Growing Chillies even if you don’t eat them!
I admitted last week that broad beans were not my favourite vegetable and as a child, I usually managed, when they were on the menu, to negotiate down to just 5 beans. One thing that was NEVER on our menu was chillies.
There wasn’t a ‘mild for chilli wimps’ kit on offer!
My father was very much a meat and two veg kinda man and spicy food of any kind was just not something I came across in my childhood in Suffolk. The first time I ate spicy food, was when I moved to Manchester for university. But in truth, I have always been rather cautious around chillies. However this week, thinking of my upcoming day in the Museum of Homelessness garden, I popped into a small garden centre near my mum.
Clearly things have changed. I was attracted to these seeds, having read that you can plant them inside in January. Apparently it helps to get ahead with chilli plants because they need as much sun as possible if they are to reach their full potential. We had such a lovely time planting them, being meticulous in our labelling and finding a ‘warm’ windowsill in good light. Now, according to the instructions, we just have to wait 7-14 days for germination. I am thinking that maybe I can learn to love, something that we have grown. We marked each label with the Scoville Scale - Chocolate Pepper is 300,000 Scoville Heat Units, while Naga - extreme heat, is 1,000,000 Scoville Heat Units. Did you know that Wilbur Scoville was an American pharmacist? According to Wikipedia: “He devised the test and scale in 1912 while working at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company to measure pungency, "spiciness" or "capsaicin concentration” of various chili peppers”.
Regular readers/listeners may remember a piece of advice given to Philippa Stewart by her mother-in-law: “don't grow anything you don't like because you won't look after it and then you'll feel wretched as it dies in the corner of the flower bed.” I am sure you could substitute raised vegetable bed for flower bed. I have had this piece of advice in my mind this week as I have been thinking about what we might grow in the MOH garden this year. I need not have worried because some of the answers, as is often the case, emerged this week whilst I was in the garden.
A new visitor spent the day with us, slowly and carefully, planting the chilli seeds. They had arrived that morning saying they wanted to be in the garden, not to weed but to grow things that could sustain us. We talked about soya beans and I confess I had not realised that edamame beans are soya beans harvested whilst they are still green. The RHS site tells me there are several varieties adapted for the British climate. And they confirm my new knowledge: Soya bean seeds are often sold as edamame beans, which is the name given to the immature green beans, but these can be harvested as mature dried beans too. There was also a request to grow potatoes. On one level, we can buy these from the Sainsbury’s just outside the park gates but perhaps if this is what someone wants to grow, then that is what we plant.
Later in the afternoon, I sat on the step discussing blackcurrants and raspberry bushes. One of the regular community members who had arrived earlier in the day, describing themselves as in a “I can’t really speak today” sort of place, told me that these were the fruits found in his childhood garden. It might be a challenge with the pigeons but you care for the things you love so I am sure we could find a way to protect the fruit. He also talked about Stocks and their incredible night scent, I am thinking I should buy a packet of these seeds.
This week in podcast land I have been to an event on podcasting with speakers from the world of SEO (search engine optimisation) and I have begun to send out the Series 3 press release to people who I hope might promote or mention the podcast when it begins again on the 4th February. If you happen to work for a horticultural magazine or website or are in gardening groups or societies that might like to see the press release, or maybe you would just like to see it yourself, then just drop me an email sally@ourplantstories and I will happily send it to you.
In other news I have become a trustee of the charity Plant Heritage. I am sure I will share more about this in the forthcoming months but suffice to say I am very excited. I am also grateful to all the wonderful charity people I worked with in my time as the BBC’s Charity Appeals Adviser, their example and their wisdom, will I hope, help me in this new role.
Have a lovely weekend
Sally
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