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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Mystery Chilli #5, against all odds, is another purple chinense. Unlike the other one, this doesn't have dark foliage and is more modest in size.

A single pod and a flower. It is pointed in shape, with a pale purple hue and a matt finish. The flesh feels thin. This will be unripe, and likely will turn red eventually.

A number of pods on the plant, showing a horizontal growth habit which may be because they're not very heavy. They have an underlying green hue, flushed with a pale purple

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Caterpillar is like, "What's a superhot, idk lol 🤣🤣🤣" And that after spending a week in the fridge. So I'm letting him keep this pod, I figure he earned it 💪 🌱🌶️

A superhot chilli pod in a metal bowl, with a small caterpillar beside it. The bowl was in the fridge for a week, during which time the grub had emerged from the pod and glued it onto the side with webbing, making a little chamber in which to feed. I've put them both outside, where it has now stuck the pepper to the side of a plant pot, and is in a race against time to eat enough either before the pepper rots or the weather turns.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

130 Fruity Volcanoes on their way to the fermenting jar. 🌶️🌱

A hand holds a metal bowl containing vivid red Fruity Volcano chillies, a variety of C. chinense. In the background is a brick planter next to a wall, containing a Purple Pumpkin and a Hungarian Hot Wax chilli plant. The fruits of both are visible.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I made a version of the usual Baccatum Red Relish, but this time out of the Purple Pumpkin chillies rather than baccatums. I don't think it's going to last us long. 🌱🌶️

3 jars of bright crimson relish, one half eaten, stand behind a green saucer containing crackers spread with the same relish atop a layer of goat cheese.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Committed a wrongness when I moved some plants around to share the diminishing light. This Red Basque's growth was supported by its neighbours, so it had no need to strengthen its stems. Once they'd moved, the slightest breeze made it split under the weight of its pods. Should have staked it 🙄 🌱🌶️

A red basque chilli plant. I don't know much about these, but a friend got seeds from Real Seeds and gave me a plant, It's not big, but it's quite productive, with thick-fleshed, jalapeno-shaped pods, and a good heat. There is space to the left and right, where previously it was shaded out by larger C. chinense plants.

A close up of the base of the stem of the Red Basque chilli plant. It can be seen that of the three main branches, two have catastrophically snapped, one clean off and the other hanging by a couple of mm thickness.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The small yellow sweet peppers (mystery pepper #1) are absolutely astonishing when stuffed with cheese 😋 These are roasted with a mix of herbs, cream cheese and goat cheese 🌶️🌱🍽️ (this time with pic 🙄)

10 halves of small yellow peppers stuffed with cheese, served on a plate decorated by one of my kids when they were small. The plate was a father's day gift, and features a red chilli with a face and arms and legs.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry sweet peppers. Intense variegation, along with chunky flesh, makes these quite slow to ripen, but they're a real joy when they do. Like a stick of rock, the striping goes all the way through, so they look incredible when sliced into rings (will try to get a pic) 🌱🌶️

Five red peppers, flecked with raindrops, sit on a wooden table. They are oval in shape, striped with black, and about 3 inches long. The calyxes are striped green and cream.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I didn't have as many Peppadew and Brazillian Pumpkins ripe as I'd have liked. I wanted pickles though, so I put them together to make it worth the effort. They're both baccatums, both are aromatic and fairly mild, so I'm keen to see how it turns out 🌶️🌱

Two jars of mixed Peppadew (Malawi Piquante) and Brazillian pumpkin. The peppers have been halved, deseeded and soaked in saline before pickling.

I normally follow ChilliChump's recipe for the pickled peppadews, but here I've used some leftover brine from making bread & butter pickles, which I boiled up again with some garlic and ginger.

The peppers are both small, about an inch across, hemispherical and bright red, packed into 400ml (approx) jars and photographed on a wooden table in the garden.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

All the colours on this one. Still not sure what it is, but I'll be saving seeds. 🌶️🌱

A mystery chinense chilli which goes from green to purple, ending up a mottled mix of burgundy and bronze. Colour development is affected by exposure, so different parts of the fruit, even down to the individual bumps on its gnarly surface, are coloured differently, creating an almost pearlescent effect.

The fruit pictured, laid on a wooden table, is glossy and metallic, with a surface like the map of a mountain range. It still shows patches of lime green lower down, interspersed with purple and gradually changing, as you move up, to a rusty mix of orange and dark red, like cooling lava on a Jovian moon.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Thought I'd better call in some of the harvest today. Still waiting for a lot to ripen, but the nights are getting cool and the days are getting short. Maybe it's going to be a green sauce kind of year 🤷 🌶️🌱

A few hundred chillies in a large wicker trug. Ignoring the mystery ones, there's Fruity Volcano, Peppadew, Shishito, Yatsufusa, Hungarian Black, Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry, Green Trinidad, El Oro de Ecuador, Brazilian Pumpkin, CP115, Poblano, Fatalii, Purple Pumpkin, Apricot Habanero and Hungarian Hot Wax.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is a tomato I've been growing, Alice's Dream. I chose it on looks, but the flavour and texture have made it a proper winner. 🌱

A bunch of fat, round tomatoes, hanging on the vine. The shoulders are a purple-black, and the rest varies from yellow to orange. It's a pretty handsome look. The variety is Alice's Dream, and the taste and texture are excellent.

A pair of Alice's Dream tomatoes on a wooden table. The shoulders are a purple-black, and the rest varies from yellow to orange. As well as being beautiful, these are great eaters.

An Alice's Dream tomato, sliced through the middle. There's a richness of flesh, not too many seeds, and a great flavour. The generally orange flesh has a central ring of scarlet, a surprise flourish to an already beautiful fruit.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I found a gem of a Fatalii when I rooted under the canopy. There are loads of these but they're green, late due to the summer heat. Hopefully if I move it to the greenhouse, there's warmth and time for more to ripen. 🌶️🌱

A large Fatalii chilli pepper, Capsicum chinense, deeply ridged and bright yellow against deep green foliage. The flowers that survived the heat were those buried amid the leaves, so unexposed to direct sun, this has ripened evenly from shoulder to tip, with the very end still green.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The colours on some of these! 😍🌶️🌱

A mystery C. chinense which turns from green to purple to red, with a knobbly skin and different hues depending on which bit gets the most sun. The colours on this ripe one go from volcanic yellow, through red, to almost magenta when the sun catches it right.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Mystery Chilli #4. A look at the Red Dragon website suggests it can only be Black Cayenne, but that seems to lack the dark pedicel. Most of the mystery seeds from this seller don't quite match with anything they sell, let alone the list of things they say they may be. All the more fun! ☺️ 🌶️🌱

A pair of long black chillies, on a plant with medium-dark foliage.

'Black' chillies are generally a very dark purple, and will usually ripen to red. While not uncommon, there are not so many in the long form (this is about 10cm long by 1.5cm wide).

The slightly tortured shape and thick black pedicel make these fruits look particularly unusual.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Purple Pumpkin showing some impressive transitions. I've been surprised by the flavour too, not sure if it's because of the heat/sun/drought, but they're beyond what you might expect of an ornamental annuum. Only grew them for the colour, but now thinking of making a single variety relish🌶️🌱

Fruits on a Purple Pumpkin chilli plant. The two in the foreground are a mixture of shades between purple and peach, reaching up to orange on the most mature. Then there are a couple of younger purple ones, and almost hidden in the background is the bright red of a fully mature pod.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I'm pretty confident that the fermented, liquidized result of this fantastic rainbow medley will be a filthy sort of brown. But that's what I've got, as I pick off the early few* while waiting for the bulk to ripen. *Not actually early, I know, but it's been a funny year (see alt). 🌶️🌱

A lot of plants have been too hot and/or dry to set fruit, and didn't do much till I moved them out of the greenhouse and set up automatic watering. There's a lot going on now, but it's a race to get them to maturity before the weather closes in.

There's also bright green jalapeno pods, from a plant which was doing great until it was snapped off near the base by a fox, and some Buena Mulata, unable to grow but valiantly trying to produce despite being girdled in it's youth by slugs.

So this is a mix of the early pods from a bunch of plants, picked to stop them withering while I wait for the rest to ripen. Aside from those already mentioned, there's a mystery sweet mini-pepper (yellow), Green Trinidad, Shishito, Fruity Volcano, some chunky thing that was meant to be cayenne but grows to 3x the size, another mystery one that's similar but from elsewhere, Purple Pumpkin, Brazilian Pumpkin, Aji Limon and charred Hungarian Hot Wax.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Bonanza crop of Peppadew (or Malawi picante, if you prefer). If they ripen in time. Not sure whether to pickle them or make Red Baccatum Relish🤔 🌶️🌱

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Ever-dependable Hungarian Hot Wax. This lot went camping with me last week, to be grilled on the BBQ. Surprisingly they were too hot for general consumption, but they survived the trip and I griddled them this morning. Tempted to try fermenting them, post-charring, as I believe that's a thing. 🌶️🌱

A Hungarian Hot Wax pepper plant sits in a border against a wall. About 20 pale green peppers are visible, a few starting to blush orange as they ripen.

A close up of the same plant a few days later. One of the peppers is bright red, but the rest remain pale green. I tend to pick them green, feeling they don't gain much in the ripening process. These are about 6 inches (15 cm) long, though a handful are even bigger

18 Hungarian Hot Wax peppers lying in a row on a bare wood table. Perhaps because of heat stress, some of these were pretty hot considering how big they are. I grilled a few on the barbecue, and they made a great burger addition, but they were a bit too Russian roulette for eating on their own.

The ones that came home again got griddled in a hot pan. I've been thinking about what to do with them, but I'm not sure they're going to survive this evening's Lebanese fakeaway.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is the thanks you get for lending Nature a helping hand. Slugs had ruined this Berbere Brown chilli plant by 'girdling' the trunk. But I really wanted seeds from it, so I thought I'd remove the damaged section and graft it back on. The fox cub had other ideas 😒 🌶️🌱

A Berbere Brown chilli plant, which had been 'girdled' by slugs stripping the bark, is carefully grafted back together after removing the damaged section

A bag is placed over the top of the grafted plant, to reduce transpiration while the join heals

Three days later the plant lies destroyed on the ground, soil strewn about, the bag chewed up and the stem snapped (not even at the join, but about 2 cm above)

Here, I'm pretty sure, is the culprit - not THE fox, but one of her cubs.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This is the ripe version of Mystery Pepper #3. It's hard to convey how the light catches it, the pearlescent sheen as purple pigments give way to orange and red. But this is my best attempt so far. 🌶️🌱

A metallic-looking, extremely gnarly chilli pod sits against a bleached plank of wood. Like a shot silk lining, the colour is a reddish orange, with undertones of purple.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Mystery Chilli #3 is starting to look like some kind of Borg invasion force. Should I be worried? I picked the first ripe one last night, a beautiful, metallic-sheened pepper, great aroma, technically waaaay-too-hot rather than super-hot. But there must be 70 pods on this thing: what am I to do?🌶️🌱🤯

An army of hot, gnarly, purple and green peppers are seen in a view through the centre of a dark-leaved chilli plant. There are lots of them, 30-40 in this shot alone - I haven't attempted a full count. When ripe, they turn orange-red, with shades of purple in places giving the impression of a metallic, pearlescent paint job, or shot silk.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The Fruity Volcano has a real way with knobbles. I struggled to get a decent crop last year, but enough for a fermented sauce, which was both fruity and volcanic. Slow start this year, probably because of the heat, so I've moved it outside and picked these few, hoping to get a decent 2nd crop. 🌶️🌱

A glossy red chilli pepper drips down from an upward-pointing pedicel. These are pointed peppers, twice as long as they are wide, and have an almost brain-like texture, with broad, shiny bumps and folds defining the shape.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This Purple Pumpkin is absolutely bejazzled. Not sure what I'll do with the pods, I was only really growing it because we saw one in a service station close to South Devon Chillies, and my kid liked the look of it. The purple (unripe) pods have a surprisingly good green chilli note to them. 🌶️🌱

A chilli plant sits against a brick wall, the dark green foliage and dark purple pods making a great contrast with the ripe pods, which change through orange to a dark red colour.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Update on this Mystery Chilli (#3). It's relatively prolific for something as gnarly as this. My first guess was Yaki Blue, but that's smoother. They do sell a cross that looks right, Yaki Blue x Major Pain, but I can't find Major Pain as a variety either. 🌶️🌱

A number of chinense chillies ripening on an outdoor plant. They are conical, tapered to a sharp point, and knobbly as Hell. Their best feature, however, is the colour, a sublime mixture of green and purple. I think it's the prettiest chilli I've grown, although it's worth noting that they're all buried deep within the plant, and are barely visible at all without lifting the foliage.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

As a new heatwave looks set to strike, here's a reminder to take extra care to prevent fires 🔥 This was in our local park last week, and had there been any wind at all, it could have spread to engulfed the lot and taken property with it. Avoid BBQs, and don't smoke in a tinderbox.

A lone fireman sprays the perimeter of a grass fire in a London park. Without any wind, this was spreading slowly, but nevertheless surely. It took a long time for the fire service to get access to the site, and on a windy day it could easily have gotten out of control before they did.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

A bit of veg from the garden, which went into a layered bake. The marrowiest courgette was too much, so I returned to the community garden and left it as an offering. It was gone 2 days later, so either somebody benefited, or the foxes are desperate. Varieties, where known, are in the alt. 🌶️🌱

A selection of colourful vegetables on an outdoors wooden table.

The peppers are Cornel (sweet), Hungarian Hot Wax, Berbere Brown and Poblano. There's a blocky pale sweet pepper, variety unknown, gifted by a plot neighbour. Green Tigrella tomatoes are super tasty, though maybe better picked a few days earlier. There's another giant tomato from the neighbour. The courgettes are Clarion, an overgrown Atena Polka, and the giant green one is unknown, from a novelty pack of seeds (surprisingly good though, at least when picked at a sensible size)

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Free Hugs is the tabasco-style sauce I made to use up the frozen superhots from last year. It's a ferment of Dorset Naga, CP115 Chocolate, shallots and garlic, diluted with cider vinegar and roasted red peppers. It's proving to be very popular, especially when the scrambled eggs come out. 🌶️🌱

A small bottle of very hot sauce that I made. The label says, "TabascNo", to denote the style, while the specific name for this edition is "Free Hugs". There is a black and white photo of an abandoned railway tunnel, with Free Hugs graffitied around the entrance. The sauce is a vivid cherry red colour.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

A somewhat lovely Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry pepper. 🌱🌶️

A colourful pepper on a colourful plant. The plant is deeply variegated, green and cream, and the fruit is striped, dark green and red, fading to yellow where the sun don't shine.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This has come true to type from the seeds I saved. I think it's CP115 Chocolate, so props to Christopher Phillips for getting it this stable. It's as hot as it looks, but last year's crop, alongside a bunch of Dorset Nagas, made for the best fermented sauce I've yet made. Looking forward to more 🌶️🌱

A very gnarly looking ripe chilli sits beneath an equally gnarly unripe one. The ripe colour is a sort of bronzed red, but will darken with time to a darker metallic brown.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

First Naga Morich of the season. It's only a wee one, but it's got some teeth 🌶️🌱

A small, red naga morich pepper on a piece of weathered wood.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Well now! Mystery Chilli #3 looks like a superhot with a purple persuasion. An exciting discovery, and another reason I love the Red Dragon randoms. Had I known it was chinense I would've put it inside, but it's thriving anyway. I'll post pics of the plant later, but for now, any ideas? 🌶️🌱

A gnarly-but-beautiful-looking chilli, flushing purple from green in the most delicate palette. I assume it'll end up red, so I'm hoping to capture the transition.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Big tom. Over 1kg! I didn't grow this, my plot neighbour did. An unknown variety, a literal heirloom, seeds passed down from generation to generation. Hungarian, so like their chillies it ripens earlier than your standard beefsteak to make the most of a short season. Her record, IIRC, is 1.8kg 🌱

An enormous beefsteak tomato dwarfs my kitchen scales, and registers a weight of 1.016 kg. A vivid red, it nevertheless carries the scars of its excess, the point where the stem attaches being a grey crater of damage and repair. Barely visible, on the left, a deep cleft has dried over where the skin could not accommodate the fruit's explosive growth.

That said, I grated it into pulp, and the majority of it was good.

That's more bruschetta al pomodoro than the three of us that eat it here can manage (this was one tomato of four - must be 2.5 kg in total). I'll freeze some for sauce. The neighbour is away for 3 weeks, and we're under instruction not to let anything go to waste, so there's more on the way.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

This particular Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry is really something. How is it such a force of nature with so little chlorophyll. Pods are slow to ripen, but I'll take that. 🌶️🌱

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

These KS Orange flame are not quite what I was expecting - guessing a bit of crossing has been going on. Can't complain, they were freebies anyway, but I'd got quite excited by how prolific the plant was looking. I had 2 plants, both looked very different - should have kept the smaller one 🤷 🌶️🌱

A handful, sort of, of chilli pods which were meant to be KS Orange Flame. They've turned out to be red, not orange, and are averaging around 6mm in length, so certainly not what was advertised.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Something very striking about the white flowers against the cream leaves here. Stunning foliage on this, and an unusual backdrop for a capsicum flower. Variety is Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry: I've heard it's not especially stable, so if the pods are any good I'll try to isolate some seeds. 🌶️🌱

A white flower of Capsicum annuum nestles quietly among its own green-flecked cream foliage.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

There goes the Buena Mulata 😢 I've got bad soil for 🌶️, but pots require space and watering, so I took the time to properly prepare some ground. Then this, and it's not alone - about 8 plants already ruined. Until someone solves the mollusc imbalance, gardening for me remains mostly heartbreak. 🌶️🌱

What remains of the stem of a buena mulata chilli plant; slugs have removed all the outer material in a ring about 1.5cm long, starving the plant of water, nutrients and structure (I had to prop it up for the photo). This one is done for, and there are a bunch of others following not far behind.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Mystery chilli #2. What could it be? 12cm long, 2.5cm wide, generic pepper flavour but it does have a bit of heat. 🌶️🌱

Mystery Chilli #2, red, almost as long as the plant that bears it, in a large square pot, outdoors beside a fence.

The pod cut in half lengthwise. It's the first chilli on a small plant, so a lot of seeds are undeveloped.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I added a sprinkling of freshly chopped Fatalii chilli to a small, homegrown salad. Not only did it elevate the flavour in the most fantastical way, it also made my lunch unendurable 🌶️🌱

A yellow fatalii pepper hanging from a plant in the evening light

A finely-chopped salad of beetroot, spring onion, red pepper and coriander, with a sprinkling of even more finely-chopped fatalii chilli

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

The fox has killed my Early Jalapeño. The Purple Pumpkin suffered a narrow escape. My fault, as it turns out; it's my habit to swill the empty milk cartons and pour them into this bed. Thursday's milk soured in the heatwave, so the whole lot went in: immediately she's back to excavating 🌶️🌱

A good-sized Early Jalapeño plant, snapped off near the base and the roots dug up. No pickles for me this year :(

The base of a Purple Pumpkin plant, showing a 6 inch hole and the roots exposed.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Don't forget to add 🌶️🌱 or 🌱🌶️ to get added to the chilli feed. I always forget. But you're better at this than me.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

This year's Mystery Chilli #1 - any ideas? Bright yellowy-orange (looks slightly darker here in the evening light), 4cm long and almost spherical. Foliage is on the pale side.

A round, orange chilli pod against pale green leaves.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Two Candy Cane Chocolate Cherries, and a budding fruit. Both plants are favourites for the foxes to dig up, getting half of their roots pulled out every night. Coincidence and misfortune, I'm sure, but it explains why they're not looking happier. 🌶️🌱

A Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry pepper, in a pot, with an unknown dark-leaved chilli below it.

Another Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry, this time in a raised planter against our kitchen wall. The leaves show strong variegation, but there are no fruits on this one as yet.

An early, partially developed fruit on a Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry. It is green at this stage, with fairly prominent white striping.

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Always check your recipes. I accidentally put twice the amount of Dorset Naga in this one. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it means the OH won't be downing it, and the pool of friends I can share it with is reduced by half. It's damn good, mind 😆🌱🌶️

A bottle of my own Mango Naga, with an 'Extra Naga' strap-line to remind me that it's not for the faintest of hearts. It's picured on a wooden plinth against a brick wall.

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Reposted by Chilli Chirps

dGb Hot Sauce @dgbhotsauce.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#hotpepper lovers in #Ottawa need to check out the greenhouse at gaiaorganics.ca. Super friendly, knowledgeable. Impossibly large selection of #chili plants, from slightly spicy to beyond super hot, including many exotic varieties. Always a pleasure visiting. Also great veg, herbs and flowers. 🌶️🌱

Large selection of chili pepper plants on a shelf, stretching into the distance. Sign in the foreground, top left, reads "Hot Peppers (By SHU, mild to XXXtra Hot).

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Chilli Chirps @chillichirps.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

It's surprising how spicy a sauce becomes when you drop a git-load of mixed peppers in. I love the savoury taste of this though, and it comes from the simplest of ingredients. 🌱🌶️

A bottle of hot sauce, consisting of a large number of chilli peppers tempered by some butternut squash. The label features a badly-drawn Sasquatch, carrying a butternut in one hand and an over-sized chilli in the other.

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