Chilli farm set for second big festival
WHEN Lynne Seaton-Anderson was given some chilli seeds to plant on her 14ha property at Murphys Creek, she had no idea it would be such a life changer.
As it turned out, the sandstone flats around the property made the perfect environment to grow a flourishing crop of chemical-free chillis.
Each year she harvested her own seeds to re-plant and the only hitch along the way was the 2011 floods, which were followed up by a further wash-out in 2012.
After learning from that mistake and changing the location of the crop, she and son Jason O’Connor never looked back.
The only real question was what to do with a chilli that had an awful lot of heat, but no flavour.
Mrs Seaton had the perfect answer: use it to make delicious chilli chocolate.
She worked on perfecting the recipe and created a brand name from an old family joke. Seatonfire chilli chocolate was born, though Mr O’Connor said surprisingly few people got the pun.
But despite having a bit of a laugh over the name, Mr O’Connor said their aim was never to burn people’s bums off, but rather give the tastebuds a tingle.
He said plenty of people who weren’t big chilli eaters were delighted to try the wares (and survive to tell the tale).
The duo bought the property 25 years ago, started growing chillis 15 years ago and making the chilli chocolate 10 years ago.
When it seemed like there were no further ways to put more jobs on their already full plates, the idea for hosting Queensland’s only chilli festival popped up.
Mr O’Connor said it was a simple case of having done the circuit through New South Wales and Victoria so many times they got tired of travelling so far to showcase their fascinating wares.
Last year they held the inaugural Murphy’s Creek Chilli Festival and it was such a massive success they grew it exponentially this year.
They couldn’t have picked a better time, with this year’s hot and dry conditions giving the crop exactly what it needed unlike most crops across Queensland.
“The chillis love it,” Mr O’Connor said.
“The more heat the better, so the plants are thriving and fruit is forming and they’ll be pickable earlier than most years.”
He said the only problem apart from the odd pest invasion was black frost, but the conditions at Murphys Creek were pretty perfect.
Most pest incursions could be beaten back with a spray-on mixture of chilli and garlic.
They decided not to bother with organic certification, instead reassuring customers that no chemicals had been used on the property in more than 20 years.
Even the rosemary and lime used in the chocolate bars was grown on the property without the use of chemicals.
Each year they carried out a mixture of planting new seedlings and pruning back older plants, with most of the established plants surviving a number of years.
The yield from each plant even increased with each passing year.
“The second and third years
are much higher yields,” Mr O’Connor said.
“We have to pick them every three days.”
He said the picking had been carried out by people involved in the WWOOF program for many years, but changes to backpacker visas had changed so the program wasn’t as desirable.
❝heat The more the better, so the plants are thriving and fruit is forming...
— Jason O’Connor
WWOOF stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms, a program designed to give participants working insight into running organic farms.
Workers would do up to four hours of labour each day in exchange for food, board and the chance of a visa extension.
He said he was in the process of looking at other options.
It hadn’t held them back yet though, and preparations for this weekend’s festival were just about wrapped up.
Last year they had 35 vendors on site, but this year they were confident enough to invite 95.
He said last year’s success story had encouraged plenty of local growers to plant out a few different chilli varieties to sell at the event in light of the fact that Seatonfire only grew one variety.
They grew just the world’s sixth-hottest chilli, red devil, a variety of bird’s eye.
It was the only kind they were interested in because its flavourless heat made it perfect for adding to chocolate.
Also in the line-up this year was a number of charities people could find out more about or donate to, and keeping a charitable community theme in mind, the Murphys Creek State School P and C was heavily involved in activities, from providing breakfast to stall holders to running a “plant a chilli” fundraiser.
There would be all kinds of fun and games for the whole family, including a name a puggle (baby platypus) competition, pony rides, chilli jelly spoon races for adults and children and tasting sessions for a chilli lime beer.
There would also be organic gardening talks run by local farmers and science sessions run by USQ staff members.
For Mr O’Connor, however, the main attraction was always going to be the chilli eating competition.
Participants would have to sign a death waiver to enter the event, which involved wolfing down the world’s hottest chilli.
He said this would be followed up with the Dunny’s Extreme Snag Roll competition, in which competitors would have to make it through a sausage roll covered in the incredibly-spicy Where’s The Dunny hot sauce.
Despite the festival’s name and focus, Mr O’Connor said those who weren’t able to handle much in the way of spice would find plenty of things to do, see and buy.
He said the main rule for all stallholders was to have something chilli-related, even the ice-cream stall, but that didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of chilli-free things.
The Murphys Creek Chilli Festival is on at Jessie Ln, Murphys Creek this Sunday from 10am-4pm.
Entry is free and a bar will operate from 11am.