I love hot and spicy food and like cooking with fresh ingredients so I thought it would be quite cool to grow some of my own chilies! At the start of February 2004 I planted 80 Chili seeds, I am going to document my progress here!

I purchased 60 seeds of 6 different varieties from www.chileseeds.co.uk back in June last year and I also got two chilies which I dried out on the window sill over the summer.

I planted 10 Bulgarian Carrot Carrot chilies. They are about 3 1/2" and turn bright florescent orange at maturity and have a heat level 8, ideal in pots for the house or conservatory. I choose these as they are pretty hot and they are not the normal red or green colour, so something a little different.

I planted 10 Pueblo Pepper plant. These 3" long hot chile grow in large clumps facing skyward. Very tasty and great for drying. These I went for because they are good for drying out and so can be stored and used at a later date.

I planted 10 Purira Peppers. They turn yellow to purple to orange to dark red. (Capsicum frutescens). 3 ft high plants with 2 inch long fruits that mature 70 days after transplanting. Heat level is 9. As these are at the high end of the heat scale and they mature quickly I thought adding this plant to my collection would be a good idea.

I planted 10 Ring of Fire (Ring of Fire Cayenne) (Capsicum annuum). Classic Cayenne shape and heat. 4 inch long peppers, red when ripe after 80 days. Very abundant 2-3 foot plants form perfect bushes. Mexican heirloom, early 1900's. Cool name! These seem to grow quite big and ripen quickly with lots of fruit, the more chilies the better :o)

I planted 10 Tabasco Chilies. The principal ingredient in the most famous hot sauce in the world, and central to Creole cooking. Tabasco chiles have a unique, dry/hot smoky taste combined with fiery pungency for unbeatable flavour. These small, pointed chiles grow on branching plants. Each plant can bear 100 erect little chile pods that colour up from yellow to orange to red. Rightfully famous, Tabasco’s smoky hot flavour is exemplary. I tend to go through the catering sized Tabasco sauce bottle pretty quickly so I though it would be nice to try to make some of the sauce to my own recipe.

I planted 10 Thai Dragon (Capsicum frutescens). Red Thai Dragon chiles are 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide and about 6 times hotter than Jalapenos. Two foot Thai Dragon plants are high yielding, with a strong well-branched habit to support the heavy fruit set. Each plant can produce 150 to 200 chiles! Very good flavour. Use Thai Dragon fresh or hang up its heavy branches of ripe chile fruits to easily air dry for a colourful and abundant supply all year long. 150 to 200 chiles from each plant is why I decided to grow some of these.

I planted 20 what I think are Habanero chilies, I got the chilies from a friend and dried them out on the window sill over the summer, I didn't remove the seeds until I planted them. Habanero [ah-bah-NEH-roh]. This chile belongs to the Capsicum chinense family of peppers, of South American origin. In Mexico it is planted exclusively in the Yucatan Peninsula, where it was probably introduced from Cuba, which might explain its popular name "Habanero". The Habanero is one of the world's hottest chile. Its heat level is 10. For the uninitiated even a tiny piece of Habanero would cause intense and prolonged oral suffering. Underneath the heat is a delicate plum-tomato apple-like flavour. The riper red ones have a sweetness that gives them a mouthwatering appeal. Grown in Mexico and the Caribbean. It has an irregular spheroid shape, with a small point, and is around 5 cm long by 3.25-4.5 cm wide. It is available in green, yellow, scarlet and deep red. It has a number of close relatives such as Scotch Bonnet and Rocoto. It is used mainly raw because it loses subtlety, but not heat, when cooked. . Slow to germinate, must be grown in warm, moist conditions. The Habanero when ripe or dried and powdered has a unique apricot scent. 300,000+ SHU. Heat level 10+

I recently purchased some Scotch Bonnet chilies and they blew my head off so I am drying a couple out to plant! Scotch Bonnet Very closely related to the Habanero chile, the Scotch Bonnet (or Bahamian , Bahama Mama, Jamaican Hot or Martinique Pepper) is just about as hot. Heat level is 9-10. It has a similar apple-cherry tomato flavour. Like the Habanero, it is spherical, although rather more squashed in shape and it is smaller, 3.25-4 cm in diameter. Native to the Caribbean, it is available in the UK in green, yellow, orange, white, brown and red as well as multi-toned. It is great for salsas and sauces. (Capsicum chinense).