6th September
Picking Habanero Orange this week. Kay is busy making Habanero Orange and Carrot chutney - one of our fastest selling items last year.
3rd September
For those who are interested, here is our solar panel guide here : (for installing solar panels in outbuildings)
http://www.dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/solarspec.pdf
We have a couple of shows this weekend. On Saturday we are on Cathedral Green, Exeter at the Green show and on Sunday we will be at Knighthayes Court food fair.
2nd September
Added lots of photos to the fresh chillies page.
See : http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=369
1st September
According to Chile Foundry, we are now the most popular Chilli Site in the UK. A big thankyou to all our customers and visitors.
See : www.chilefoundry.co.uk
Also we are re-jigging our gift packs. Please check back tomorrow for the new packs.
We now also have a vacancy for a part time nursery worker. See our employment page for more information.
August 29th
We are at the Lustleigh Show tomorrow 9-4. Please come and visit!
New Stockist - The Courtyard Cafe and Wholefood Shop, Chagford
August 27th
Dartmoor Dynamite *Ultimate Heat* chilli sauce is now available. Please note - we do not use chilli extract so there is a limit to how hot we can make it. However even DD has a nice tomato taste before the power of Bhut Jolokia takes over! The chilli kick is pretty savage.
Chilli Focus is now 10% off across the entire range.
August 23rd
Fresh chilli mixer packs now available.
August 22nd
Working on a new limited edition Plum Chilli Chutney
We have been trialing Chilli Focus and are very pleased with the results. We therefore have decided to offer it to our customers via the website.
August 20th
Chagford Show was brilliant. Next Show is Lustleigh on 30th August.
We've just realized some of our sauces are in fact 150ml and not 100ml - doh! (so thats an extra 50ml free of charge - not bad eh. Mind you, if we hadn't made the mistake in the first place!) This applies to Beast of Dartmoor, Salad Dressing, Hot Wax & Pineapple and the Red Fruit Vinegar
Also please note.. we will be using Cider Vinegar instead of White Wine Vinegar in all products made from today onwards. Apparently White Wine Vinegar contains Sulphur Dioxide which is part of the making process but as such we need to put it on all our labels. The Cider Vinegar we use, does not contain this product, hence the swap from White Wine to Cider.
August 17th
Hot Orange Marmalade is NOW available.
August 16th
Working on a brand new spanking hot sauce which is going to be called "Dartmoor Dynamite". 5 times hotter than the Beast of Dartmoor.
Chagford Show is this thursday - 19th August
Flavourfest was brilliant. Thankyou very much to all the visitors and customers to our stall.
August 12th
Three new products in time for the Flavourfest show this weekend.
August 10th
Apparently we are known for our tasty chutneys of the milder variety. This is good and bad. We've decided to add a new sauce to the range to redress the balance a little. This new sauce will be the hottest natural (no extract) product we've ever created and will make our Beast of Dartmoor look like a fluffy great poodle. More information soon.
Chilli Olive Oil should be ready in time for Flavourfest later this week.
We are currently making up lots of batches of our popular sauces and chutneys in preparation for the event which runs from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th August in the middle of Plymouth city centre.
Real Ale Chilli Chutney now available
August 7th
Quite a busy few days. On Friday we visited the Chilli Fiesta at West Dean and it was good putting faces to names and meeting other chilli farms and enthusiasts. We have decided that we will try and have a stall at next years event. Meanwhile we have been invited to have a stall of our products at the Wessex Chilli Festival which is to be held on October 10th in Frome, Somerset.Speaking of shows and events, next weekend we will be attending Flavourfest in Plymouth. Its a massive event, so please come and say hello and try a range of our chilli chutneys and our award winning chilli chocolate. We hope to have our new chilli oil ready in time.
Making more chilli chutneys today and another batch of our Beast of Dartmoor Extreme Chilli Sauce. Real Ale chilli chutney will be available on Monday. We use the brilliant Dartmoor Ale brewed locally at Princetown as the main ingredient!
August 5th
We are thinking of a trip to West Dean nr Chichester tomorrow to visit the Chilli Festival. If successful, we will probably have a stall there next year.
August 4th
Phil will be at the Chudleigh farmers market tomorrow (Thursday 5th August) with lots of plants - all on special offer, so if you are down in Devon and fancy a Bhut Jolokia plant in a 2 litre pot for just £4.50 you know where to come. The market runs from 9am to 1pm. We will also have chilli chocolate and a small selection of chutneys. On the plants we will try and bring a good selection. All plants are £3.50 each with the exception of the Bhut Jolokia and Habaneros at £4.50.
NEW!!! Dartmoor Real Ale Chilli Chutney ready in the next few days!!
2nd August
We have discovered a nifty second use for our new Muscle Rub .... Its also great as a fly repellant for detering all flying beasties including those pesky horseflies. (the active ingredient in many fly repellants is Capsaicin. As it is holistic, rub in to your arms and legs using a thin layer. As its natural, it has no nasty chemical ingredients which will irritate the skin either). It smells divine aswell!
July 31st
Two new stockists coming soon. One in Crediton and the other up in Newcastle. We are really keen to speak to potential stockists outside Devon. 
Three Fruit Bhut Jolokia Chilli Marmalade now available.
July 30th
Boozy Chilli Marmalades now available including Vodka and Lime Chilli Marmalade, Vodka and Orange Chilli Marmalade and a Gin and Lemon Chilli Marmalade. See HERE for more information.
Added a chilli photo page - we will continue adding to this page throughout the season.
Adding a new products page - so you can keep up to date with our latest product news.
According to the Chilli Foundry Website, we are now the number 1 most visited chilli website in the UK and the 3rd most popular uk chilli website in the world. Yippee! See more information here : http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/
July 29th
Our Coffee chilli chocolate has been reviewed here :
July 26th
I've just had to remove the chilli forum. We put it up with best intentions so that our customers could discuss any problems, identify rogue chilli plants or leave feedback, but i set the security too lax and it was hijacked by a bunch of idiots who proceeded to leave lots of spam, so we apologise to our genuine customers for any offence. We are going to do a chilli problem page instead in the next few days. It really annoys me. Haven't they got anything better to do?
Fresh chillies almost available. We should be able to start sending them next week.
The polytunnels are full of chillies. It was our plan to have them in the ground this year but the planning department didn't see it that way. Oh well, its stopped us expanding as we would have liked. Instead it's cloches this year but next year we hope to have the new polytunnels up when we go to appeal.
July 22nd
Another wet cold and miserable day. I'm quite glad i'm not on holiday. Today has been a day for cutting up all the logs we use each year to keep the young plants nice and warm.
July 20th
New Stockist in Kingsbridge. 11s Pastries, 11 Fore Street, Kingsbridge TQ7 1PG
They will be stocking our chilli chocolate and a range of chutneys and jams from today onwards.
When will this weather end? Its quite depressing. It's supposed to be summer!
July 17th
Spicy Apple Chilli Chutney coming this week.
July 16th
We are at the Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar this morning and tomorrow will be at the Totnes Good Food Market. If you are local and want any larger plants, we will bring a good selection to the Totnes Market.
July 15th
STOP PRESS !!
It seems our Chilli Chocolate with Coffee has won top marks with the Guild of Fine Foods who have awarded it the maximum 3 Gold stars. Yippee.
More information on Monday.
Also
Hot Chilli Jam now available
Now available thanks to customer requests.
Its chilli jam combined with a little heat from the amazing Bhut Jolokia chilli. We've toned down the heat somewhat but even so, its much hotter than our existing jam. If you like your chillies hotter, this is the one to go for!
Perfect with cheese on toast, used as a dip with chips, as a marinade or great as a glaze on meats. Also perfect for barbeques! .
Beast of Dartmoor also back in stock.
July 14th
New Hot chilli jam coming soon... watch this space.
Updating the website with more product information on the larger potted chilli plants.
Holistic Chilli and Herb Muscle Balm now in stock.
July 13th
Lots of bigger plants now available.
We have a couple of events coming up.
- Thursday 15th July - Chudleigh Farmers Market 9am-1pm
- Saturday 17th July - Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar, Ashburton Town Hall 9am-1pm
- Sunday 18th July - Totnes Good Food Market, Market Square 9am-1pm
July 8th
New stockist .... Thornes Farm Shop, Stockleigh Pomeroy, Near Crediton
July 7th
We have added another cause to our charity page. Although not technically a charity, Animal Aid is very dear to our hearts and minds. 10% of our profit this year will go to the Kambeng Trust and another 10% to Animal Aid.
See charity page for more information.
July 6th
Our Hot Strawberry Jam has been reviewed today by those lovely people at the Chilefoundry - see http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk for more information
July 5th
Revamped the shipping charges on the website. We are going to use Royal Mail for everything from now on as our previous courier was basically awful so we've now dropped them. We may choose to use DHL (alternate courier on heavier orders over 2kg).
July 4th
Spent the entire weekend potting on chillies in the main tunnel. We have about 500 left to do!
We've also extended the free delivery zone, now that the mail order chilli plant season has finished.
Free delivery within ringed zone, on orders over £10. We have a delivery run each week. Tuesday - south, Thursday - north, Exeter and Crediton.
We've also teamed up with an Indian family business and will be providing their spices and chilli powder and flakes. Our own chilli powder is used largely to make our chilli chocolate. We keep getting asked for powder and flakes, so please See HERE for more information.
July 2nd
Finally finished outside planting! (put up 6 temporary cloches - which don't need planning permission)
We've also been looking at which varieties to grow for next season. Here's an absolute cracker - Super Chilli F1. It has small pods which grow vertically and is extremely prolific.
June 29/30th
Two very long days where we have been working in the tunnels, repotting all the remaining plants from 9cm into 2 and 3 litre pots. We have 2000+ plants remaining so its a very long job. Also we have been planting sweet peppers in cloches 1-3, Jalapeno, Anaheim and Joe E Parker in cloche 4, Fresno and Bulgarian Carrot in cloche 5 and cloche 6 is now choc full of tomatoes.
This Friday, Kay will be at the Widewell school Fair and Wide show for the second week. She will have a larger variety of plants on the stall, so please feel free to browse.
We have a new stockist today - Brimblecombe's Cider in Dunsford near Exeter.
June 28th
Our website is being upgraded today, so please bear with us. If you have any problems just give us a call on 07835 852997 or email sales@dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk
Last day for shipping plants mail order will be 30th June.
June 27th
Spent the entire weekend filling up the cloches with sweet pepper plants.
Also we made alot of nettle liquid feed up in four large containers which is great for chilli plants!
Looking for a low cost high nutrient feed for your chilli plants?
You can buy a specialist organic tomato feed which is very good. However we use something which is completely free and in abundance in most gardens and fields.
To make :
1) Put on some gloves
2) Find your nettles - opt for younger, more tender stems if possbile.
3) Cut the nettles about 12 inches from the tip
4) Bash them up a bit - if you cut the nettles with a strimmer this is good or break them up
with your hands trying not to get stung.
5) Put them in a muslin bag or string bag (any bag with holes in should be ok)
6) Fill a bucket of water
7) Find a large stone
8) Put the full bag into the bucket and put the stone on the top to stop it floating
9) Leave for 2-3 weeks.
After a few weeks, you'll have the most wonderful liquid feed full of nitrogen and other nutrients
which your chillies and other plants will love.
You can tell when its ready as it will start to get a bit smelly!
You'll need to dilute it with water to a ratio of around 1:10 before feeding it to your plants.
Nettles are a pain in the proverbial but they are one of the most useful plants in the
garden
Enjoy your chillies
Phil
June 25th
Kay is at the "Fair and Wide" show this afternoon at Widewell School, Plymouth.
June 24th
Free delivery on all chilli chocolate as well as the majority of chutneys, sauces, jellies, jams and pickles.
June 23rd
Spent the morning updating the website with the varieties which are still still available for mail order customers.
See link here for information : http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4
June 22nd
Spent all day erecting three larger cloches in below the main polytunnel. We were hoping that the additional polytunnels we needed to expand were going to go here but it was not to be this time round (Planners 1 Dartmoor Chilli Farm 0). 
Anyway cloches do not need planning permission and although they are only 3ft high or less they will offer invaluable growing space for our tomatoes and sweet peppers. This will clear space in the main tunnels so that all the chillies can go into larger pots or perhaps directly into the ground.
The Hungarian Hot Wax plants are looking most impressive at the moment and are festooned with large yellow pods. We also have lots of pods on the Cayennes, Jalapenos, Bulgarian Carrot and a variety of sweet peppers. We still have lots of Bhut Jolokia and these have come on in leaps and bounds in the last few weeks with all this lovely hot weather.
We are currently running completely off solar at the moment which is very nice. The only snag is we are getting almost too many amps from the panels and have nowhere to store the extra capacity.
June 21st
We are coming to the end of "plants" season. We have hundreds and hundreds of plants left but they are getting too big to send now. We may have to replace plants if we can't find any of a particular variety. The extreme varieties are still available as they are very slow growers.
Ivor from Devil's Garden has considerably expanded his range of our products. We have a big shipment going out to him tomorrow, so anyone up in the Manchester,Preston,Wigan, Liverpool area, please check his site out. He has lots of hot sauces and a brilliant website. Devils Garden website : http://www.thedevilsgarden.co.uk/ He also has a stall at Lancaster street market - see website for more information.
June 20th
Spent all day at the Totnes Good Food Show which was excellent. We may be teaming up with a fudge supplier to create a range of chilli fudge. Watch this space for info.
Plants were popular today. As usual the hot varieties sold out in no time. We will be doing the show again next month (17th July). Next time we will be taking more plants including some extreme varieties.
We had some very positive feedback on the Strawberry Jam and some new reviews. If you buy a product from us, your feedback is much appreciated.
For customers not in the UK, you will soon be able to order much easier. We are implementing a table based system for International Packet Post based on weight. We will not be able to send plants but you will be able to order our chutneys, jams, sauces and chocolate.
June 19th
Spent the morning at the Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar which was good. We took down a selection of plants, chocolate and chutneys. Tomorrow we are at the Totnes Good Food Sunday - see right.
We are going to take more plants from sweet to extreme. Please come along and say hello!
As far as jobs around the nursery, we spent the afternoon weeding and strimming. We are also having a big clearout with lots of things put on Freecycle.
June 18th
Spent the entire day preparing the area where the cloches for the sweet peppers and chillies will have to go. 
It would have been nice to have polytunnels here, but hey-ho, we'll appeal against the Dartmoor National Park Authorities decision.
Anyway today was spent with Kay laying weed control polythene to mark where the cloches will go, whilst I spent the day picking up rocks. By the time we'd finished at 6pm, we'd collected over 20 barrowloads of rocks from the area. One of the joys of being on Dartmoor !
June 15th
Hot Strawberry Jam selling out fast.
The "Elsanta" variety strawberries and chillies are both grown on the farm without herbicides, fungicides or pesticides. Its a shame we can't grow sugar beat or lemons!
This is proper hand made Strawberry Jam with a chilli kick. Its a little difficult to describe but it'll sure "warm up" cream teas!
The heat is moderate and the sweetness of the jam really counteracts the heat of the chilli.
June 14th
This Saturday (19th June) we will be at the Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar in the town hall. Lots of plants and chutneys to choose from!
On Sunday (20th June) we will be at the Good Food Show in Totnes (in Market Square)
Added some gift packs, hopefully to suit all tastes. Perfect for fathers day perhaps? We will include the message/greeting of your choice and send direct if you want.
June 13th
Our products are now available from the National Trust at Lydford Gorge Shop near Okehampton aswell as the Church House at Widecombe in the Moor AND the National Trust shop at Parke (Dartmoor National Park Authority HQ) in Bovey Tracey.
We have been growing some Black Naga's (see article here on the Chile Foundry website). We have managed to germinate some and they are getting there (albeit slowly).
We will have to see what colour the pods turn out to be. Fingers crossed for black ones!
Beast of Dartmoor Mk2 selling out fast. So far reviews have been very positive.
June 11th
Bhut Jolokia Extreme Chilli Puree - now available - Heat Rating : EXTREME MAX. You won't find anything hotter than this. Full stop.
We had to reset the forum due to some technical issues. We are really sorry about that but we've now managed to iron out the originals problems. Please feel free to register and post your chilli questions, problems, or just tell us what products you want to see or varieties you think we should grow.
http://www.dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/forum
June 10th
Our chilli newsletter can be downloaded here. We are sorry for not doing one last month but we just got bogged down with all the projects at the nursery and all the planning issues.
http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/june2010.pdf
We have a new plant stockist in Dorset. Contact details will be on the website tomorrow (after we've delivered all their plants!).
Hot Strawberry Jam now available. Beast of Dartmoor selling very well today!
June 9th
Beast of Dartmoor chilli sauce (revamped double strength now back in stock!)
June 8th
We are investigating ways of sending "larger plants" by post. More information to follow
Added larger 1 litre pots to website. Free delivery to customers within 10 miles of Ashburton. (on orders over £15)
Dorset Nagas are now sold out. We have quite a few Bhut Jolokia available though so these would make a good alternative.
We use the Bhut Jolokia in our Extreme Apple Chutney, Fireball Pickled Onions not forgetting our Beast of Dartmoor Chilli Sauce which is now twice as hot!
Special offer on Seville Orange and Chilli Marmalade. Normally £2.95, now only £2.50 with FREE DELIVERY until 11th June.
June 7th
Chilli Strawberry Jam coming this week. We are trying to get the heat levels right.
We have been awarded the Dartmoor First Award (by the Dartmoor National Park Authority - pity someone can't tell the planning dept eh?)
"It has been agreed that the Dartmoor Chilli Farm is a worthy recipient of the award. The application makes your commitment to Dartmoor very evident and therefore we are delighted that Dartmoor Chilli Farm have been awarded Dartmoor First. "
June 6th
Habanero Chocolate now available - in limited numbers.
June 5th
FSB Awards last night which we really enjoyed. We didn't win our group but were were runners up (top 4 out of 8000 FSB members in Devon isn't bad). Also its our first awards ceremony we've been too so the experience was fun - even though the dickie bow meant i couldn't breathe!
On the chilli front, we are pretty much out of Dorset Naga's now BUT on the Bhut Jolokia, they are starting to look pretty good now.
On the planning issue. We were refused the extra tunnels we need to expand but we will try and work with the DNP authority to sort out the issues at hand. Meanwhile everything will need to go into cloches, which aren't ideal -but at least we can grow bigger plants than in pots and hopefully have lots of fresh chillies this year!
June 4th
Strawberry and Chilli Jam coming soon. We are also working with another Devon based business on a chilli oil. Something which we have had lots of requests for.
June 2nd
NEW STOCKIST
Take 2 Deli in Teignmouth.
In the area? They are a brilliant place to visit in the lovely seaside town of Teignmouth - right on the front opposite the theatre.
They are supplying our chilli chocolate and chutneys and a limited supply of plants.
Take 2, Deli, Restaurant, Cafe, Bar and Function Room.
June 1st
New charity appeal - The Kambeng Trust.
http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/index.php?main_page=page&id=11
We have a new stockist from tomorrow (2nd June) in Teignmouth. More information to follow.
Our planning permission application is due to be heard on 4th June. The same day as the FSB Awards.
Newsletter will be ready hopefully by tomorrow evening.
May 30th
Spent to day clearing brambles! New raised beds for cabbages are now complete.
On the chilli front, we have introduced a new "recommended" chilli pack for people who are not quite sure what they want. Basically its the plants we would go for and hopefully give you a nice mixture of ornamental and culinary and include mild to extreme varieties.
May 28th 
Spent the day erecting cloches for the kale, cabbage and brussel sprouts. Also picked about 2 kg of fresh strawberries. Strawberry Jam with chilli coming soon!
May 27th
Numex Pinata is now available. We also have lots of new Habanero varieties coming soon.
We should have some further information regarding our trials and tribulations regarding our planning application and the need to expand very soon. If anyone is interested in the latest updates, please contact us.
We have made it to the top 3 in the Chile Foundry top ten chilli sites. Thanks very much to all our customers for this. See : http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/2010/05/26/top-10-uk-chilli-web-sites-%e2%80%94-may-2010/
May 26th
Please register on the chilli form and ask whatever you like. We would love to find out more about what our customers are growing and how we could possibly help.
Also we are in the Western Morning News today (page 32). A great article from Martin Hesp about the changing landscape.
See :
May 25th
Chilli Forum can be found HERE. Hopefully it will be busier as more people find out about it. Ask any chilli/question and we'll do our best to help out. Alternatively tell us what you are growing, any tips you might have or any feedback you have for us or how we could improve things.
A selection of our plants are now available from THE PANTRY, South Brent - so if you are in the area and want a chilli plants, this is the place to go! See our stockists page for their full contact details. They also supply our chilli chocolate and chutneys.
May 24th
130 degrees in the polytunnels today. The Habanero's are loving it!
As we have now closed our ebay shop, this has enabled us to drop the pricing on all the chilli chocolate and chutneys across the entire range.
May 23rd
We are working on a newsletter, our first for a while. This will be available for all customers to download from our website in the next day or so.
We often get asked what compost we use and whether anything special is needed. We currently use Magnolia Brand compost (members of Environment Conservation, Peat Producers code of Conduct) for our seedlings and young plants. Later as the plants get bigger and need more nutrients, we use Levingtons M3. Organic tomato feed is very good for chilli plants. If you have a wormery, the resulting liquid feed is brilliant but you need to dilute it down a little or it is just too rich for young plants.
May 21st
This is more like it! 105 degrees in the polytunnel.
Western Morning News down today. They are going to write an article about our sustainable and green business and our ongoing problems with the planning department. Kay looked lovely in the pictures. I however looked a geek and spent the entire tiime, hiding at the back of the polytunnels, trying to look busy.
We hope to have arranged a new plants stockist for local customers. If anyone is reading this and would like to browse for chilli plants at your local garden centre then please ask them to get in touch. We really need more stockists for our chilli plants, chilli chutneys and chocolate.
We will be at the Widecombe in the Moor farmers market tomorrow from 10-3. We are going to concentrate this month on lots of plants, so if you are in the area, please stop by and say hello.
Widecombe is a great little place with lots to visit and two great pubs and its right on the edge of the moor with some smashing walks at Bonehill Rocks or up at the Giants Chair - so a nice day out anyway.
May 19th
Chilli Jam back in stock. Slightly hotter taste and we love it!
May 18th
99% of backorders now shipped. Still waiting for Habanero Chocolate and Tepin.
We have closed our ebay shop. We will still sell on ebay but due to the high fees, we worked out that we were making a loss on every item. We would like to reward customers by coming to our website instead.
Chilli Jam will be back in stock on thursday.
May 17th
Bhut Jolokia Chilli Chocolate is a real possibility - depending on feedback. Please contact us if you are interested! Just send an email with Good idea / bad idea and we'll investigate. We have also been contacted by a brewery to possibly do a chilli beer or perhaps a Chilli Cider (seeing as we are from Devon!).
We have introduced a "Chilli of the week page". This week its the good old Fresno. Click HERE for more information.
We have a new stockist - Church house, National Trust Devon. Widecombe in the Moor: Newton Abbot: Devon TQ13 7TA: 01364 621321.
Reviews wanted... If you have bought from us, we would welcome your feedback!
Updated website with new stocks. We have the following available :
Apache, Anaheim, Balkan, Big Red, Big Jim, Bishops Crowm, Black Hungarian, Bolivian Rainbow, Bulgarian Carrot, Caldero, Calabrese, California Wonder, Choc Beauty, Cheyenne, Cayenne, Corni di Toro, Cayenne Gold, Elephant Trunk, Exploding Fire, Fresno, Dorset Naga, Habanero Orange, Gold Cal Wonder, Hungarian Yellow wax, Hot Summer, Joe E Parker, Keystone Giant, Long Yellow Ringo, Little Finger, Malay Bird, Numex Twilight (more soon), Nepali Orange, Navaho, Orozco, Portugal, Piros, Punjab, Purple Tiger (more soon), Jalapeno Early, Purple Beauty, Rocoto Red, Ring of Fire, Satans Kiss, Succette, Serrano Tamp, Tam Jalapeno, Zim Bird, Cherry Bomb, Habanero White, Tabasco (soon), Tepin (soon), Numex Pinata (at last), Georgia Flame (soon), Cayenne Long Purple, Scotch B Red, Mini Bell, Habanero Fatali, Ancho Grande, Santa Fe, Habanero Trinidad (soon), Habanero Chocolate (soon), Bell Boy (loads of massive ones), Poseidon (ditto), Aji Lemon Drop, Demon, Hot Wax, Red Skin
May 16th
We are just doing a stock take today. There are quite a few varieties going to be re-available (ones which had been previously removed off the website). We will try and get the website updated this evening.
May 15th
More Dorset Nagas coming along nicely. Currently potting everything into 9cm pots. For local customers, we can now offer a range of plants in bigger 1 litre pots. We are sorry we can't extend this to our other customers but we have no way of sending them in the post.
This weekend we are planting strawberry and tomato plants into outdoor cloches. We are considering making a strawberry and chilli jam. More information soon!
May 13th
We have made it to the local paper - CLICK HERE to read the article in the Western Morning News
. Also see our shortlisting in the FSB Awards HERE
NOW AVAILABLE .....
- EXTREME APPLE CHUTNEY made using BHUT JOLOKIA chillies.. This will give your palette a hefty kick in the teeth!
- CHILLI SALAD DRESSING
- BEAST OF DARTMOOR EXTREME CHILLI SAUCE
- Also available Bhut Jolokia Dried Chilli Flakes and Bhut Jolokia Dried Chilli Pods
May 12th
If anyone is interested, we are at the Dartmoor Showcase Day today at the Two Bridges Hotel on Dartmoor. Its a great place for viewing lots of businesses connected with the moor. You are more than welcome to come and try some sample chutneys and chocolates.
May 11th
We have taken the decision to NOT to send out paper invoices or the "Care for your plants" information. The reason for this is that we are trying to be green and an extra 2 pieces of paper per order is only a little thing, but it soon mounts up.
The "Care for your plants" guide is freely available from the main page of our website. If you would like to receive a proper invoice, please contact us and we will email you one in pdf format. You can always log into your account and print your own invoice should you wish.
May 10th
Coming soon - Chilli Salad Dressing and a new Rhubarb, Ginger and Chilli Chutney.
May 9th
Another big batch of orders going out tomorrow Pretty much all varieties are now big enough to post (with the exception of some of the really weird Habaneros)
May 7th
If you are in the South East from Sunday 9th May you will be able to buy our chilli plants from our main stockist in that area :
Please pay them a visit. They run a great nursery with a variety of plants and are lovely people too.
| Taylors Nursery and Plant Centre |
May 6th
The Beast of Dartmoor Chilli sauce now available.
May 5th
A big thankyou to all our customers.
We raised £127.62 for our chosen charity for March (www.dogsos.co.uk)
See here for our new charity page.
May 4th
No news yet on the planning application. Groan. We badly need more growing area!
New EXTREME APPLE CHILLI CHUTNEY now available - made with Fresh Bramley Apples and Bhut Jolokia Chillies. Our other Apple chutney is made with Naga's. This version is even hotter!
We have had to alter Extreme and Standard Packs as our Habanero Orange are very disappointing this year. The Standard pack now contains a Naga and the Extreme pack has an Apache, a Hot Wax and a Naga.
May 3rd
Today we are collating orders, most of which will be sent tomorrow. We have had to make an adjustment to our standard mixer pack which previously contained a Habanero Orange. This year, this variety has been most disappointing, so we have decided to replace it with a Dorset Naga instead.
On the sauces front... our Beast of Dartmoor goes into production next week. This will be our hottest ever sauce. Our Fireball pickled onions will be ready at the end of the week.
April 29th 
Picking orders. Next ship date will be 4th May. We can't sent today/tomorrow we cannot guarantee orders won't be sitting in some sorting office over the weekend!
Naga's are almost ready!
We are also working on a selection of Bhut Jolokia products including dried pods, flakes, powder. This section will include our brand new Jolokia chilli sauce .... "The Beast of Dartmoor"
More information very soon!
April 28th August 23rd
Fresh chilli mixer packs now available.
August 22nd
Working on a new limited edition Plum Chilli Chutney
We have been trialing Chilli Focus and are very pleased with the results. We therefore have decided to offer it to our customers via the website.
August 20th
Chagford Show was brilliant. Next Show is Lustleigh on 30th August.
We've just realized some of our sauces are in fact 150ml and not 100ml - doh! (so thats an extra 50ml free of charge - not bad eh. Mind you, if we hadn't made the mistake in the first place!) This applies to Beast of Dartmoor, Salad Dressing, Hot Wax & Pineapple and the Red Fruit Vinegar
Also please note.. we will be using Cider Vinegar instead of White Wine Vinegar in all products made from today onwards. Apparently White Wine Vinegar contains Sulphur Dioxide which is part of the making process but as such we need to put it on all our labels. The Cider Vinegar we use, does not contain this product, hence the swap from White Wine to Cider.
August 17th
Hot Orange Marmalade is NOW available.
August 16th
Working on a brand new spanking hot sauce which is going to be called "Dartmoor Dynamite". 5 times hotter than the Beast of Dartmoor.
Chagford Show is this thursday - 19th August
Flavourfest was brilliant. Thankyou very much to all the visitors and customers to our stall.
August 12th
Three new products in time for the Flavourfest show this weekend.
August 10th
Apparently we are known for our tasty chutneys of the milder variety. This is good and bad. We've decided to add a new sauce to the range to redress the balance a little. This new sauce will be the hottest natural (no extract) product we've ever created and will make our Beast of Dartmoor look like a fluffy great poodle. More information soon.
Chilli Olive Oil should be ready in time for Flavourfest later this week.
We are currently making up lots of batches of our popular sauces and chutneys in preparation for the event which runs from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th August in the middle of Plymouth city centre.
Real Ale Chilli Chutney now available
August 7th
Quite a busy few days. On Friday we visited the Chilli Fiesta at West Dean and it was good putting faces to names and meeting other chilli farms and enthusiasts. We have decided that we will try and have a stall at next years event. Meanwhile we have been invited to have a stall of our products at the Wessex Chilli Festival which is to be held on October 10th in Frome, Somerset.Speaking of shows and events, next weekend we will be attending Flavourfest in Plymouth. Its a massive event, so please come and say hello and try a range of our chilli chutneys and our award winning chilli chocolate. We hope to have our new chilli oil ready in time.
Making more chilli chutneys today and another batch of our Beast of Dartmoor Extreme Chilli Sauce. Real Ale chilli chutney will be available on Monday. We use the brilliant Dartmoor Ale brewed locally at Princetown as the main ingredient!
August 5th
We are thinking of a trip to West Dean nr Chichester tomorrow to visit the Chilli Festival. If successful, we will probably have a stall there next year.
August 4th
Phil will be at the Chudleigh farmers market tomorrow (Thursday 5th August) with lots of plants - all on special offer, so if you are down in Devon and fancy a Bhut Jolokia plant in a 2 litre pot for just £4.50 you know where to come. The market runs from 9am to 1pm. We will also have chilli chocolate and a small selection of chutneys. On the plants we will try and bring a good selection. All plants are £3.50 each with the exception of the Bhut Jolokia and Habaneros at £4.50.
NEW!!! Dartmoor Real Ale Chilli Chutney ready in the next few days!!
2nd August
We have discovered a nifty second use for our new Muscle Rub .... Its also great as a fly repellant for detering all flying beasties including those pesky horseflies. (the active ingredient in many fly repellants is Capsaicin. As it is holistic, rub in to your arms and legs using a thin layer. As its natural, it has no nasty chemical ingredients which will irritate the skin either). It smells divine aswell!
July 31st
Two new stockists coming soon. One in Crediton and the other up in Newcastle. We are really keen to speak to potential stockists outside Devon.
Three Fruit Bhut Jolokia Chilli Marmalade now available.
July 30th
Boozy Chilli Marmalades now available including Vodka and Lime Chilli Marmalade, Vodka and Orange Chilli Marmalade and a Gin and Lemon Chilli Marmalade. See HERE for more information.
Added a chilli photo page - we will continue adding to this page throughout the season.
Adding a new products page - so you can keep up to date with our latest product news.
According to the Chilli Foundry Website, we are now the number 1 most visited chilli website in the UK and the 3rd most popular uk chilli website in the world. Yippee! See more information here : http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/
July 29th
Our Coffee chilli chocolate has been reviewed here :
July 26th
I've just had to remove the chilli forum. We put it up with best intentions so that our customers could discuss any problems, identify rogue chilli plants or leave feedback, but i set the security too lax and it was hijacked by a bunch of idiots who proceeded to leave lots of spam, so we apologise to our genuine customers for any offence. We are going to do a chilli problem page instead in the next few days. It really annoys me. Haven't they got anything better to do?
Fresh chillies almost available. We should be able to start sending them next week.
The polytunnels are full of chillies. It was our plan to have them in the ground this year but the planning department didn't see it that way. Oh well, its stopped us expanding as we would have liked. Instead it's cloches this year but next year we hope to have the new polytunnels up when we go to appeal.
July 22nd
Another wet cold and miserable day. I'm quite glad i'm not on holiday. Today has been a day for cutting up all the logs we use each year to keep the young plants nice and warm.
July 20th
New Stockist in Kingsbridge. 11s Pastries, 11 Fore Street, Kingsbridge TQ7 1PG
They will be stocking our chilli chocolate and a range of chutneys and jams from today onwards.
When will this weather end? Its quite depressing. It's supposed to be summer!
July 17th
Spicy Apple Chilli Chutney coming this week.
July 16th
We are at the Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar this morning and tomorrow will be at the Totnes Good Food Market. If you are local and want any larger plants, we will bring a good selection to the Totnes Market.
July 15th
STOP PRESS !!
It seems our Chilli Chocolate with Coffee has won top marks with the Guild of Fine Foods who have awarded it the maximum 3 Gold stars. Yippee.
More information on Monday.
Also
Hot Chilli Jam now available
Now available thanks to customer requests.
Its chilli jam combined with a little heat from the amazing Bhut Jolokia chilli. We've toned down the heat somewhat but even so, its much hotter than our existing jam. If you like your chillies hotter, this is the one to go for!
Perfect with cheese on toast, used as a dip with chips, as a marinade or great as a glaze on meats. Also perfect for barbeques! .
Beast of Dartmoor also back in stock.
July 14th
New Hot chilli jam coming soon... watch this space.
Updating the website with more product information on the larger potted chilli plants.
Holistic Chilli and Herb Muscle Balm now in stock.
July 13th
Lots of bigger plants now available.
We have a couple of events coming up.
- Thursday 15th July - Chudleigh Farmers Market 9am-1pm
- Saturday 17th July - Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar, Ashburton Town Hall 9am-1pm
- Sunday 18th July - Totnes Good Food Market, Market Square 9am-1pm
July 8th
New stockist .... Thornes Farm Shop, Stockleigh Pomeroy, Near Crediton
July 7th
We have added another cause to our charity page. Although not technically a charity, Animal Aid is very dear to our hearts and minds. 10% of our profit this year will go to the Kambeng Trust and another 10% to Animal Aid.
See charity page for more information.
July 6th
Our Hot Strawberry Jam has been reviewed today by those lovely people at the Chilefoundry - see http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk for more information
July 5th
Revamped the shipping charges on the website. We are going to use Royal Mail for everything from now on as our previous courier was basically awful so we've now dropped them. We may choose to use DHL (alternate courier on heavier orders over 2kg).
July 4th
Spent the entire weekend potting on chillies in the main tunnel. We have about 500 left to do!
We've also extended the free delivery zone, now that the mail order chilli plant season has finished.
Free delivery within ringed zone, on orders over £10. We have a delivery run each week. Tuesday - south, Thursday - north, Exeter and Crediton.
We've also teamed up with an Indian family business and will be providing their spices and chilli powder and flakes. Our own chilli powder is used largely to make our chilli chocolate. We keep getting asked for powder and flakes, so please See HERE for more information.
July 2nd
Finally finished outside planting! (put up 6 temporary cloches - which don't need planning permission)
We've also been looking at which varieties to grow for next season. Here's an absolute cracker - Super Chilli F1. It has small pods which grow vertically and is extremely prolific.
June 29/30th
Two very long days where we have been working in the tunnels, repotting all the remaining plants from 9cm into 2 and 3 litre pots. We have 2000+ plants remaining so its a very long job. Also we have been planting sweet peppers in cloches 1-3, Jalapeno, Anaheim and Joe E Parker in cloche 4, Fresno and Bulgarian Carrot in cloche 5 and cloche 6 is now choc full of tomatoes.
This Friday, Kay will be at the Widewell school Fair and Wide show for the second week. She will have a larger variety of plants on the stall, so please feel free to browse.
We have a new stockist today - Brimblecombe's Cider in Dunsford near Exeter.
June 28th
Our website is being upgraded today, so please bear with us. If you have any problems just give us a call on 07835 852997 or email sales@dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk
Last day for shipping plants mail order will be 30th June.
June 27th
Spent the entire weekend filling up the cloches with sweet pepper plants.
Also we made alot of nettle liquid feed up in four large containers which is great for chilli plants!
Looking for a low cost high nutrient feed for your chilli plants?
You can buy a specialist organic tomato feed which is very good. However we use something which is completely free and in abundance in most gardens and fields.
To make :
1) Put on some gloves
2) Find your nettles - opt for younger, more tender stems if possbile.
3) Cut the nettles about 12 inches from the tip
4) Bash them up a bit - if you cut the nettles with a strimmer this is good or break them up
with your hands trying not to get stung.
5) Put them in a muslin bag or string bag (any bag with holes in should be ok)
6) Fill a bucket of water
7) Find a large stone
8) Put the full bag into the bucket and put the stone on the top to stop it floating
9) Leave for 2-3 weeks.
After a few weeks, you'll have the most wonderful liquid feed full of nitrogen and other nutrients
which your chillies and other plants will love.
You can tell when its ready as it will start to get a bit smelly!
You'll need to dilute it with water to a ratio of around 1:10 before feeding it to your plants.
Nettles are a pain in the proverbial but they are one of the most useful plants in the
garden
Enjoy your chillies
Phil
June 25th
Kay is at the "Fair and Wide" show this afternoon at Widewell School, Plymouth.
June 24th
Free delivery on all chilli chocolate as well as the majority of chutneys, sauces, jellies, jams and pickles.
June 23rd
Spent the morning updating the website with the varieties which are still still available for mail order customers.
See link here for information : http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4
June 22nd
Spent all day erecting three larger cloches in below the main polytunnel. We were hoping that the additional polytunnels we needed to expand were going to go here but it was not to be this time round (Planners 1 Dartmoor Chilli Farm 0).
Anyway cloches do not need planning permission and although they are only 3ft high or less they will offer invaluable growing space for our tomatoes and sweet peppers. This will clear space in the main tunnels so that all the chillies can go into larger pots or perhaps directly into the ground.
The Hungarian Hot Wax plants are looking most impressive at the moment and are festooned with large yellow pods. We also have lots of pods on the Cayennes, Jalapenos, Bulgarian Carrot and a variety of sweet peppers. We still have lots of Bhut Jolokia and these have come on in leaps and bounds in the last few weeks with all this lovely hot weather.
We are currently running completely off solar at the moment which is very nice. The only snag is we are getting almost too many amps from the panels and have nowhere to store the extra capacity.
June 21st
We are coming to the end of "plants" season. We have hundreds and hundreds of plants left but they are getting too big to send now. We may have to replace plants if we can't find any of a particular variety. The extreme varieties are still available as they are very slow growers.
Ivor from Devil's Garden has considerably expanded his range of our products. We have a big shipment going out to him tomorrow, so anyone up in the Manchester,Preston,Wigan, Liverpool area, please check his site out. He has lots of hot sauces and a brilliant website. Devils Garden website : http://www.thedevilsgarden.co.uk/ He also has a stall at Lancaster street market - see website for more information.
June 20th
Spent all day at the Totnes Good Food Show which was excellent. We may be teaming up with a fudge supplier to create a range of chilli fudge. Watch this space for info.
Plants were popular today. As usual the hot varieties sold out in no time. We will be doing the show again next month (17th July). Next time we will be taking more plants including some extreme varieties.
We had some very positive feedback on the Strawberry Jam and some new reviews. If you buy a product from us, your feedback is much appreciated.
For customers not in the UK, you will soon be able to order much easier. We are implementing a table based system for International Packet Post based on weight. We will not be able to send plants but you will be able to order our chutneys, jams, sauces and chocolate.
June 19th
Spent the morning at the Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar which was good. We took down a selection of plants, chocolate and chutneys. Tomorrow we are at the Totnes Good Food Sunday - see right.
We are going to take more plants from sweet to extreme. Please come along and say hello!
As far as jobs around the nursery, we spent the afternoon weeding and strimming. We are also having a big clearout with lots of things put on Freecycle.
June 18th
Spent the entire day preparing the area where the cloches for the sweet peppers and chillies will have to go.
It would have been nice to have polytunnels here, but hey-ho, we'll appeal against the Dartmoor National Park Authorities decision.
Anyway today was spent with Kay laying weed control polythene to mark where the cloches will go, whilst I spent the day picking up rocks. By the time we'd finished at 6pm, we'd collected over 20 barrowloads of rocks from the area. One of the joys of being on Dartmoor !
June 15th
Hot Strawberry Jam selling out fast.
The "Elsanta" variety strawberries and chillies are both grown on the farm without herbicides, fungicides or pesticides. Its a shame we can't grow sugar beat or lemons!
This is proper hand made Strawberry Jam with a chilli kick. Its a little difficult to describe but it'll sure "warm up" cream teas!
The heat is moderate and the sweetness of the jam really counteracts the heat of the chilli.
June 14th
This Saturday (19th June) we will be at the Ashburton Bizarre Bazaar in the town hall. Lots of plants and chutneys to choose from!
On Sunday (20th June) we will be at the Good Food Show in Totnes (in Market Square)
Added some gift packs, hopefully to suit all tastes. Perfect for fathers day perhaps? We will include the message/greeting of your choice and send direct if you want.
June 13th
Our products are now available from the National Trust at Lydford Gorge Shop near Okehampton aswell as the Church House at Widecombe in the Moor AND the National Trust shop at Parke (Dartmoor National Park Authority HQ) in Bovey Tracey.
We have been growing some Black Naga's (see article here on the Chile Foundry website). We have managed to germinate some and they are getting there (albeit slowly).
We will have to see what colour the pods turn out to be. Fingers crossed for black ones!
Beast of Dartmoor Mk2 selling out fast. So far reviews have been very positive.
June 11th
Bhut Jolokia Extreme Chilli Puree - now available - Heat Rating : EXTREME MAX. You won't find anything hotter than this. Full stop.
We had to reset the forum due to some technical issues. We are really sorry about that but we've now managed to iron out the originals problems. Please feel free to register and post your chilli questions, problems, or just tell us what products you want to see or varieties you think we should grow.
http://www.dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/forum
June 10th
Our chilli newsletter can be downloaded here. We are sorry for not doing one last month but we just got bogged down with all the projects at the nursery and all the planning issues.
http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/june2010.pdf
We have a new plant stockist in Dorset. Contact details will be on the website tomorrow (after we've delivered all their plants!).
Hot Strawberry Jam now available. Beast of Dartmoor selling very well today!
June 9th
Beast of Dartmoor chilli sauce (revamped double strength now back in stock!)
June 8th
We are investigating ways of sending "larger plants" by post. More information to follow
Added larger 1 litre pots to website. Free delivery to customers within 10 miles of Ashburton. (on orders over £15)
Dorset Nagas are now sold out. We have quite a few Bhut Jolokia available though so these would make a good alternative.
We use the Bhut Jolokia in our Extreme Apple Chutney, Fireball Pickled Onions not forgetting our Beast of Dartmoor Chilli Sauce which is now twice as hot!
Special offer on Seville Orange and Chilli Marmalade. Normally £2.95, now only £2.50 with FREE DELIVERY until 11th June.
June 7th
Chilli Strawberry Jam coming this week. We are trying to get the heat levels right.
We have been awarded the Dartmoor First Award (by the Dartmoor National Park Authority - pity someone can't tell the planning dept eh?)
"It has been agreed that the Dartmoor Chilli Farm is a worthy recipient of the award. The application makes your commitment to Dartmoor very evident and therefore we are delighted that Dartmoor Chilli Farm have been awarded Dartmoor First. "
June 6th
Habanero Chocolate now available - in limited numbers.
June 5th
FSB Awards last night which we really enjoyed. We didn't win our group but were were runners up (top 4 out of 8000 FSB members in Devon isn't bad). Also its our first awards ceremony we've been too so the experience was fun - even though the dickie bow meant i couldn't breathe!
On the chilli front, we are pretty much out of Dorset Naga's now BUT on the Bhut Jolokia, they are starting to look pretty good now.
On the planning issue. We were refused the extra tunnels we need to expand but we will try and work with the DNP authority to sort out the issues at hand. Meanwhile everything will need to go into cloches, which aren't ideal -but at least we can grow bigger plants than in pots and hopefully have lots of fresh chillies this year!
June 4th
Strawberry and Chilli Jam coming soon. We are also working with another Devon based business on a chilli oil. Something which we have had lots of requests for.
June 2nd
NEW STOCKIST
Take 2 Deli in Teignmouth.
In the area? They are a brilliant place to visit in the lovely seaside town of Teignmouth - right on the front opposite the theatre.
They are supplying our chilli chocolate and chutneys and a limited supply of plants.
Take 2, Deli, Restaurant, Cafe, Bar and Function Room.
June 1st
New charity appeal - The Kambeng Trust.
http://dartmoorchillifarm.co.uk/chilli/index.php?main_page=page&id=11
We have a new stockist from tomorrow (2nd June) in Teignmouth. More information to follow.
Our planning permission application is due to be heard on 4th June. The same day as the FSB Awards.
Newsletter will be ready hopefully by tomorrow evening.
May 30th
Spent to day clearing brambles! New raised beds for cabbages are now complete.
On the chilli front, we have introduced a new "recommended" chilli pack for people who are not quite sure what they want. Basically its the plants we would go for and hopefully give you a nice mixture of ornamental and culinary and include mild to extreme varieties.
May 28th
Spent the day erecting cloches for the kale, cabbage and brussel sprouts. Also picked about 2 kg of fresh strawberries. Strawberry Jam with chilli coming soon!
May 27th
Numex Pinata is now available. We also have lots of new Habanero varieties coming soon.
We should have some further information regarding our trials and tribulations regarding our planning application and the need to expand very soon. If anyone is interested in the latest updates, please contact us.
We have made it to the top 3 in the Chile Foundry top ten chilli sites. Thanks very much to all our customers for this. See : http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/2010/05/26/top-10-uk-chilli-web-sites-%e2%80%94-may-2010/
May 26th
Please register on the chilli form and ask whatever you like. We would love to find out more about what our customers are growing and how we could possibly help.
Also we are in the Western Morning News today (page 32). A great article from Martin Hesp about the changing landscape.
See :
May 25th
Chilli Forum can be found HERE. Hopefully it will be busier as more people find out about it. Ask any chilli/question and we'll do our best to help out. Alternatively tell us what you are growing, any tips you might have or any feedback you have for us or how we could improve things.
A selection of our plants are now available from THE PANTRY, South Brent - so if you are in the area and want a chilli plants, this is the place to go! See our stockists page for their full contact details. They also supply our chilli chocolate and chutneys.
May 24th
130 degrees in the polytunnels today. The Habanero's are loving it!
As we have now closed our ebay shop, this has enabled us to drop the pricing on all the chilli chocolate and chutneys across the entire range.
May 23rd
We are working on a newsletter, our first for a while. This will be available for all customers to download from our website in the next day or so.
We often get asked what compost we use and whether anything special is needed. We currently use Magnolia Brand compost (members of Environment Conservation, Peat Producers code of Conduct) for our seedlings and young plants. Later as the plants get bigger and need more nutrients, we use Levingtons M3. Organic tomato feed is very good for chilli plants. If you have a wormery, the resulting liquid feed is brilliant but you need to dilute it down a little or it is just too rich for young plants.
May 21st
This is more like it! 105 degrees in the polytunnel.
Western Morning News down today. They are going to write an article about our sustainable and green business and our ongoing problems with the planning department. Kay looked lovely in the pictures. I however looked a geek and spent the entire tiime, hiding at the back of the polytunnels, trying to look busy.
We hope to have arranged a new plants stockist for local customers. If anyone is reading this and would like to browse for chilli plants at your local garden centre then please ask them to get in touch. We really need more stockists for our chilli plants, chilli chutneys and chocolate.
We will be at the Widecombe in the Moor farmers market tomorrow from 10-3. We are going to concentrate this month on lots of plants, so if you are in the area, please stop by and say hello.
Widecombe is a great little place with lots to visit and two great pubs and its right on the edge of the moor with some smashing walks at Bonehill Rocks or up at the Giants Chair - so a nice day out anyway.
May 19th
Chilli Jam back in stock. Slightly hotter taste and we love it!
May 18th
99% of backorders now shipped. Still waiting for Habanero Chocolate and Tepin.
We have closed our ebay shop. We will still sell on ebay but due to the high fees, we worked out that we were making a loss on every item. We would like to reward customers by coming to our website instead.
Chilli Jam will be back in stock on thursday.
May 17th
Bhut Jolokia Chilli Chocolate is a real possibility - depending on feedback. Please contact us if you are interested! Just send an email with Good idea / bad idea and we'll investigate. We have also been contacted by a brewery to possibly do a chilli beer or perhaps a Chilli Cider (seeing as we are from Devon!).
We have introduced a "Chilli of the week page". This week its the good old Fresno. Click HERE for more information.
We have a new stockist - Church house, National Trust Devon. Widecombe in the Moor: Newton Abbot: Devon TQ13 7TA: 01364 621321.
Reviews wanted... If you have bought from us, we would welcome your feedback!
Updated website with new stocks. We have the following available :
Apache, Anaheim, Balkan, Big Red, Big Jim, Bishops Crowm, Black Hungarian, Bolivian Rainbow, Bulgarian Carrot, Caldero, Calabrese, California Wonder, Choc Beauty, Cheyenne, Cayenne, Corni di Toro, Cayenne Gold, Elephant Trunk, Exploding Fire, Fresno, Dorset Naga, Habanero Orange, Gold Cal Wonder, Hungarian Yellow wax, Hot Summer, Joe E Parker, Keystone Giant, Long Yellow Ringo, Little Finger, Malay Bird, Numex Twilight (more soon), Nepali Orange, Navaho, Orozco, Portugal, Piros, Punjab, Purple Tiger (more soon), Jalapeno Early, Purple Beauty, Rocoto Red, Ring of Fire, Satans Kiss, Succette, Serrano Tamp, Tam Jalapeno, Zim Bird, Cherry Bomb, Habanero White, Tabasco (soon), Tepin (soon), Numex Pinata (at last), Georgia Flame (soon), Cayenne Long Purple, Scotch B Red, Mini Bell, Habanero Fatali, Ancho Grande, Santa Fe, Habanero Trinidad (soon), Habanero Chocolate (soon), Bell Boy (loads of massive ones), Poseidon (ditto), Aji Lemon Drop, Demon, Hot Wax, Red Skin
May 16th
We are just doing a stock take today. There are quite a few varieties going to be re-available (ones which had been previously removed off the website). We will try and get the website updated this evening.
May 15th
More Dorset Nagas coming along nicely. Currently potting everything into 9cm pots. For local customers, we can now offer a range of plants in bigger 1 litre pots. We are sorry we can't extend this to our other customers but we have no way of sending them in the post.
This weekend we are planting strawberry and tomato plants into outdoor cloches. We are considering making a strawberry and chilli jam. More information soon!
May 13th
We have made it to the local paper - CLICK HERE to read the article in the Western Morning News. Also see our shortlisting in the FSB Awards HERE
NOW AVAILABLE .....
- EXTREME APPLE CHUTNEY made using BHUT JOLOKIA chillies.. This will give your palette a hefty kick in the teeth!
- CHILLI SALAD DRESSING
- BEAST OF DARTMOOR EXTREME CHILLI SAUCE
- Also available Bhut Jolokia Dried Chilli Flakes and Bhut Jolokia Dried Chilli Pods
May 12th
If anyone is interested, we are at the Dartmoor Showcase Day today at the Two Bridges Hotel on Dartmoor. Its a great place for viewing lots of businesses connected with the moor. You are more than welcome to come and try some sample chutneys and chocolates.
May 11th
We have taken the decision to NOT to send out paper invoices or the "Care for your plants" information. The reason for this is that we are trying to be green and an extra 2 pieces of paper per order is only a little thing, but it soon mounts up.
The "Care for your plants" guide is freely available from the main page of our website. If you would like to receive a proper invoice, please contact us and we will email you one in pdf format. You can always log into your account and print your own invoice should you wish.
May 10th
Coming soon - Chilli Salad Dressing and a new Rhubarb, Ginger and Chilli Chutney.
May 9th
Another big batch of orders going out tomorrow Pretty much all varieties are now big enough to post (with the exception of some of the really weird Habaneros)
May 7th
If you are in the South East from Sunday 9th May you will be able to buy our chilli plants from our main stockist in that area :
Please pay them a visit. They run a great nursery with a variety of plants and are lovely people too.
| Taylors Nursery and Plant Centre |
May 6th
The Beast of Dartmoor Chilli sauce now available.
May 5th
A big thankyou to all our customers.
We raised £127.62 for our chosen charity for March (www.dogsos.co.uk)
See here for our new charity page.
May 4th
No news yet on the planning application. Groan. We badly need more growing area!
New EXTREME APPLE CHILLI CHUTNEY now available - made with Fresh Bramley Apples and Bhut Jolokia Chillies. Our other Apple chutney is made with Naga's. This version is even hotter!
We have had to alter Extreme and Standard Packs as our Habanero Orange are very disappointing this year. The Standard pack now contains a Naga and the Extreme pack has an Apache, a Hot Wax and a Naga.
May 3rd
Today we are collating orders, most of which will be sent tomorrow. We have had to make an adjustment to our standard mixer pack which previously contained a Habanero Orange. This year, this variety has been most disappointing, so we have decided to replace it with a Dorset Naga instead.
On the sauces front... our Beast of Dartmoor goes into production next week. This will be our hottest ever sauce. Our Fireball pickled onions will be ready at the end of the week.
April 29th
Picking orders. Next ship date will be 4th May. We can't sent today/tomorrow we cannot guarantee orders won't be sitting in some sorting office over the weekend!
Naga's are almost ready!
We are also working on a selection of Bhut Jolokia products including dried pods, flakes, powder. This section will include our brand new Jolokia chilli sauce .... "The Beast of Dartmoor"
More information very soon!
April 28th
First orders shipped today including Introductory packs and lots of 3 chilli orders. Most varieties now ready. All orders should ship in the next 10 days.
NEW STOCKIST :
 | Seaton Tramway Riverside Depot A unique narrow gauge electric tramway, running on a 3 mile line from Seaton to Colyton via Colyford in Devon, UK. |
April 26th
We have been shortlisted for the FSB Devon Environmental Responsibility award for 2010 which is brilliant news.
See more information here : http://www.fsb.org.uk/DevonAwards2010
April 25th
ORDERS WILL START SHIPPING THIS WEEK. If you have ordered the Extreme varieties these aren't quite ready yet. They will ship the 1st week of May instead.
We are going to send in batches with smaller orders going by 1st class post and larger orders by DHL.
We will email all customers with despatch details as orders are sent! Thanks for your patience!
Phil and Kay :-)
April 24th
We are at Widecombe Farmers Market today between 10-4. Please come and visit us!
Going through orders to see which ones can start to go out.
April 23rd
St George's day, so free chilli chocolate on all orders placed today.
If you are local to Ashburton, you can now buy our chilli chocolate and chutneys/jams/marmalade from Moor Chocolate in East Street. They are already a great stockist for our chocolate and have now taken on some of our other offerings. We would advise all local customers within Ashburton to visit them!
Our chilli plants are nearly ready (well all but Habaneros and the really hot ones which are still 2 weeks away). We are going to start shipping orders on Monday 26th April. We will start with orders for herbs, strawberries, sweet peppers and the milders chillies. We will be in touch with all customers advising them of their ship date and whether orders are ok to post.
We are at Widecombe in the Moor Farmers market tomorrow (Saturday 24th April) from 10-3. Please come and see our rebranded products and sample our new chocolates and chutneys.
April 16th 
Redesigning labels for chilli chocolate and for the new flavours. The ginger chocolate is very popular already with chunks of ginger embedded in the chocolate!
We have some plants ready now including Bell Boy, Jalapeno. All back orders for plants should ship in the next two/three weeks.
April 15th
Still potting on... everything now in 7cm pots. Hopefully this fine weather will continue.
New multi packs of chilli plants now on site including 6 x Extreme, 3 x Extreme etc. See here
Four NEW FLAVOURS of Chilli Chocolate now in stock including Apricot, Ginger, Roasted Almonds and Hazelnut & Cranberry. See our chilli chocolate section for more information. All products are suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
April 11th
Spent the weekend potting chillies into 7cm and 9cm pots. Some varieties are nearly ready including Jalapenos, Bell Boys and Apaches. Others are still a few weeks ago. Super weather but not potting-on weather during the day as the seedlings can't take the intense heat in the tunnels.
On Friday, we went to the Exeter Food Festival. Met those lovely people at South Devon Chilli Farm and bought some Habanero Salsa. Yum. If you are visiting Devon, they are definitely worth a visit down in Loddiswell.
Today, we have been erecting cloches - mostly for the herbs and strawberries. We have the frames up but it was too windy for the polythene. When the wind drops we need to move the herbs across to make space in the other tunnel as we are fast running out of room.
We should have the new flavours of chilli chocolate in next week. Can't wait !
As regards our planning. We met a local councillor who was impressed with our project. We showed him around and all the eco projects we have. We are virtually running off solar power now which is very satisifying! Our planning meeting looks like it will be decided sometime in May. Fingers crossed.
April 8th
Spent all day fitting tree guards and stakes to the 1500+ hedging plants we have recently planted.
On the chilli front, Fireball pickled onions are a week or so away.
Also... stop press... we have a winner for our competition.
Our new Naga Jolokia hot chilli sauce will be called "The Beast of Dartmoor" which is very apt. Be afraid.. be very afraid!
We also have four new varieties of chocolate which we are working on. Details soon.
New on site. Three plant introductory pack. Should be ready around 20th April.
April 6th
Crunch week as far as planning issues go. Fingers and toes crossed.
Meanwhile we have some new flavours of chilli chocolate due in next week including a fruit and nut variety.
Chilli pickled onions (or Fireballs!) are a week or so away. These babies are going to be hot HOT HOT!!
Watch this space!
April 5th
Spent all weekend making a large (40ftx15ft) raised bed and planting all the 200+ rhubarb plants we had from last year.
Also added a new solar panel to the roof. We are now virtually living on the solar power which is very satisfying. The wind turbine is ok but needs to be higher. Also it only generates maximum power when there is a constant wind. We tend to have gusts only.
Adding descriptions of locations to chutney pages.
We are now running low on some varieties and will be removing them from the website in the near future. All orders should be despatched at the end of April. The plant packs will be ready a week or so before and some of the really hot varieties may be delayed until the first/second week of May.
April 2nd
We will be at the Widecombe in the Moor farmers market tomorrow (Saturday 3rd April) from 10-3. Please come along and try some chilli products! By the way... its indoors!
April 1st
There's a new hottest chilli in the world. It comes not from deepest India or the wilds of South America but from Grantham in England! It is called the Infinity and has just been tested against the previous record holder, the "Bhut Jolokia".
Tests by Warwick University rate the new variety at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale which is used to measure the heat of peppers. The Indian Bhut Jolokia, is 1,041,427.
A jalapeno measures just 2,500 to 5,000.
The Infinity has been named for its "never ending burn". You have been warned!! For more information on contact Woody Woods at Firefoods.
March 31st
NEW STOCKIST - The Pantry, South Brent
After a week of constant rain, we wake to heavy snow!! aaargh!
Changing website and updating product labels. Each product now shows a different scene on Dartmoor. We will put information on each of the scenes on the product information. Hopefully this will promote Dartmoor a little more. There are some amazing places to discover just off the beaten track!
March 29th
We spent all weekend planting softfruits and digging over the raised beds.
Our redesigned labels are almost finished. All orders will ship with the new labels which are easier to read and use less ink (so better for the environment!).
We have had to introduce a fixed delivery charge of £2.75 per order, which we hope you will agree is still pretty competitive considering lots of companies charge £5-8 for delivery. All orders will now ship by either first class recorded delivery or HDNL Courier delivery.
March 26th
We have introduced a "our stance on Organic page". 
We grow our plants without herbicides or pesticides and instead use companion plants and biological controls to control pests such as Encarsia Formosa.
We are currently redesigning our packaging for our chilli chutneys and jams.
We are going to feature a different Dartmoor scene on each variety so hopefully this promotes Dartmoor a little.
Our new chilli jam logo features Fox Tor. Our other products will feature Haytor, Yes Tor, Hound Tor, Bellever Tor, Piltor, Rippon Tor, Staple Tor amongst others.
March 23rd 
Our chilli chocolate has been reviewed by the Chilli Foundary. The most comprehensive chilli site on the web. Please click the link below to read :
http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/?tag=dartmoor-chilli-farm
All chilli marmalade now in stock.
For those who want something which could melt stone, we are experimenting with chilli pickled onions. (guess who is the guinea pig). The onions are combined with fresh chopped naga chillies, naga seeds and a little bit of chilli Habanero Extract which is 6.4 Million Scoville units or 2000+ times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The result so far is too hot! It took Phil ten minutes to recover from just one onion so we need to tone down the fire somewhat. When we get the balance right, they are going to be brilliant.
March 22nd
New Stockist. Cranch's Sweet Shop in Totnes and Salcombe (for the chilli chocolate) and Cranch's Pantry in Salcombe (for our chutney's and jams).
See stockist page for more information
We still need entries for our competition. Please enter here New competition
March 20th
£109.27 raised today for Sport Relief. Thanks very much to all our customers.
We have joined Facebook but at the moment, I'm not quite sure how I link to it!
March 16th
New competition - Help us name our latest mega-hot chilli sauce and win a chilli club membership.
Just register on the competition and email us your answer. Enter as many times as you like.
New online review of our chilli jam. Read it HERE
March 15th 2010
Introducing two new stockists ....
NEW!!
Otter Nurseries of Plymouth
Chittleburn Hill. Brixton, Plymouth, PL8 2BH
Otter Nurseries is a long established, family run garden centre that celebrates the joy of gardening, home and leisure
http://www.otternurseries.co.uk
and...
NEW!!
Powdermills Pottery, Postbridge, Dartmoor
At Powdermills, as well as Joss Hibbs' pottery studio, there is a shop which sells pots alongside a range of housewares hand-crafted by thirty Dartmoor craft-makers. Cream teas are served in the courtyard in the Summer season, and intensive throwing courses are run during Spring and Autumn. A glorious place to visit!
http://www.powdermillspottery.com/
March 13th 2010
Still planting the 400 ash trees and also a small orchard with common and not-so-common varieties of apple tree.
March 10th 2010
Our plans have been submitted to Dartmoor National Park. We would appreciate your support and comments on our application.
We feel we fulfill the criteria of the DNP Core Strategy that can be viewed here Only 3% of the revenue generated in the national park comes from agriculture. We are trying to work our land and produce a small income from it and therefore think we should be at least given temporary permission to show we can make it work.
Background :
Dartmoor Chilli Farm was established in 2007 by Kay and Phil Palmer. The eight acre smallholding owned for the last eighteen years lies on the edge of Ashburton within the Dartmoor National Park. In 2003 the polytunnel was granted conditional planning permission in which no retail or wholesale customers were permitted to visit the site. This has greatly restricted the business use of the smallholding which we have overcome with the mail order chilli farm business and selling through stockists. We grow over eighty varieties of peppers along with a growing range of chilli produce. We are a growing business and this year, in our third year of trading will make our first profit. We hope in time to be a source of much needed local employment.
We have been living on site in an agricultural building for two and a half years and meet the requirements of planning policy statement 7:Sustainable development in rural areas along with planning policy part GP1 by conserving energy, reducing travel, preventing pollution and using renewable resources. All proceeds of sales go back into expanding the range of items we supply and other items necessary for the farm.
We currently employ the services of 2 other local businesses who make our chilli jam and other chutneys using chillies from the farm. We are currently talking to a local fudge maker who will be able to make chilli fudge for us.
We farm holistically and organically without the use of herbicides or pesticides and use nature and hard work to minimise the damage caused by pests such as biological control, regular hand removal of slugs and snails, companion planting and encourage natural wildlife habitats for greater biodiversity. The nursery is off grid therefore we use renewable resources such as solar panels, wind turbine and rainwater harvesting for the plants. Our sustainable and eco-friendly business success is dependant on our continuing to live on site. It is not possible to install hi-tec automatic systems if solely reliant on natural resources to manage them. Being an organic farm and for ethical reasons we need to manage pests by carefully monitoring them throughout the day and evenings when slugs and snails are more prone to attack seedlings and young plants.
The business is growing and needs additional protected growing by the provision of two more polytunnels. One of the tunnels would be used to grow chillies for our produce. Growing them in the ground which is more natural and preferable rather in pots will increase the yield of fruits and is a more natural and preferable and sustainable way of farming. The other tunnel will be planted up with chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and aubergines. The organically grown tomatoes we will use in our chutneys minimising expense and reduce unnecessary food miles. The current polytunnel is hidden from the road by a large screen of willow trees. We are planting an orchard and a wildlife hedge of Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Cherry trees which will hide the new tunnels. We also also planting 400 ash trees into our lower field which in time will become a haven for wildlife.
We are passionate about our growing business which we have worked hard to establish during a recession. We grow a difficult and challenging crop and have overcome planning restrictions and growing limitations. We are a small organic business who have embraced a sustainable lifestyle which has allowed us to work in harmony with nature whilst holistically growing and producing a growing variety of chilli plants and produce that we sell locally and nationally.
We have a business plan which is available to interested parties. Please get in touch if you would like to receive a copy in pdf format.
Thanks for reading!
Phil & Kay
March 9th 2010
Spent the day planting trees. We are planting 400 Ash trees in our lower field which in time should become a small 2 acre coppice and a haven for wildlife - providing that wildlife doesn't eat the tops of the trees! 75 planted today, 325 to go.... absolutely shattered already!
March 8th 2010
Freezing cold again!
All varieties now planted. Some are doing better than others. All seeds and seedlings are under cover.
We are looking at new chilli ideas including a chilli fudge made by a local supplier.
Plans for expansion including new tunnels submitted to the national park. The existing tunnel is hidden from the road by a ridge of willow trees and a large Cotoneaster plant which seems to have taken over! We are currently planting over a thousand trees and bushes including Hawthorn, Wild Cherry, Ash etc to provide extra wildlife hedging and screening.
March 3rd 2010
Special Offer ......
Dark Chilli Chocolate with Mint - BUY 1 get 1 FREE!!
March 2nd 2010
If anyone has received a message on Twitter that says "someone has written about you on this blog" just delete it. Do not open it like we did! We would have known it was dubious but unfortunately opened it on the Blackberry which doesn't have the security features.
So if anyone receives anything from us please just delete. We do not SPAM!
Why do people bother? Surely there are more important things to concentrate on like.... chillies.
March 1st 2010
Chilli Marmalade is now available. We are just waiting on new colour labels. However if you are prepared to accept black/white labels we can post your order now. 
The marmalade is mild with a growing warmth to the pallette!
Added international shipping options to website and had a general website tidy up.
Spent the weekend installing another 2 solar panels on the roof of our storage shed.
February 24th 2010
Chilli Marmalade due in any day. We can't wait. No other chilli farms seem to be offering this (yet!). It has a warming chilli heat - perfect for these cold winter mornings.
Vegetable and herbs plants on website.
A review of our chilli chocolate can be found here
February 16th 2010
All of our chilli seeds have been sown and the final list and full descriptions are available. We are now receiving orders for our chilli plants, some varieties sell out very quickly so to avoid disappointment reserve your chilli plants now.
February 11th 2010
Descriptions finished although this year we will be improving each description with more information and pictures over the season. We still have a few more varieties to add!!!
We will be adding plant pricing in the next few days and aim to offer good value for money with our 9cm potted chilli plants.
Experimenting with Chilli marmalade. We have 6 different flavours coming soon including a Lime and Chilli Marmalade, a Lemon and Ginger chilli marmalade and an Orange and Whisky Chilli Marmalade plus others. More details soon!
We are now members of Devon Food and Drink Love the Flavour. It's a great directory for local food producers.
We are installing two more solar panels in the next few days. This year we have more varieties of chillies that need a constant heat to germinate therefore we have had to buy more electric germinators which although are low wattage still consume enough to drain our batteries.
We also investing in a new more efficient wind turbine. Spent half the day rewiring and realigning the current turbine for better returns until we get the new one installed.
February 9th 2010
Still working on Chilli descriptions. Just the hot ones to do. All extreme chillies now in solar powered germinators.
Working on two types of chilli marmalade including a Seville Orange and Chilli Marmalade. We have already tasted samples and it is delicious. This one should be in next week. We are also looking at a Ginger, Lemon and Chilli Marmalade.
We are working with a chocolatier on a range of delicious chocolate chilli truffles. More information on this soon.
February 3rd 2010
New stockist - www.thedevilsgarden.co.uk
February 1st 2010
First of our Habanero and Nagas starting to germinate in our solar powered germinators.
January 27th 2010
The last of our Dorset Nagas are going into another batch of the Extreme Apple and Naga Chilli Chutney this week. As they've been sitting in the freezer I assumed they might have lost some of their heat. Not at all. I only had a few slices. The result - major hiccups, mouth on fire, eyes watering! This last batch will need a government health warning. Its going to be very extreme!
January 26th 2010
Medium/Hot Chilli Jam now back in stock
January 22nd 2010
Sprucing up website. Adding recipes and photos page. Also working on chilli descriptions.
January 21st 2010
First batch of items going out to chilli club members today including Sweet Chilli Chutney and 3 bars of chocolate. Chilli Jam will follow in a few days. Also included some free extra chutney to compensate for the delays due to snow.
January 20th 2010
We have a new milder chilli jam coming in next week. It has more of a texture than ou
r other jam and is slightly milder.
Apache, Mango and Chilli chutney now back in stock.
We are working on a chilli marmalade - more information to follow!
Our chilli list this year comprises 96 varieties. Some old favourites and some new! Plants available Mid to end of April - June.
January 17th 2010
The first seedlings went into our solar powered germinators today. These being most of the Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Thai Hot, Bhut Jolokia and Dorset Naga varieties.
Also spent quite some time adding new photos to the website and generally tidying it up. Full chilli list (85 varieties) will be online by Wednesday this week.
January 14th 2010
Still effectively snowed in. Working on new website design and variety descriptions for chilli plants. On a practical note, the polytunnels have been cleared of last years plants. We recycle plants into a brilliant compost.
January 11th 2010
Blizzard conditions hit the nursery. Over 6 inches of snow has hit just this afternoon.
Spent the evening clearing snow off the roof of the polytunnel and its still snowing now.
All our Habanero's are snuggly packed with tin-foil covers and fleeces to see them through the winter. They are warmer than we are!!
January 10th 2010
Finally 
decided our chilli growing list. We have 84 varieties this year including a standard selection which will be grown in quantity. More details soon. We are currently working on new descriptions on a whole new website to be launched next month.
First orders shipped today including Introductory packs and lots of 3 chilli orders. Most varieties now ready. All orders should ship in the next 10 days.
NEW STOCKIST :
| Seaton Tramway Riverside Depot A unique narrow gauge electric tramway, running on a 3 mile line from Seaton to Colyton via Colyford in Devon, UK. |
April 26th
We have been shortlisted for the FSB Devon Environmental Responsibility award for 2010 which is brilliant news.
See more information here : http://www.fsb.org.uk/DevonAwards2010
April 25th
ORDERS WILL START SHIPPING THIS WEEK. If you have ordered the Extreme varieties these aren't quite ready yet. They will ship the 1st week of May instead.
We are going to send in batches with smaller orders going by 1st class post and larger orders by DHL.
We will email all customers with despatch details as orders are sent! Thanks for your patience!
Phil and Kay :-)
April 24th
We are at Widecombe Farmers Market today between 10-4. Please come and visit us!
Going through orders to see which ones can start to go out.
April 23rd
St George's day, so free chilli chocolate on all orders placed today.
If you are local to Ashburton, you can now buy our chilli chocolate and chutneys/jams/marmalade from Moor Chocolate in East Street. They are already a great stockist for our chocolate and have now taken on some of our other offerings. We would advise all local customers within Ashburton to visit them!
Our chilli plants are nearly ready (well all but Habaneros and the really hot ones which are still 2 weeks away). We are going to start shipping orders on Monday 26th April. We will start with orders for herbs, strawberries, sweet peppers and the milders chillies. We will be in touch with all customers advising them of their ship date and whether orders are ok to post.
We are at Widecombe in the Moor Farmers market tomorrow (Saturday 24th April) from 10-3. Please come and see our rebranded products and sample our new chocolates and chutneys.
April 16th
Redesigning labels for chilli chocolate and for the new flavours. The ginger chocolate is very popular already with chunks of ginger embedded in the chocolate!
We have some plants ready now including Bell Boy, Jalapeno. All back orders for plants should ship in the next two/three weeks.
April 15th
Still potting on... everything now in 7cm pots. Hopefully this fine weather will continue.
New multi packs of chilli plants now on site including 6 x Extreme, 3 x Extreme etc. See here
Four NEW FLAVOURS of Chilli Chocolate now in stock including Apricot, Ginger, Roasted Almonds and Hazelnut & Cranberry. See our chilli chocolate section for more information. All products are suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
April 11th
Spent the weekend potting chillies into 7cm and 9cm pots. Some varieties are nearly ready including Jalapenos, Bell Boys and Apaches. Others are still a few weeks ago. Super weather but not potting-on weather during the day as the seedlings can't take the intense heat in the tunnels.
On Friday, we went to the Exeter Food Festival. Met those lovely people at South Devon Chilli Farm and bought some Habanero Salsa. Yum. If you are visiting Devon, they are definitely worth a visit down in Loddiswell.
Today, we have been erecting cloches - mostly for the herbs and strawberries. We have the frames up but it was too windy for the polythene. When the wind drops we need to move the herbs across to make space in the other tunnel as we are fast running out of room.
We should have the new flavours of chilli chocolate in next week. Can't wait !
As regards our planning. We met a local councillor who was impressed with our project. We showed him around and all the eco projects we have. We are virtually running off solar power now which is very satisifying! Our planning meeting looks like it will be decided sometime in May. Fingers crossed.
April 8th
Spent all day fitting tree guards and stakes to the 1500+ hedging plants we have recently planted.
On the chilli front, Fireball pickled onions are a week or so away.
Also... stop press... we have a winner for our competition.
Our new Naga Jolokia hot chilli sauce will be called "The Beast of Dartmoor" which is very apt. Be afraid.. be very afraid!
We also have four new varieties of chocolate which we are working on. Details soon.
New on site. Three plant introductory pack. Should be ready around 20th April.
April 6th
Crunch week as far as planning issues go. Fingers and toes crossed.
Meanwhile we have some new flavours of chilli chocolate due in next week including a fruit and nut variety.
Chilli pickled onions (or Fireballs!) are a week or so away. These babies are going to be hot HOT HOT!!
Watch this space!
April 5th
Spent all weekend making a large (40ftx15ft) raised bed and planting all the 200+ rhubarb plants we had from last year.
Also added a new solar panel to the roof. We are now virtually living on the solar power which is very satisfying. The wind turbine is ok but needs to be higher. Also it only generates maximum power when there is a constant wind. We tend to have gusts only.
Adding descriptions of locations to chutney pages.
We are now running low on some varieties and will be removing them from the website in the near future. All orders should be despatched at the end of April. The plant packs will be ready a week or so before and some of the really hot varieties may be delayed until the first/second week of May.
April 2nd
We will be at the Widecombe in the Moor farmers market tomorrow (Saturday 3rd April) from 10-3. Please come along and try some chilli products! By the way... its indoors!
April 1st
There's a new hottest chilli in the world. It comes not from deepest India or the wilds of South America but from Grantham in England! It is called the Infinity and has just been tested against the previous record holder, the "Bhut Jolokia".
Tests by Warwick University rate the new variety at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale which is used to measure the heat of peppers. The Indian Bhut Jolokia, is 1,041,427.
A jalapeno measures just 2,500 to 5,000.
The Infinity has been named for its "never ending burn". You have been warned!! For more information on contact Woody Woods at Firefoods.
March 31st
NEW STOCKIST - The Pantry, South Brent
After a week of constant rain, we wake to heavy snow!! aaargh!
Changing website and updating product labels. Each product now shows a different scene on Dartmoor. We will put information on each of the scenes on the product information. Hopefully this will promote Dartmoor a little more. There are some amazing places to discover just off the beaten track!
March 29th
We spent all weekend planting softfruits and digging over the raised beds.
Our redesigned labels are almost finished. All orders will ship with the new labels which are easier to read and use less ink (so better for the environment!).
We have had to introduce a fixed delivery charge of £2.75 per order, which we hope you will agree is still pretty competitive considering lots of companies charge £5-8 for delivery. All orders will now ship by either first class recorded delivery or HDNL Courier delivery.
March 26th
We have introduced a "our stance on Organic page". We grow our plants without herbicides or pesticides and instead use companion plants and biological controls to control pests such as Encarsia Formosa.
We are currently redesigning our packaging for our chilli chutneys and jams.
We are going to feature a different Dartmoor scene on each variety so hopefully this promotes Dartmoor a little.
Our new chilli jam logo features Fox Tor. Our other products will feature Haytor, Yes Tor, Hound Tor, Bellever Tor, Piltor, Rippon Tor, Staple Tor amongst others.
March 23rd
Our chilli chocolate has been reviewed by the Chilli Foundary. The most comprehensive chilli site on the web. Please click the link below to read :
http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/?tag=dartmoor-chilli-farm
All chilli marmalade now in stock.
For those who want something which could melt stone, we are experimenting with chilli pickled onions. (guess who is the guinea pig). The onions are combined with fresh chopped naga chillies, naga seeds and a little bit of chilli Habanero Extract which is 6.4 Million Scoville units or 2000+ times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The result so far is too hot! It took Phil ten minutes to recover from just one onion so we need to tone down the fire somewhat. When we get the balance right, they are going to be brilliant.
March 22nd
New Stockist. Cranch's Sweet Shop in Totnes and Salcombe (for the chilli chocolate) and Cranch's Pantry in Salcombe (for our chutney's and jams).
See stockist page for more information
We still need entries for our competition. Please enter here New competition
March 20th
£109.27 raised today for Sport Relief. Thanks very much to all our customers.
We have joined Facebook but at the moment, I'm not quite sure how I link to it!
March 16th
New competition - Help us name our latest mega-hot chilli sauce and win a chilli club membership.
Just register on the competition and email us your answer. Enter as many times as you like.
New online review of our chilli jam. Read it HERE
March 15th 2010
Introducing two new stockists ....
NEW!!
Otter Nurseries of Plymouth
Chittleburn Hill. Brixton, Plymouth, PL8 2BH
Otter Nurseries is a long established, family run garden centre that celebrates the joy of gardening, home and leisure
http://www.otternurseries.co.uk
and...
NEW!!
Powdermills Pottery, Postbridge, Dartmoor
At Powdermills, as well as Joss Hibbs' pottery studio, there is a shop which sells pots alongside a range of housewares hand-crafted by thirty Dartmoor craft-makers. Cream teas are served in the courtyard in the Summer season, and intensive throwing courses are run during Spring and Autumn. A glorious place to visit!
http://www.powdermillspottery.com/
March 13th 2010
Still planting the 400 ash trees and also a small orchard with common and not-so-common varieties of apple tree.
March 10th 2010
Our plans have been submitted to Dartmoor National Park. We would appreciate your support and comments on our application.
We feel we fulfill the criteria of the DNP Core Strategy that can be viewed here Only 3% of the revenue generated in the national park comes from agriculture. We are trying to work our land and produce a small income from it and therefore think we should be at least given temporary permission to show we can make it work.
Background :
Dartmoor Chilli Farm was established in 2007 by Kay and Phil Palmer. The eight acre smallholding owned for the last eighteen years lies on the edge of Ashburton within the Dartmoor National Park. In 2003 the polytunnel was granted conditional planning permission in which no retail or wholesale customers were permitted to visit the site. This has greatly restricted the business use of the smallholding which we have overcome with the mail order chilli farm business and selling through stockists. We grow over eighty varieties of peppers along with a growing range of chilli produce. We are a growing business and this year, in our third year of trading will make our first profit. We hope in time to be a source of much needed local employment.
We have been living on site in an agricultural building for two and a half years and meet the requirements of planning policy statement 7:Sustainable development in rural areas along with planning policy part GP1 by conserving energy, reducing travel, preventing pollution and using renewable resources. All proceeds of sales go back into expanding the range of items we supply and other items necessary for the farm.
We currently employ the services of 2 other local businesses who make our chilli jam and other chutneys using chillies from the farm. We are currently talking to a local fudge maker who will be able to make chilli fudge for us.
We farm holistically and organically without the use of herbicides or pesticides and use nature and hard work to minimise the damage caused by pests such as biological control, regular hand removal of slugs and snails, companion planting and encourage natural wildlife habitats for greater biodiversity. The nursery is off grid therefore we use renewable resources such as solar panels, wind turbine and rainwater harvesting for the plants. Our sustainable and eco-friendly business success is dependant on our continuing to live on site. It is not possible to install hi-tec automatic systems if solely reliant on natural resources to manage them. Being an organic farm and for ethical reasons we need to manage pests by carefully monitoring them throughout the day and evenings when slugs and snails are more prone to attack seedlings and young plants.
The business is growing and needs additional protected growing by the provision of two more polytunnels. One of the tunnels would be used to grow chillies for our produce. Growing them in the ground which is more natural and preferable rather in pots will increase the yield of fruits and is a more natural and preferable and sustainable way of farming. The other tunnel will be planted up with chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and aubergines. The organically grown tomatoes we will use in our chutneys minimising expense and reduce unnecessary food miles. The current polytunnel is hidden from the road by a large screen of willow trees. We are planting an orchard and a wildlife hedge of Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Cherry trees which will hide the new tunnels. We also also planting 400 ash trees into our lower field which in time will become a haven for wildlife.
We are passionate about our growing business which we have worked hard to establish during a recession. We grow a difficult and challenging crop and have overcome planning restrictions and growing limitations. We are a small organic business who have embraced a sustainable lifestyle which has allowed us to work in harmony with nature whilst holistically growing and producing a growing variety of chilli plants and produce that we sell locally and nationally.
We have a business plan which is available to interested parties. Please get in touch if you would like to receive a copy in pdf format.
Thanks for reading!
Phil & Kay
March 9th 2010
Spent the day planting trees. We are planting 400 Ash trees in our lower field which in time should become a small 2 acre coppice and a haven for wildlife - providing that wildlife doesn't eat the tops of the trees! 75 planted today, 325 to go.... absolutely shattered already!
March 8th 2010
Freezing cold again!
All varieties now planted. Some are doing better than others. All seeds and seedlings are under cover.
We are looking at new chilli ideas including a chilli fudge made by a local supplier.
Plans for expansion including new tunnels submitted to the national park. The existing tunnel is hidden from the road by a ridge of willow trees and a large Cotoneaster plant which seems to have taken over! We are currently planting over a thousand trees and bushes including Hawthorn, Wild Cherry, Ash etc to provide extra wildlife hedging and screening.
March 3rd 2010
Special Offer ......
Dark Chilli Chocolate with Mint - BUY 1 get 1 FREE!!
March 2nd 2010
If anyone has received a message on Twitter that says "someone has written about you on this blog" just delete it. Do not open it like we did! We would have known it was dubious but unfortunately opened it on the Blackberry which doesn't have the security features.
So if anyone receives anything from us please just delete. We do not SPAM!
Why do people bother? Surely there are more important things to concentrate on like.... chillies.
March 1st 2010
Chilli Marmalade is now available. We are just waiting on new colour labels. However if you are prepared to accept black/white labels we can post your order now. The marmalade is mild with a growing warmth to the pallette!
Added international shipping options to website and had a general website tidy up.
Spent the weekend installing another 2 solar panels on the roof of our storage shed.
February 24th 2010
Chilli Marmalade due in any day. We can't wait. No other chilli farms seem to be offering this (yet!). It has a warming chilli heat - perfect for these cold winter mornings.
Vegetable and herbs plants on website.
A review of our chilli chocolate can be found here
February 16th 2010
All of our chilli seeds have been sown and the final list and full descriptions are available. We are now receiving orders for our chilli plants, some varieties sell out very quickly so to avoid disappointment reserve your chilli plants now.
February 11th 2010
Descriptions finished although this year we will be improving each description with more information and pictures over the season. We still have a few more varieties to add!!!
We will be adding plant pricing in the next few days and aim to offer good value for money with our 9cm potted chilli plants.
Experimenting with Chilli marmalade. We have 6 different flavours coming soon including a Lime and Chilli Marmalade, a Lemon and Ginger chilli marmalade and an Orange and Whisky Chilli Marmalade plus others. More details soon!
We are now members of Devon Food and Drink Love the Flavour. It's a great directory for local food producers.
We are installing two more solar panels in the next few days. This year we have more varieties of chillies that need a constant heat to germinate therefore we have had to buy more electric germinators which although are low wattage still consume enough to drain our batteries.
We also investing in a new more efficient wind turbine. Spent half the day rewiring and realigning the current turbine for better returns until we get the new one installed.
February 9th 2010
Still working on Chilli descriptions. Just the hot ones to do. All extreme chillies now in solar powered germinators.
Working on two types of chilli marmalade including a Seville Orange and Chilli Marmalade. We have already tasted samples and it is delicious. This one should be in next week. We are also looking at a Ginger, Lemon and Chilli Marmalade.
We are working with a chocolatier on a range of delicious chocolate chilli truffles. More information on this soon.
February 3rd 2010
New stockist - www.thedevilsgarden.co.uk
February 1st 2010
First of our Habanero and Nagas starting to germinate in our solar powered germinators.
January 27th 2010
The last of our Dorset Nagas are going into another batch of the Extreme Apple and Naga Chilli Chutney this week. As they've been sitting in the freezer I assumed they might have lost some of their heat. Not at all. I only had a few slices. The result - major hiccups, mouth on fire, eyes watering! This last batch will need a government health warning. Its going to be very extreme!
January 26th 2010
Medium/Hot Chilli Jam now back in stock
January 22nd 2010
Sprucing up website. Adding recipes and photos page. Also working on chilli descriptions.
January 21st 2010
First batch of items going out to chilli club members today including Sweet Chilli Chutney and 3 bars of chocolate. Chilli Jam will follow in a few days. Also included some free extra chutney to compensate for the delays due to snow.
January 20th 2010
We have a new milder chilli jam coming in next week. It has more of a texture than our other jam and is slightly milder.
Apache, Mango and Chilli chutney now back in stock.
We are working on a chilli marmalade - more information to follow!
Our chilli list this year comprises 96 varieties. Some old favourites and some new! Plants available Mid to end of April - June.
January 17th 2010
The first seedlings went into our solar powered germinators today. These being most of the Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Thai Hot, Bhut Jolokia and Dorset Naga varieties.
Also spent quite some time adding new photos to the website and generally tidying it up. Full chilli list (85 varieties) will be online by Wednesday this week.
January 14th 2010
Still effectively snowed in. Working on new website design and variety descriptions for chilli plants. On a practical note, the polytunnels have been cleared of last years plants. We recycle plants into a brilliant compost.
January 11th 2010
Blizzard conditions hit the nursery. Over 6 inches of snow has hit just this afternoon.
Spent the evening clearing snow off the roof of the polytunnel and its still snowing now.
All our Habanero's are snuggly packed with tin-foil covers and fleeces to see them through the winter. They are warmer than we are!!
January 10th 2010
Finally decided our chilli growing list. We have 84 varieties this year including a standard selection which will be grown in quantity. More details soon. We are currently working on new descriptions on a whole new website to be launched next month.
