If you go to the rangers' hut in Nowton Park you can see what's happening in the nest box in the tree just behind the hut in the childrens' play area. They've got a monitor showing a feed from a webcam in the box. It shows the family of tits that are nesting there. Seeing the hungry mouths of the baby birds and hearing them cheeping away madly for more food reminded me that I should start thinking about how I can earn something to feed my own brood. But before I dive back into working for somebody doing more IT stuff, it's worth exploring a few more ideas. So here's number #1...
For the last few years we have been growing chillis. It started with just a few plants. But then we discovered Reimer Seeds and their selection of over 1800 hot pepper varieties. So last year (along with some sweet peppers), it threatened to take over the greenhouse and garden. This may give some idea of the chilli part of our crop...
Last year we grew Peruvian Purple, Poinsettia, Ladybug, Inca Red Drop and Habanero Orange (boy are they hot!). Over the months we picked quite a few peppers. We ate lots, dried lots, froze lots, made chilli sauce with lots, gave a lot away and pickled even more (but we're down to the 12th last jar of those now)...
This year we are growing Chinese 5 colour, Medusa, Caribbean Hot Pepper Mix, Fatalii, Guajillo and Black Pearl peppers from Reimer as well as some Tokyo Hot (that I got as a Valentines Day present (!)) and some Fiesta seeds, taking part in the BBC Gardeners' World Chilli Seed Trial.
Germination has been good, and the seedlings have grown on, and now we have over 130 plants! What are we going to do with them all? Maybe we can turn this into a business? Do you think it might fly?
4 comments:
I think you should give it a go John ! Why not ? Is there a Saturday market in Bury ? Or you could try selling them on ebay.
Thanks, Helen. But I did some sums...
If we get 50 chillis/bush on average and make 10p/chilli on average, with 130 plants, that makes £650 revenue. Hmm. I think we need a bit more than that to live on. Maybe we should seel te seeds.
Ive got a fruit and veg shop, and been struggling to get a varity in chilles, and at a price which is resonable to sell to the public
our amazing story was aired on new zealand tv last night. Farmers markets are very popular here. Is there a farmers market where you live? - you could go ot it and sell your stock and some hot food made with your products.
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