Q: Where
can I buy your products?
A:All the farmers markets we attend are on the `where 2 buy` page and any special events we attend will be on there. We don’t send fresh peppers or plants in the post, but everything else is available mail order, please contact us for more information and pricing.
Please check the special events page for other chilli related events throughout the year.
Q: Where
do your ingredients come from?
A: All
the chillies are grown by us. All other ingredients are
sourced by their localness to the area or their environmental
qualities and not their cost.
Q: Are
chillies good for you?
A: Yes.
Very Good.
They contain
up to twice the vitamin C of a fresh orange, one fresh
chilli has more vitamin C than the daily recommended amount
and they are also a decongestant, which makes them great
for fighting colds. They are a good source of vitamins
A & E, also beta-carotene, potassium & folic acid.
A recent
study at the Oxford Brookes University
has shown that eating chilli sauce or fresh chillies can
increase the amount of calories you burn for up to two
hours by 8%. So they might help you to loose weight.
But most
importantley they taste great!!!.
Q: Why
are chillies hot?
A: The
simple answer to this is: Birds don’t have taste
buds.
All plants
that produce a fruit do so to reproduce. The birds eat
the chillies and then drop the seed with some fertiliser
a distance away. To discourage mammals which do have taste
buds the chilli evolved to produce capsaicin, which is
the chemical that gives the heat. The fruit of most wild
peppers point upwards and are commonly known as bird peppers.
Q: How
hot can chillies be and how can this be tested?
A: Very
hot. The hottest are generally Habanero Orange, Scotch
bonnet, South American chinenses & African bird’s
eye. They are measured using a method called the Scoville
Scale.
For many
years the system relied on human testers, the chillies
were diluted until they could not be tasted.
Now a
machine is used, HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatograph).
This system gives a reading of parts per million which
is multiplied by 15 to give the Scoville unit.
Most humans
can cope with 150 Scovilles without a problem.
Low-pungency
chillies are about |
300-700
Scovilles |
Mild
chillies are |
700-1,000
Scovilles |
Medium
heat chillies |
1,000-1,500
Scovilles |
Hot
chillies |
2,000-3,000
Scovilles |
Extra
hot |
3,000-60,000
Scovilles |
Vicious |
60,000-500,000
Scovilles |
Hottest
ever (Red Savina habanero)
This was a one off for this
chilli, normally about 300,00 Scovilles |
577,000
Scovilles |
Q: What
is the difference between green and red chillies?
A: Green
chillies mostly go red. It is a state of ripeness, green
are normally not as hot as red. I personally think that
if you want the taste of a chilli eat it green, red are
a stronger flavour but the heat distracts your taste buds.
Q: Are
Chillies a spice, vegetable or fruit?
A: In
the USA they are classed as a vegetable when green and
a spice when red. I think they are a fruit as they have
there seeds on the inside, like an apple! |
