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The heat is on ... down on the farm!
Chillies come in all shapes, sizes and colours from the super hot like the Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T” to the much milder Pimento Pepper. Globally, chillies have become the second most craved flavour after chocolate. You soon realise there’s much to learn when you talk to Alex Duck, down on the chilli farm in the small hamlet of Upton Cheyney in South Gloucestershire. It’s amazing how much tender loving care has to be given by Alex and Louise (pictured) to plants which often bite back. Alex and his wife Louise, in partnership with Dave Hawking, the farm owner, started farming chillies nearly 10 years ago.
The business has grown exponentially year by year; The Upton Cheyney Chilli Company now produces a range of national award-winning sauces, oils, chocolates, hot pig sausages and chilli burgers. Their accolades are numerous and include “Taste of the West”, “Best Hot Sauce of the Year” and “Great Taste Award”. The chilli cider is also made using their chillies in the Bridge Farm Cider in Somerset. Although Alex is involved, often in the physical work of cultivating and harvesting the chillies, he recognises that “Louise is the backbone of the business. She makes all the sauces, organises the stock, the labelling and does all the accountancy.”
Alex and Louise and Dave also run a cafe, butchery, Moroccan themed bell tents at the Pepperbell campsite, a farm shop and manage wedding receptions in the 17th-century tithe barn. Every year in September they host one of the most popular chilli festivals in Britain with live music, stalls, cook-offs and, of course, chilli-eating competitions that attracts up to 4,000 people.
Chillies have a long history. Originally they were indigenous to Central and South America and the West Indies, where they had been cultivated for thousands of years, before explorers of the New World introduced them to Europe. Today, there are probably 400 different chillies grown worldwide.
The search for the hottest chilli continues; it used to be the Dorset Naga, (923,000 Scoville heat units), but every day it seems there’s a new contender like the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (2,009,231 SHU) for the hottest chilli in the world.
There are about 10 of us on today’s tour. Nervous laughter rings out as we enter the first polytunnel. I’ve been wondering about the chilli heat and how I’m going to stand up to the tasting at 10 o’clock in the morning. Alex proves a perfect host, reminding everyone it’s up to us if we want to taste the chillies.
It’s been a good year for the chillies and we start in the polytunnel, where it all began. “I don’t know why I started growing chillies,” Alex says, “I like the colours and chillies are incredibly colourful and exciting.”
We’re standing inside looking out at row after row of torpedo-shaped jalapeno chillies, a range of traffic-light colours, including yellow and green, that change slowly to black and then to red when they are ripe and at their hottest. There are probably 80 pods a plant, grown on raised beds, with harvesting starting in September and going through to the first frosts when picking ends.
The heat of the chilli doesn’t come from the seeds but from the placental wall surrounding the seeds at the top end of the pod. The fiery sensation of a chilli is caused by capsaicin, a potent chemical that survives both cooking and freezing and also triggers the brain to produce endorphins, natural painkillers that promote a sense of wellbeing.
Alex and Louise smoke every jalapeno they pick, using oak chippings. Individually, they have to be sliced and then smoked for 18 hours in one of the three smokehouses around the farm. Batches of about 250 can be done at one time, until the chillies are dehydrated and crisp. What is left behind is a chipotle (a
Mexican word for a smoked chilli) and these are ground to make a spice which is used in Oak Smoked Chipotle Chilli Sauce, their number one best-seller.
It’s time now to taste the chilli. Psychologist Paul Rozin suggests eating chillies is an example of a contained risk, like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensation like pain and fear can be enjoyed, because the individual knows these sensations are not actually harmful. As there’s no roller coaster, I pop some chilli in my mouth and am pleasantly surprised with the taste, freshness, flavour and piquancy, which accompanies the heat.
Each tunnel is themed and the next, “Superhot polytunnel”, contains some of the hottest chillies known to man, including Scotch bonnets, the Dorset Naga, Bhut Jolokia (the ghost chilli) and the fearsome Seven Pot Habanero. The plants here are bigger and produce higher yields because they are cultivated in a hydroponic system containing a growing media. The fieriest, hottest sauce produced on the farm is the mouth numbing Megalodon Chilli Sauce and it only requires one Seven Pot Habanero chilli (1,500,000 SHU) from this polytunnel for each bottle.
Chillies can be difficult to grow in a temperate climate like Britain’s. Until fairly recently, they were regarded as botanical specimens. However, today, Britain’s eating habits have been reshaped by the movement of people, travel, globalization and other cultural factors. All these aspects have contributed to making chillies an essential ingredient in British cuisine.
Alex will hand-harvest about 500,000 chillies from 10 commercial varieties grown this year, and hand-slice up to 20,000 that will be oak smoked on site. Chillies need a lot of time and care.
Alex and Louise grow chillies for a local Bristol company in the next polytunnel we view. It’s the “Bart Ingredients tunnel”. This year they are growing Bulgarian Carrot Chillies. They’re torpedo-shaped, smooth-skinned and look innocuous. Upon testing I experience a “creepy uppy” as the heat suddenly hits my throat, and my nose and the tip of my tongue explodes. Water will make it worse; milk is best according to Alex, salt is good too, or strong alcohol, but no one offers me a hip flask.
The sensation passes and we move on to the “Simpson Seeds Show polytunnel”. It’s hard to imagine so much beauty and colour from what is probably over 70 varieties, many of which are ornamental, with a splash of marigolds planted in the middle for “companionship planting”. This is a system to attract bees and other insects as a natural pest control against aphids and other pests.
We’ve seen the completed growing cycle today, where everything has come to fruition. The process is much longer and started way back in December, when the old plants were removed and the soil was rotavated. In January, the superhot chillies were germinated at 28°C, because they take the longest time to ripen off. A massive heat mat that ran the whole length of the tunnel was then laid down for several months until all the seeds were germinated.
It’s time-consuming work, with one seed being planted in a jiffy pellet at a time. After two weeks the first seedling comes out and germination continues through January, February, March until April when the chillies are finally planted out. By mid September the harvesting and smoking begins until the first frosts come.
The year doesn’t stop there. There are food festivals to attend, followed by the Bath Christmas Market for 18 days, as well as the other numerous chilli festivals later in the year, like the West Dean, just outside Chichester which attracts 25,000 people. “It’s the industry standard,” Alex tells me, but there’s also the Great Dorset Chilli Festival, the Brighton Fiery Foods Festival as well as their own festival in September which attracts thousands each year.
As for the future, Alex would like to turn the farm into a “Centre of Excellence, doing the same, but on a much larger scale.” He’s keen to extend his vision to a wider audience and provide both educational and other family facilities, as well as extending the commercial interests of the company into restaurants and pubs and wholesale selling.
‘‘Five years ago it started as a passion, but recently, I’ve realised there’s a lot more we could all do with it,” he says with a smile.