News and Events

Courses for growing chillies and sweet peppers

What’s Hot, What’s Not

Led by pepper expert, Michael Michaud, ‘What’s hot, what’s not’ is a gardening course that explores the diverse world of peppers and reveals the secrets of these unique and captivating plants. For keen gardeners looking for a new experience, this is the chance to discover the scorchingly hot chilli peppers used by Bangladeshis, Mexicans and West Indians; the gentle sweet peppers perfect for stuffing and frying; and the in-between kinds that give ordinary dishes a new lease on life.

The course mainly covers the "how to" of growing, but also includes other subjects such as variety selection and harvesting. It will run for about two hours, by which time you should have learned enough to grow peppers in your own garden.

‘What’s Hot, What’s Not’ assumes that participants have some gardening experience that they can build on. It will cover growing in both containers and garden soil, so no one needs to have a vegetable garden in the traditional sense to benefit from this course.

Courses will be conducted at Sea Spring Farm. They will take place solely in our unheated tunnels and greenhouse, irrespective of the weather. So dress accordingly, and come prepared to learn.

Note: We have a strict ‘no smoking policy’ due to Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Smokers may may be asked to wear plastic gloves while in the market garden.

Details:

• Time: 10:30 am to 1:00 pm
• Price: £20 per person.

To book a place click here.

Open day

Every year we have an open day to which everyone is invited. This year our open day is on Sunday 26th August 2012.

Last year, despite rain on Friday and forecasted for Monday, the weather forcasting websites all agreed it was going to be perfect for Sunday – not too hot and no rain. Unfortunately, this was not to be. As we were setting up our stall on the front garden the clouds opened, and it poured. Luckily, as the first people started to arrive the rain cleared and then the sun shone for the rest of the day. We mostly had chillies growing in our polytunnels and greenhouses. Some of the chillies were main crops for harvesting fresh chillies, others for seed crops, and two tunnels were for our breeding programmes and chilli trials.

As there is no entry fee and people just come and go we do not know how many people attended. But it was certainly busy with large crowd going through the tunnels. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Shows

We also attend several shows, particularly over the summer months. So if you live close to one come and say hello to us, and if you are a regular customer please introduce yourself! At some shows we will only be selling seeds, but at others – depending on the time of year – we will also be selling any combination of fresh chillies, chilli plug plants, and attractive, mature  chilli plants.

Details for 2012 will be posted shortly.