Lights, Camera, Action!

We visited Edible Ornamentals a little while ago and went round the chilli farm in Bedfordshire with eager eyes, admiring the gorgeous chillies all around. Now that the weather is a bit better we cannot stop thinking how good the chilli plants must look and how many Dorset Nagas, Hungarian Hot Wax, Hercules, Jalapenos and Habaneros have fully matured (not that we are jealous of course!).

Thanks to the age of media and more precisely Twitter, we were informed that Countrywise on ITV was doing a feature on the Edible Ornamentals Chilli Farm. We were of course glued to our TV set that night when the programme was showing, laughing as the presenter ate half a Dorset Naga and nearly died on camera. A lovely tomato and chilli pasta dish that was later cooked with the chillies from Edible Ornamentals made us salivate so this is a recipe that we will definitely be doing soon, using Edible Ornamentals’ Serenade chillies. Shawn and Joanna, the people behind the brand were keen to share their passion of all things chillies and we were thrilled to see that their feature ran at a time when most people are watching so we do hope that a lot of good things come out of this for them.

West Dean Chilli Fiesta is near so we will be sure to drop by Edible Ornamentals’ tent to say hello and pick out a couple more chilli plants (or ten if the boss has his own way!). Hopefully we will be able to actually get inside the tent this time as it was so crowded last year we didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves to Shawn and Joanna. Now that we are in contact regularly thanks to Facebook and Twitter we do hope that, in the words of Humphrey Bogart “this is the start of a beautiful friendship”!

Edible Ornamentals: The Products

We are looking into stocking some of Edible Ornamentals chilli products but thought we would give you an overview of what we tried when going on a tour of the chilli farm.

With a strong branding and good quality jars, bottles and labels, Edible Ornamentals is not cutting any corners and decided to show themselves as professional growers from the start. The first chilli sauce that we tried was the Anaheim one. Although the mildest of the lot, the flavour was absolutely amazing and deserves pride of place in your cupboard or fridge. This is a fantastic chilli sauce to use as you would ketchup and we cannot wait to stock it so we can use it on our burgers and bangers!

Edible Ornamentals Luscious Citrus Relish is a definitely winner and one of their bestsellers. The balance between the acidity of the lemon and the richness and sweetness of the relish is amazing. We have added it to pasta tomato sauce to lift the flavour up and it was to die for. The heat is medium but highly delectable.

Edible Ornamentals Inferno Hot Sauce is rather pungent as its name indicates. This is a very good everyday sauce for those who like spice although there are other great chilli sauces to be had from Edible Ornamentals such as a Sweet Chilli Hot Sauce, and Orange Chilli Marmalade, an Onion Relish and a fantastic Bramley and Habanero Chutney. Edible Ornamentals also smoke their own jalapenos, creating chipotles to die for.

We cannot wait for Edible Ornamentals to be able to produce a wider and bigger range of chilli goodies but in the meantime will let you know as soon as some of their products are available at The Devil’s Garden!

Edible Ornamentals: The Tour Part 2

Shawn showed us around his chilli farm ran with his wife Joanna, rightly called Edible Ornamentals. After seeing the most public aspects of the chilli farm we moved on to polytunnels and glasshouses that were more for commercial use. Rows and rows of beautifully kept chilli plants such as Hercules (a popular type of chillies mainly found in supermarkets) were to be found in either polytunnels or glass greenhouses but also tomatillos which seem to be a real winner at the moment especially when sold to restaurants.

We then arrived at a big tank that is part of the ingenious irrigation system. Shawn and Joanna seem to have had a rough time when it comes to setting up an irrigation system that would free up their time and allow for a precise watering of the plants. Each chilli plant is linked to this clever irrigation system that is run by a computer and can even modify the PH of the water that runs through it. With so many chilli plants to look after we are not surprised that Shawn and Joanna went for such a high tech irrigation system albeit a costly one but definitely worth having especially in view of the scale of the chilli farm and its plans for expansion.

The commercial kitchen was definitely impressive. Although set in a container much like the ones you would see on construction sites, this kitchen is well lit, extremely clean and well laid out. Shawn explained to us what happens from the moment the chillies are picked to the moment they are washed, pureed, cooked and bottled up.

There is nothing average about Edible Ornamentals chilli sauces and preserves as we were about to find out by visiting the farm shop which is set up in a small chalet type house. Edible Ornamentals chilli products are of course available but also other items such as Italian pasta, oils and sauces from other brands. Shawn went on to make us try several types of chillies so people could notice the difference in taste and heat level between each type and the tour concluded with most people buying some of Edible Ornamentals’ chilli products or chilli plants.

Overall, it was a great way to spend a Sunday, talking to people that are passionate at what they do. We cannot wait to see Shawn at West Dean Chilli Fiesta in August. We tried to approach him last year but the stand was absolutely mobbed. We understand why now that we know a bit more about them!

Edible Ornamentals: The Tour Part 1

One of our friends offered us a tour of Edible Ornamentals chilli farm as a Christmas present so we were very excited to further our knowledge of chilli plants and discover some of Edible Ornamentals’ chilli sauces and preserves.

We arrived at Edible Ornamentals chilli farm last Sunday for the 11 am tour which was supposed to last one hour but ended up being three! We plagued Shawn, the owner and tour guide, with questions and he was great in answering all of them whilst managing the other people that had come to do the tour.

The farm is divided into several types of polytunnels. The main one is for the general public to come and view or buy chilli plants from Hungarian Hot Wax to Dorset Naga, Orange Habaneros, Serenade and many more. In the time that it took us to do the tour we saw many people just coming to the chilli farm out of the blue and buying chilli plants. They look so good and are so healthy that we do understand why Edible Ornamentals seems to be so popular with the locals.

Shawn took us to see the polytunnels called “Pick and Mix” which as you can imagine is the place where families can come and pick their own favourite chillies. This is still a work in progress although perfectly usable as it is but most chillies are still a bit too green to be picked. We can imagine how boisterous and amazing to see it must be at the height of the chilli picking season though!

The third polytunnels we saw was really impressive. Built with a special type of polyurethane that allows the heat to really stay in, we went from outside which was sunny albeit very windy to a wall of blistering heat upon entering the polytunnels. The chilli plants definitely seem to like it though and are very neatly kept!

Edible Ornamentals: An Overview

Shawn and Joanna Plumb set up Edible Ornamentals back in 2007 on the former site of Cherwood Nursery in the village of Chawston. One of our friends had gifted us a tour of the farm as a Christmas present so we jumped on the chance to see a working chilli farm.

The nursery hadn’t been used for four years when Shawn and Joanna took over so was in a pretty dilapidated state. After a few years of trial and errors they are now the proud owners of a superbly run environmentally conscious chilli farm that is making more and more noise every year that passes.

Although Shawn and Joanna started selling chilli plants at car boot sales, they have now moved on to much bigger things thanks to their hard work and dedication, supplying restaurants with their beautiful crops of chillies, making their own chilli sauces and preserves, growing specific types of chillies for other farms and private customers, allowing people to pick their own mix of fresh chillies at the farm and participating in numerous chilli festivals and farmers’ markets.

One of the integral part of who Edible Ornamentals are is providing not only the best possible crops of chillies such as Orange Habaneros, Dorset Naga, Hercules, Hungarian Hot Wax, Serenade or Jalapenos but also to produce crops of stabilised high yielding breeds of chillies for private and commercial use. There is no fleeting craze behind Edible Ornamentals. Shawn and Joanna are keen to gain a reputation for excellence without giving in to the latest trend. Their tour is definitely one we recommend to anybody remotely interested in chillies. It is a great day out for the family too even if you don’t know anything about chillies as Shawn is always around to share his passion for chillies.