice I was learning about was transferable directly to the UK. Hurrah!

María began her seminar with the statement:

“La semilla es el principio y el fin.” – “The seed is the beginning and the end.”

Seeds - the beginning and the end

She carried on with the fact that vegetables grown from seed represent one of the most important food sources in the world. With a seed being defined as a concentration of life and a method of reproduction, multiplication and diversification of species, that conserve genetic information and maintain species and varieties for the future.

We discussed the way that if you control seed supplies you are able to also control a great deal of global agricultural practice – which is what has been done by companies like Monsanto and other large multi-nationals. It is for this reason that INIFAT have done a lot of work around seeds as if people are able to control their own seed supply and production they are also able to take a much more meaningful supply of their own food chains. They have also done a great deal of work developing seed stock that is specifically suited to tropical conditions, whilst also paying respect to the work of local campesinos who have played a crucial part in the maintenance of local species that are essential to long term food security.

Cuban National Seed Lab

The final part of the seminar was a visit to the seed lab within the main INIFAT building that is a national resource in the development of seed stocks in Cuba. This visit was fascinating on a number of levels. Firstly it was amazing to see how dilapidated the INIFAT building was. The building itself was a beautiful colonial structure that was originally a hospital and that was built around a central courtyard that is now full of palm trees. As María pointed out, the building was now almost impossible for them to maintain as they do not have access to the necessary financial or physical resources that would be necessary to do so.

The seed lab itself was something quite amazing. Obviously it was a functional lab, with world-class work being developed there, but the room itself looked like it could have been lifted straight out of the 1950s. And that is a predicament that is kind of reflective of lots of aspects of contemporary Cuban life. Beautiful 1950s furniture is held together by Cuban care and inventiveness, hard work and good fortune. Furniture that would have been discarded in any other part of the world and replaced with something newer, that would now not have the historical value that many of these 50s pieces would have in any other part of the world.

Take the Cuban National Seedbank that is also hosted at INIFAT and that is another great example of the Cuban determination to get things done despite the challenges that they face. Typical to seed banks anywhere in the world this is a temperature controlled facility. In Cuba this means refrigeration in order to maintain a temperature between 2*C and 5*C – in reality this means a big walk in fridge like you’d get in the storage area of a supermarket. Obviously electric is essential to do this, but the supply at INIFAT is not reliable enough to maintain a consistent and guaranteed supply. The rise in temperature that a loss of electricity would cause would be disasterous for the seed collection so, in order to minimize the risk of this happening, the facility is joined to the electricity supply at the international airport 3km away. There may be days when INIFAT and Santiago de las Vegas will have no power but it would have to be a pretty dire situation for the airport to have none.

And on the subject of energy, once again talk returned to the theme of the Special Period and how much it had changed the life for people in Cuba. Now life was so much more difficult for many people as a direct result of the changes that had taken place as a result of this period in history. The unreliable and fluctuating energy supply was a perfect example of these changes. Frustratingly Cuba would be an ideal country for all sorts of solar energy but lack of resource internally and support internationally make any kind of investment in this kind of development virtually impossible.

After the seminar a group of us went to visit the house of María to have a look around her beautiful roof garden. Like Marisol, María lived very close to INIFAT but her 1950s, Florida style flat in a gorgeous two storey buliding was a very different experience to the flat that Marisol and her family were living in on the outskirts of town. To get into María’s house, which she shared with her father, eldest son and daughter-in-law you climbed graceful stairs to a plant filled, first floor terrace. From there you went through the front door into an airy and spacious flat. The space was snug for the number of adults living there, and would certainly be very tight if María’s son decided to have children, but it was well designed and well maintained and certainly looked like a pleasant enough place to live.

To get to María’s roof garden we had to got out to a further terrace where there was an outdoor sink and area for washing and drying clothes, and cooking that was typical in Cuban houses. From there we took fairly death defying steps, that would have been thoroughly unsuitable to anyone with vertigo, up onto the  beautiful roof terrace.

Gorgeous and productive roof garden

On the flat roof of the building María had used scaffolding poles to build a surrounding structure which is covered by netting to stop birds getting at the plants and to take some of the strength out of the rays of the sun. She had even covered the central area with sheets of cardboard to ensure that the table and chairs up there were suitably shaded from the heat of the day. In this relatively small space María had an aviary for birds, a number of cages for to keep rabbits for meat and animal manure and beds and beds of plants including edibles like lettuce and cabbage and a whole variety of ornamentals. Alongside this there was an area to collect water and to make compost. María also explained that the only time she had to move things off the roof was when there was a possibility of hurricanes – then every single thing apart from the heavy metal frame was dismantled and moved to the safety of the downstairs terrace. The garden had survived more than a couple of hurricanes so this was clearly a system that worked. It was a gorgeous little garden so it was no penance to have time to sit up there, relax and enjoy the space.

As we sat up there the group started talking about our planned trip to Varadero the next day – in case you don’t know Varadero is one of the most famous beach resorts in Cuba and is the place that many visitors experience when they spend time on the island. When María was asked if she had ever been to the resort she said yes, but only with a group of visitors to INIFAT as part of her job and never with her family. She explained that the problem for Cubans with this and many other things is transport, which is either very expensive or non-existent. Our group would, of course, travel to the beach in a fancy air-conditioned coach but this was not the type of experience afforded to the average Cuban who would have to attempt to get at least three different buses in order to travel from Santiago de las Vegas to Vardero up on the Northern coast and well over 100km from INIFAT.

Then conversation moved to Tropicana that is in Havana and is thought to be one of the oldest night clubs in the world. Kind of like a Latin American Moulin Rouge. Some of the group really wanted to visit and started asking María questions about this and if she had ever been there. However, a single entry to Tropicana cost around 70CUC – three months wages for an average Cuba. Unsurprisingly, on this basis, most Cubans, including María, had never been there. Another example of the division of access between Cubans and foreign visitors.

After about an hour on the rook we went down to the living room where we learned that it was María’s birthday. She shared an amazing birthday cake with us – the type of big cream cake I had often seen people carrying through the street – and soft drinks. Refrescos as Cubans call them. Then it was time to say goodbye to María and head back to INIFAT for our evening meal.

Unusually that evening there was also a party in our hotel for one of the departments from INIFAT who had just won an award for their work. This meant lots of salsa and a taste of what Cuban nightlife really looks like – not the kind of experience that you got in the fancy bars in clubs in Havana and other tourist resorts, that’s for sure.

And The Award for Best Named Veg Goes To...

Last Christmas I was involved in a seed swap organised by Emma over at The Alternative Kitchen Garden. Basically this involved sending five different seeds to five different people, who all reciprocated by sending five different seeds back to you. This meant that when you opened your presents on Christmas day you ended up with twenty five different seeds. Good idea huh?

The great thing about this was that some of the seeds that I ended up with were really unusual and certainly not things I would necessarily have bought myself. One of these was the beautiful little plant you can see growing in the picture above - the wonderfully named Achocha Fat Baby. This is a vegetable that is originally from South America but is surprisingly suited to our variable summers here in the UK. It is supposed to taste like cucumbers when it is used raw in salads but when it is fried it takes on a flavour much more similar to green pepper. One of the main benefits of it is that is much easier to cultivate successfully in the UK than pepper plants and also generally more productive.

I started these off in the greenhouse about four weeks ago and now that the weather's warming up I'm planning to move them outside in the next couple of days. Especially after the warning that when grown inside they can be real bullies and take over everything! I'll let you know how they get on as the season progresses. And if you want to have a go of growing some yourself next year you can buy seeds from here.

A Splash of Colour

Although vegetable plots and allotments are essentially functional spaces I am a great believer that they should also look beautiful. Of course, beautiful can, in turn, also be functional but I'll come to that later...In my search for the perfect horticultural aesthetic I've developed a few different strategies over the years to try and make my plot as gorgeous to look at as the produce is to eat!

The first thing I do is try to plant in a way that is as relaxed and informal as possible. In practice this means mixing different crops together in a patchwork of colour and texture and avoiding planting large blocks of one crop on its own. For example, I love planting things of different heights together to give a real interest in levels, meaning you'll frequently see lettuces growing at the bottom on bean poles on our plot. On a practical level this way of planting also helps protect crops against pests and diseases as plants that are not planted in large, mono-cultivar beds seem to be much less prone to attack. If you want to know more about tried and tested planting combinations that will help keep your plants happy and healthy I suggest you take a look at Bob Flowerdew's Complete Book of Companion Gardening which is an absolute mine of information on this subject.

My pursuit of all things beautiful also means that you're always going to find lots of flowers growing all over the plot. Some of these are purely for show like the tulips that are in full bloom at the moment, a number of which may also end up as cut flowers in the house. Others are also great companion plants that play an essential role in attracting beneficial insects to the plot and having a key part in protecting our crops from attack - again Bob gives bags of advice on what to plant where and when.

Some of these companion flowers are perennial plants that come back year after year, but the vast majority are annuals that need to be planted each season. If you haven't planted any already, now's a perfect time to do it. And here's a selection of some of my personal favourites.

Cosmos is an absolute beauty that will flower for weeks on end, with large flowers that bees love.They vary in colour from pure white to bright pink and their loose, relaxed flowers look wonderful as a cut flower.

French Marigolds are one of the easiest flowers to grow. Their leaves have a delicious, distinctive smell. They are known to repel soil nematodes and whitefly from tomatoes.

Nigella Love in a Mist has both flowers and seed heads that make excellent cut flowers. Sowing them near or in carrot seeds is believed to keep the crop free of carrot fly.

Pot Marigolds are the queens of companion planting. They attract bees, butterflies and hoverflies. If you let them go to seed each year they are also happy to spread themselves all over, popping up as the weather warms up in Spring.

So, there's a couple of my favourites. Any I've missed out that are absolute essentials on your plot?

 

Tabletop Gardening

When it's icy and cold it's frustrating to be stuck inside but there are still plenty of things that you can do to get your garden in order. On these dark winter evenings there's nothing better than settling down with a cup of tea and a couple of seed catalogues to browse and come up with big ideas for the months to come. So, on this theme, here are some of my favourite "tabletop" gardening tasks that will be keeping me sane over the coming weeks.

• Go through your seed stores and make sure that you aren't keeping stock that is out of date. All seed loses fertility year on year so there's no real benefit in keeping any for longer than three seasons.Check the date on your seed packets and get rid of any that are past their best. As heartbreaking as it may be to do this with seemingly healthy seeds it's not as disappointing as spending time planting and caring for seeds that don't germinate. An exception to the three year rule are carrots and parsnips that only last for one season so if you buy any new seed this time round don't feel bad about planting the lot!
• Once you know what seeds you've already got you can start drawing up a list of what you want to grow and what you need to buy. However, as hard as it may be, resist the temptation to buy everything that catches your eye. Be realistic about how much space you've really got and how many different varieties of each crop you actually want or need. Having said all this, I attempted to grow six varieties of pumpkin last year, five varieties of courgette and eleven different tomatoes (that all got blight!) so I don't always practice what I preach...
• Not sure where to buy seeds from? This year I ordered most of my seeds from Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire. They're great advocates for seed saving so no hybrids here, and each pack of seeds comes with great tips on cultivation. Their website is also a mine of information on saving your own seed if you want to give that a go. Seeds of Italy offer a wonderful selection of traditional Italian seed stock. They're great for tomatoes, salad leaves and an amazing selection of courgettes. The Organic Gardening Catalogue is where I go to fill any gaps that are left after I've made other orders and are a realiable supplier of organic seeds. Finally I make a selection of seeds from the Heritage Seed Library - it's always a surprise to see what I'll end up with but I've got high hopes for bagging some exciting tomatoes and beetroots from the request that I've made.
• Next I like to make a plan of what I'm going to plant when. I have a notebook where I make a month by month plan of what can go in when. This may seem a little military to some people but if you're growing more than a couple of different seeds it's a good way of keeping on top of things. I also find it the best way to manage succession planting so that we get the longest possible season of eating delicious, allotment fresh produce.

So there you go - tabletop gardening in four easy stages. And if this conceptual gardening isn't enough to cheer you up on a cold, winter's night don't forget... it's only a couple of weeks before you need to start getting your chilli seeds planted so the real life gardening can commence again very soon.

Playing Catch Up

With one thing and another I've got a little bit behind myself with planting this year. It does feel worse because Easter was so early but there's no doubt that normally I'm a lot further on at this time of year. Having said that, there's no real benefit in being too hasty about planting stuff. Last year I planted my tomatoes in February but they were never really happy and took weeks to get big enough to move on. This year they've only been in for a fortnight but they already look much stronger and healthier.

Judging by the forecast for snow this weekend it's not a bad thing that there isn't really anything in the ground on the plot. I did get some peas planted into a drain pipe this weekend in the greenhouse though which will be much happier to wait a couple of weeks until it's warmer before they go out into the big wide world. The world may be heating up but last year the last frosts were not until the end of May for us in Manchester so, despite the warm days, it's best to hold off a little before even thinking about getting any of the more tender plants in like courgettes or sweetcorn... Regardless of how strong the temptation may be to plant, plant, plant at the first sign of spring!

Adventures in Green Manure

I started planting green manures on the allotment this weekend and as it's the first time that I've ever used them I'm really curious to see how they'll get on. They're supposed to be multi faceted in the benefits for the garden adding organic matter and nutrients, keeping weeds at bay, protecting the soil from the winter rain and providing a haven for wildlife. So far I've planted Hungarian Rye Grass and Phacelia into the ground where my legumes will be going next year, and the plan is to fill all empty spaces with a variety of manures over the next week or so. Any tips or advice from people who've used them before would be much appreciated... and I'll keep you posted on how I get on with mine.

By the way, I've cheated a bit with the picture today. It's actually nothing to do with my allotment and is one of the flowerbeds from the campsite we stayed on in Spain but it was so much brighter than any of the snaps I've got of my grey and windswept plot that I just had to get it in.

The First Seed Catalogue of the Year

I received my first seed catalogue of the year this morning from Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire who have to be one of the best seed companies you could find anywhere! I was too late to order from them last year but am really looking forward to sitting down and taking my pick from their selection of really interesting seeds, many of which are unique to their catalogue. Highly recommended!