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Send us your chilli plant photos and be part of the Wahaca cookbook

Since we opened we’ve been trying our hardest to turn you into green fingered chilli growers with free chilli seeds for over 4 and half million people and counting. The response has been so great with hundreds of you getting in touch to tell us of your tales of growing glory, bountiful crops and the satisfaction of a fully home grown salsa. We even appointed a Chilli Expert from amongst you, to help out with any growing pains and his videos have proved invaluable support for chilli novices around the world.

Now we have the perfect opportunity to celebrate the most artistic horticulturalists in our growing fan club. We want to use your chilli plant photos in our new Wahaca cookbook.

Yes you heard, a new Wahaca cookbook, hitting the shelves in June and you can be a part of it.

So if your image library is an homage to Percy Thrower with all the style of Rankin, email your chilli plant pictures (in as high a resolution as possible) to us at ola@wahaca.co.uk. We’d love to see everything from your first shoots, through to your first chillies and your bumper harvest. We’ll pick our favourites, who will be featured in the book and will each receive a copy when it’s published. One to show the grandkids for sure.

You’d better be quick though, the competition closes on Monday 13th February. Good luck!

Oh, we almost forgot, here’s the serious bit: By submitting your photograph you are granting Hodder & Stoughton and Wahaca a royalty-free, non-exclusive right to use the photograph in print and online, and to archive the image for future use. Got that? Good.

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Banter at the Bar, Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Our News, Uncategorized, Wahacos, What's Happening

Growing tension in the #MDIChiliOff

There’s been a flurry of excitement over at the offices of MyDestination.com, where the infighting continues between the boys and girls teams in their chilli plant growing competition, but their efforts are starting to become fruitful. Alex Plim (aka Captain Plimiento) fills us in on their latest developments:

In the unlikely event anyone other than my Mum and Dad is following this competition (hey guys!), you will remember that the last MyDestination.com blog post left our crusaders in a shaken yet resilient state, rocked by a series of devastating setbacks, but looking forward to a more stable future.

For a time, the competition’s progress continued auspiciously at a dogged pace, like a Zimmer frame user heading for the biscuit aisle in Sainsbury’s, while the plants settled into four shiny new pots within which they had been re-housed.  The My Destination office looked on in quiet anticipation, noting the sprouting of each new leaf from stems that plodded ever further along their journey against gravity.

In fact, it was all going so well that Team Inferno decided to christen their plants, and it was thus that Hector Suarez and Don Juan Pablo came to be, like a 21st century Bill and Ben.  But Mexican.  And without arms and legs and heads.  Plant pots with faces drawn on in black marker pen then, really…

But controversy and catastrophe is never far away in the My Destination chilli war.

The Vindaloo Vixens, in a level of disgrace previously thought impossible, chose an especially blustery day to place a defenceless Hector Suarez on a windowsill as a window stopper.  The consequence was inevitable.  In an instant Hector was displaced onto the office floor, strewn across the carpet in a scene befitting a brutal and bloody murder. 

Team member Will was stunned into a shocked silence, leaving Captain Plimento to salvage the disaster and perform an emergency repot by himself.

Following this unfortunate episode, Team Inferno retired into a period of frenzied care for Hector and the Don, while the Vindaloo Vixens slipped into a habit of apathetic neglect, leaving their plants to shrivel into a pathetic, wilting mess.  Captain Plimento briefly considered referring this abuse to charity, before realising no such charity exists, then considered setting up his own plant-care charity, before realising this would be an utter waste of time.

It was upon the return of the Vindaloo Vixen’s adopted captain, Kirsty, from a trip to Dubai that the girls sprang to a sudden and panicked attentiveness.  Oblivious to the surfeit of information on the internet warning against over-watering chilli plants (‘the surest way to kill ‘em’, according to Wahaca’s own chilli growing expert), the girls launched a tsunami campaign against their plants, drenching them every day with enough water to fill Winston Churchill’s bath tub.

While this turmoil was unfolding, however, a far more sinister force was at work: aphids (or, to use its deceptively common name, the greenfly).  Don’t be fooled by the ‘ph’; aphids are the aids of the plant world, leaving in their wake a trail of merciless desolation as they destroy otherwise healthy shrubbery.  In an almighty anti-climax, the entire chilli competition became somewhat nuclear holocaustic.  The aphids attacked the plants, munched their leaves and toppled their stems.  Everything went dead; not just limp, but completely and utterly dead.

And that was it.  Everyone gave up.  They shook hands and moved on.  Team member Will began talking again, and the Vindaloo Vixens stopped being so vindictive.

The chilli competition ended.

But – and this is a big, big but – the faintest glimmer of the slightest shred of hope remained in the form of one formidable man, a man who refused to relinquish his dreams of one day holding a veritable, real-life chilli in his mighty palm.  That man was Stefan, the office’s token German, the very same German who rose to the occasion in My Destination’s previous blog entry and cared for the chilli plants as if they were kin.

Armed with nothing more than a spray bottle containing water and washing liquid, Stefan diligently purged the aphids, bringing the chilli plants back from the brink of oblivion.  It was like a scene from Rambo, except Stefan didn’t have a gun, per se, and he was wearing a shirt.  The plants’ recovery was slow, and by no means absolute, but gradually, to the gormless astonishment of everyone at My Destination, they made their way back to health.

All of which leads to 28th June 2011, a date that will forever remain in the memories of Team Inferno as the day that Hector Suarez, thrice depotted against his will, overcame immeasurable odds and sprouted his very first flower, bringing with it renewed hope for the future of the My Destination chilli war.  More flowers followed, like tiny white light bulbs dripping from branches which bowed under their weight.  Each new morning brought with it another, until each plant swelled with splayed petals.

And then came the day it all went galactic: 22nd July 2011.

If 28th June will forever sit within Team Inferno’s memory, 22nd July will be passed down to their offspring and to future generations beyond that, to be celebrated every year from now until the end of time as a day of monumental significance.  For it was that morning that Captain Plimento performed a routine check on Don Juan Pablo and found, to his deep and lasting astonishment, two and a half inches of firm, spicy goodness in the form of a ripening chilli.
Goodness knows how he, along with the rest of the My Destination office, omitted to notice such a specimen during its growth, but omit it they did.  It took a full week before either team could deal with the discovery and take stock of its earth-shattering implications.

Two things are now very clear: the chilli war is very much alive, and Team Inferno is the team to beat.

You can follow the progress of the Mydestination.com chilli growing competition on twitter, just search #MDIChiliOff.

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Our News, Uncategorized, What's Happening

Tips from the chilli expert #4: Looking after your chillies

Having followed his tips on planting, re-potting and pollinating, you’ll hopefully now have some good chilli shoots sprouting. But Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress and things do go wrong, so we’ve enlisted the help of our official Chilli Expert, Craig McKnight to give you some TLC tips. Over to you Craig.

First things first. As I’ve mentioned before, make sure that you keep the compost moist and not drenched. If you overwater, then this will not help your chilli plants, and will probably kill them. It is best to water them little and often, rather than nothing for ages, and then drench them in a mad panic because the compost has dried out.

If your plants have produced flowers already, then you can give them a helping hand by putting liquid tomato feed into their water for everyother watering. I tend to use it at half the concentration recommended on the back of the bottle. Alternatively, if you search on the internet, there are specialist feeds for chilli plants.

The second thing to watch out for is the enemy of the gardener, slugs and snails. The only surefire way to get rid of these is to check your plants periodically. You can use slug pellets, but obviously these tend not to be organic. However, I have tried a natural product called ‘Slug Gone’, and had very good results from it.

Lastly, everyone gets aphids on their chilli plants occasionally. A natural way to control these is to encourage ladybirds to live near your chilli plants, as they are the natural predators of aphids. You can even buy them from the internet!
Another way to try to control them is to spray your plants with a very weak solution of washing up liquid in water. However, do not use one that is describes as “anti-bacterial” and use one that is fragrance-free. Also, don’t spray your plants when it is hot, or in direct sunlight, as you will scorch the plants, and kill them.

There’ll be another ‘guru video’ shortly giving tips about how to recognise when your chillies are ready to pick. In the meantime, happy chilli growing!

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

The chilli growing contest heats up!

Earlier in the chilli growing season, you might have seen our article introducing the chilli growing competition that’s going on in a quiet little muse in Maida Vale. Well things have been sprouting all over the place down there and we’re pleased to bring you their latest update on how things are heating up (Get it?) between Mydestination.com’s Team Inferno and the Vindaloo Vixen chilli growing nuts:

Who’d have known chilli growing could be so exciting? Mere hours after the first instalment of the MyDestination.com chilli war, the competition’s first keen shoot was seen poking through Team Inferno soil, sending the boys into a state of delirium. Having thought this moment would take at least six weeks to arrive, the euphoria was understandable. The fact the shoot looked more like a weed than a sturdy chilli stem was ignored.

In a bid to claw back their disadvantage, the Vindaloo Vixens took their pots into hiding, only to return them to the office shelf a few days later sporting a worrying amount of mould around the cardboard seed sticks. The situation looked bleak. Against these odds, however, and with a little inspiration from Team Inferno’s techniques, the girls’ pots soon featured an infantile shoot too, and then another, and another, until all four pots were awash with greenery, and the MyDestination office was a happy place once again.

But the harmony was short-lived.

On the 5th of April at approximately 10:32hrs, Team Inferno dedicate Will reported a crime on the street, where Captain Plimento had placed his team’s chillies in a bid to catch some direct sunlight. Some jobs-worth had taken a swing at the defenceless pots, leaving pot number four soilless and pot number three shaken. The shoots didn’t catch sight of the culprit before he fled, and neither did Will.

‘Scandal!’ they cried. It was a blatant act of sabotage; salvaged from the wreckage was a long, straggly hair and an elastic hair bobble. The Vixens vehemently deny any wrongdoing, and have pointed a well-manicured finger towards the street’s dogs. The investigation is on-going.

Courageously, Team Inferno overcame their shock by picking the traumatised baby shoots from the destruction and re-planting them in fresh soil. With a significant amount of TLC and cuddles over the ensuing days, the roots re-established themselves, and soon all the plants began sprouting leaves at a herculean rate.

It was around this time that Captain Plimento took a holiday, for the stress of the chilli competition had taken significant toll upon him. On his return he learnt that Stefan, the office’s token German, had become particularly attached to the chillis, talking to them daily about current affairs and sports news, and forcibly ensuring they were kept well watered. It was a powerful display of paternal instinct, as if he had incubated the seedlings personally in his very own womb.

The Vindaloo Vixens claimed further foul play during this period: a single upturned stalk that smacked of revenge. No further accusations have been made, however, and the incident is being viewed by the majority as recompense for the insensitive manner in which the Vixens reacted to Team Inferno’s previous misfortune.

The chilli plants have since faced a tough couple of weeks, suffering from abject neglect over the bank holiday weekends which has left them looking pathetically wilted and weak, and demanding of them another fight for life that belies their nonconfrontational nature. It’s difficult to imagine there ever having been a chilli plant which has gone through quite as much undeserved trauma as these plucky survivors….

Tune in next time, or follow the live updates on twitter by searching for #MDIChiliOff to hear if the growing competition turns fruitful.

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

It’s war! The chilli growing contest kicks off

A few weeks ago we spotted a tweet by @AnnaLucyT announcing that they were going to hold a chilli growing war in their office. Following the trends of the day, we thought it was only right to step in, and we agreed to arm them with all the chilli growing ammunition they required. In return we asked the avid chilli growers over at the offices of MyDestinationInfo.com to share their stories and photos with us so that we could all keep abreast of their growing challenge.

Here are our team captains – Anna Lucy Terry (Or AnnaBell Pepper) of the “Vindaloo Vixens” and Alex Plim (Or Captain Plimiento) of “Team Inferno”.

You can follow their updates live on twitter by checking out #MDIChiliOff, but here’s their first account of what’s going down in a sunny office in Maida Vale:

The first few days of the MyDestinationInfo.com Chilli Competition have seen a convivial office full of goodwill and friendships descend into near-anarchy, as whispers of underhand tactics, jealously and conspiratorial plots have circulated the desks.

Captain AnnaBell Pepper’s “Vindaloo Vixens” took a fairly indifferent approach to the potting process, relying upon rival Captain Plimento to prepare each tub for them so that they didn’t have to get their nails dirty. Captain BellPepper then decided to lavishly drench her tubs in water from a plastic beaker, while Team Inferno used a spray bottle from a pound shop to moisten their soil (having understood this was the right thing to do from their Wahaca blog research.)

It was the girls who then took the initiative and led the planting process, deciding on a stick formation (one seed in each corner and one in the centre) that the boys promptly copied, before slyly changing one of their pots to a circular pattern, hoping that this variance might place them ahead in the long run.

Both teams then decided to cover their pots in cling film – a tip that the Vindaloo Vixens had heard and failed to keep quiet – in an attempt to create miniature greenhouses that encourage seed germination. Captain Plimento went one step further deciding to source a couple of shower caps from his personal collection which he placed over his pots and secured with elastic bands to keep them airtight.

The Vindaloo Vixens keep their chilli pots on the office windowsill, while Team Inferno have made the first truly bold move of the competition by keeping their plants perched on an electric heater (which is completely safe, we hope…). They have since consulted a specialist chilli guru who has scared the team by suggesting this could bake the chilli seeds (presumably a bad thing.) Only time will tell whether this decision is inspired or tragically misguided.

At this stage it is impossible to tell which team is edging the lead. Captain Plimento nearly dropped one of his pots while in transit today, which he is trying to keep quiet in case it has had a malign effect on his team’s chillies. He feels pretty bad about this. Otherwise, there is little difference between the two teams; each pot just looks like a mound of dirt.

Keep your eyes peeled for more on this growing saga as the summer progresses. If you are growing some of our chilli seeds, please do post your pictures to our facebook page and bask in the glory of our collective adoration towards your green fingered exploits. Our favourites could win free meals at Wahaca. If you want to give some words of encouragement, or advice to this plucky group of chilli growers, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

Wahaca helps Gateway Primary School go green

A few months ago now we had an email from Gateway Primary school near Edgeware Road who were looking for ways to expand their Eco-Club. Always keen to help out with community growing products, we eagrely popped some chilli seeds in the post to them and awaited the first news of shoots. 

We’re very happy to hear that now, they’re going stronger than ever with green-houses made from plastic bottles helping the seeds on their way through the winter. Here’s what they had to say…

Hello!  We are the Eco Team at Gateway Primary  School and we’re working very hard to make our school a more sustainable and environmentally friendly place!

We have lots of projects going on at the moment such as recycling at school and reducing the amount of energy we use,  but our favourite is our growing project! Last year we grew potatoes and chillies (thanks to our teacher having been for dinner at Wahaca in Covent Garden!)

 Here are 2 photos of us planting the chilli seeds and we were very excited to see shoots appear! 

This led us to think that we could get lots of children and their parents involved in growing chilli plants as we all love spicy food at our school!

So we have started an Eco-competition every week in our school newsletter… and the prize is a “Grow your own Chillies kit!” like the one here! 

We want to say a huge “Thank you!” to Wahaca for offering to provide us with the chillies we need to get the whole school growing!  Muchas gracias!

De nada! We’re looking forward to hearing more about how your Eco-Club grows, and hearing a little about the delicious food you make with those chillies! Please do keep us posted.

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Tips from the Chilli Expert #2 Repotting your plants

So, you’ve planted your seeds, waited with baited breath and crossed your fingers, and all of your dreams have come true – Your chilli seeds have sprouted! But before you get ahead of yourself, just hold on a second, you’ve got to make sure you look after them well if you’re going to be rewarded with precious fruit. In the second of our installment of Chilli Expert videos, our guru grower talks you through repotting your plants to ensure you get an even growth. Over to you Craig…

When your chilli seedling has developed its second set of leaves, it is time to pot it on to another pot.

A mistake that some people make at this stage is to repot it straight into a huge pot, thinking that this ok. If you do this, all that will happen is that the chilli plant will grow to fill the pot, but concentrate on producing foliage, but no flowers. If the plant does not produce flowers, then you will not get any chillies!

As a general rule of thumb, your chilli plant should be potted on to a larger pot when the roots start to appear out of the bottom of the current pot. Personally, I pot on plants from a 3 inch to a 5 inch and eventually to a 7 inch pot.

Keep an eye on your plant and water it if the compost looks as if it is drying out. Again, the idea is to keep the compost moist and not drenched. In the colder months, you will find you only have to water every two or three days, but as the weather heats up, you will probably need to water every day.

When flowers start to appear on the plant, you can give it a helping hand by adding liquid tomato feed to the water. It should be diluted at half of the recommended ratio for tomato plants.

Alternatively, you could use one of the feeds that are specifically designed to be used with chillies.

In the next video, I’ll be giving you tips about how to make sure that all the flowers on your chilli plants turn into lovely chillies. See you then!

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Contributor Competitions, Food Topics & Trends, Guerilla Chilli Growing

Tips from the Chilli Expert #1 Planting your seeds

There’s been huge excitement around Wahaca all week at the thought of the launch of our first ever Chilli Expert video, and we’re pleased to say that the wait has come to an end!

You may remember back in May we started our search for the Wahaca Chilli Expert, and much tweeting, blogging, filming and soul-searching later, we found our man in none other than Craig McNight (It was his increadibly cool surname that confirmed him as our winner!). Since then Craig (or @wegrowourown to his twitterarti) has been busy filming for us, and here is his first video and blog post. Take it away Craig…

Hi and welcome to the first of my ‘Chilli Expert’ videos for Wahaca. In this video I’ll be showing you how to make sure that your chilli seeds have the best chance of germinating, and growing into lovely big chilli plants.

Ideally, the best time to start planting your chilli seeds is January or February. The reason for this is that it will give your seeds and plants a good head start, so that you can enjoy lots of lovely chillies throughout the summer months.

There are a few bits of basic equipment that you will need. You’ll need a plant pot, some multi-purpose compost, a spray bottle, and obviously your seeds!

First fill your pot with the compost and firm it down. Spray the compost with the spray bottle, but the idea is keep the compost moist, rather than drenching it.

If you are using the Wahaca chilli seeds, snap off the matchstick carefully and plant it point end down into the compost to the mark on the matchstick. However, if you are using your own chilli seeds instead, just place them on top of the compost, cover them with another 0.5cm of compost, and then lightly spray it again with the water spray.

Now what your chilli seeds need are heat and moisture. You can help them along by covering the pot with clingfilm and putting it somewhere warm like a windowsill over a radiator, or an airing cupboard.

Check the seeds every day, and spray the compost again if it seems as if it is too dry. Remember the idea is to keep the compost moist and not wet!

Also if you have put the seeds in the airing cupboard to help them along, take them once they have germinated, otherwise you will end up with weak, leggy plants which is a big no-no!

You can also plant the seeds directly into compost in a heated propagator, which you can pick up for a few pounds online or at your local gardening centre. If you’re doing this, plant the seeds about 5-6cm apart.

Also, be aware that different varieties of chilli seeds take different times to germinate. On average they can take up to 3 weeks to germinate, but some hotter varieties can take up to six weeks, so just sit on your hands and be patient!

In my next video, I’ll be showing how to make sure that your just germinated seeds grow into lovely large chilli plants. See you then!

You can read more from Craig on his own blog, www.wegrowourown.co.uk

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, What's Happening

The little chilli growing competiton heats up

You might have seen our post launching the little chilli growing competition to all the Canary Wharfers who picked up one of our chilli growing kits, encouraging them to send in photos of how they are getting on.

Well, we’re delighted to say that the responses have already started coming in and it seems that they’re quite a green fingered lot.

Although the Chilli Spy was initially dubious about the actual size of their shoots, Jo and Soph from Morgan Stanley look to be having some great success, with at least 30mm of growth.

We wonder what their secret is. Any tips that you want to share guys?

Over at Barclays Capital the competition is really hotting up, so much so that Neil has applied some real science to his seedlings. He’s created a mini greenhouse to maximise the light and apparently it’s helped his chillies shoot into the lead.

Neil told us that it was so simple to do, and it really paid dividends. Here’s his helpful guide:

1. Take a two litre bottle of water.
2. Cut the bottle in half lengthways (empty the bottle first!).
3. Take this semi-circular section and cut it to the width of your chilli pot.
4. Push the bottle greenhouse into the sides of your pot to cover the chilli seedlings (remember to leave space for air to get in).

We love it!

So if you’re a wannabe Titchmarsh who’s picked up one of our pots, and are just praying for the day that you see your first signs of life through the soil, get in touch and let us know how you’re getting on. Send your story along with some pictures of how you’re getting on to loswahacos@wahaca.co.uk and you’ll be in with the chance of winning a meal for 6 at Wahaca.

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Guerilla Chilli Growing, What's Happening

Our chilies go transatlantic

We were delighted by the news that our chili seeds have made it all the way across the ocean, and are currently flourishing in California, thanks to the work of green-fingered Wahaca fan Patti Roberts.

Our new favourite Californian has also made an amazing looking salsa from her harvest. Great job.

This got us wondering, where else in the world our chilies could be springing up? So if you’re currently tending some of our offspring in any far reaches, we’d love to hear from you, in fact wherever you are in the world, send us your photos and we’ll share them with the good people of the blog-o-sphere. You can email us (loswahacos@wahaca.co.uk), or upload your photos to our flickr group here.

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