Spitaldyke’s Trials of chilli – part one

Spitaldyke’s Trials of chilli – part one

 

 

So this bloke @5olly on twitter invited ME to do a chilli trial!

 I was so flattered (and drunk) that I agreed enthusiastically- I also agreed to blog a bit about it and now we begin.!!!

My Chilli History

Most blogs I read have an irrelevant self- indulgent biographical introduction so here is mine.

I first encountered chillies in kebabs and curries as a London teenager – my  drunken late night  cry of “I WAANT A KEEEEBAB” was legendary in Neasden where I spent those formative and hazy years. I always had chilli sauce and lemon on my kebab. (cosmopolitan face)

Here is a tenuously connected picture of what was- in 1978/9- Level One Nightclub in Neasden – I saw WHAM there before they were famous!

 This close to George Michael I was !!

Once I learnt to cook I would use chilli powder and later chilli flakes then I discovered whole fresh chillies!! My pilchard curry was infamous at university- not in a good way. My friend once  pretended to be excited at the telly so she could jump up and spill a pilchard curry- we don’t speak anymore.

Eventually I stopped going out every night I got into gardening and started growing vegetables on an allotment – just outdoor stuff at first as we had no greenhouse.

About 10 years ago I got a greenhouse and realised I could possibly grow chillies of my own! Here is a picture of the greenhouse several years ago in the summer. This is an excuse to show you the allotment in full crop –not how it is now- a soggy quagmire !

First step with chillies was getting the seeds to germinate eventually I realised that the only variety I could grow with any success was Cayenne red. So most years I have about 20 plants and get enough chillies to last us a year – we use them fresh and also dry them and keep them in a jar.

We are in Chesterfield Derbyshire so it’s not right warm and we have a cold greenhouse so I am a bit wary* of the more exotic requirements of the varieties in the trial.

*not at all confident

The Chilli Trial

The excitement when I received my seeds was indescribable – I thought it was a clandestine drug drop of some weird new drug!! wahay! Then reality – Oh ((

You can see why I made this weird mistake from the picture below – this also shows my raspberry wine BTW.

Then I read the vague blurb on the vegetablism blog and one of the varieties needs to go through a birds digestive system to germinate  !

AHA I thought – next doors chickens! They love me as I throw green veg over the fence for them all the time.

 So I just borrowed one to eat the seeds and shit them out. Twitter friends will know that this was not a success –but I learnt several things

·         Chickens do a LOT of POOING

·         CHICKEN POO STINKS EVEN WORSE WHEN FRESH

·         THEY ALSO EAT A LOT OF THINGS THAT COULD BE CHILLI SEEDS AFTER STRAINING THE POO. Here is a replica of the poo strainer as the original did not survive.( traumatic)

 

·         Chickens do not look like this in real life (this is my favourite picture of a big cock as he is sooo camp!! )   

                                                     

I am sure my neighbours will forgive me for borrowing the chicken overnight …eventually.

the dog didn’t have it in her mouth for very long …ahem.

So far so good – that is the beginning of my chilli trial mates!

Wanders off …