Sowing Chillies Before Breakfast & Grow Lamp

The urge to grow is just too much after Christmas. I'm sure we've all done it and started too early at times. We sowed our onions a few days after Christmas, as many do but I wanted to get the chillies in as well.

 I'm always frustrated by our chillies and peppers, get a harvest normally but its pretty late in the season. When I go to a garden centre in the spring it drives me mad to see chillies with fruits forming while mine haven't even considered flowering!

Sweet Pickled Peppers - Result!

I know it's not even been a month since I pickled the chilli peppers but I couldn't resist trying them as I've got a load more chillies ripening and I want to know what to do with the them.

 I cracked the jar open at a friends house on Thursday and we all tucked in. They tasted just like a certain brand that you find on supermarket shelves. A little longer in the pickle needed to soften the skins maybe, but a definite hit in our house (and our friends!). They're pretty mild but that's a good thing with a family full of little ones.

Our friends daughter tucking into them

Ev loved them

So next week I'll be pickling the rest of the chillies and going through the same process again. We use these peppers all the time, in sandwiches with cream cheese, chopped up in salads or each fitted with a chunk of feta and eaten as a great snack, but it'll be great to be using our own rather than expensive shop brought ones.

The seeds form these chillies will be in the Seed Swap so if you want some let me know. Next year I'll try and find a similar shaped chilli that's hotter to do some spicier ones for adults only. Anyone recommend a good medium heat chilli that would pickle well? Even better if you've got some seeds to swap with!

Seed Saving

With my "Blogging Seed Swap" still in my mind I want to make sure I'm saving plenty of seeds this year. I've never been great at it, either leaving it too late or not storing them correctly, so this year I'm making a real effort.

Pepper seeds

On my window sill I currently have lots of pepper seeds drying. Some from my chilli pepper "Cherry Bomb" and the others from either yellow or red "Mini Bell Peppers". These are then being labled up and stored in old cod liver oil tablets containers to keep them dry.

My tiny sweet peppers - perfect for UK growing!

I've also got lots of fennel seeds to collect to use as a spice in the kitchen and some salad seeds to use as micro greens through the winter. 

How does everyone else go about saving seeds and how good are you at it?

Does anyone save seeds from biannual plants and how do you go about keeping plants separate to prevent cross pollination?

Don't forget if you want to be part of the seed swap then start saving your seeds now and in a couple of months we can start to share them out!

Ripening peppers

Every year I grow chilli peppers and I always do well with them. Sweet peppers on the other hand normally elude me. I can grow the plants but the peppers never ripen properly, the skin is too thin and they don't change colour very well.

"Cherry Bomb" chilli peppers - meant to be like peppadews, I'll let you know when I've pickled them

This year I decided to try to tackle the problem because we eat a lot of peppers. I decided to just grow a variety that's meant to have small peppers that are quick and easy to ripen due to it's small size. These "Mini Bell" peppers have been growing well in the greenhouses this year and we've had one ripen so far with loads nearly ready (I feel a gult coming on). We ate the first one straight off the bush, I don't think I've ever eaten one so sweet in all my life, it was delicious!

My small sweet peppers "mini bell"

So if anyone else struggles with peppers like I did then I can recommend growing a smaller variety to try to get them to ripen quicker and have thicker flesh. 

Unless anyone has got any tips on getting peppers to ripen faster or grow better?