Ripe Lemon drop chillies

Although it’s November, we are still harvesting a few summer crops from the garden. Our sweet peppers are nearly over, but the hot chillies are just starting to ripen up. This year we have grown both Lemon drop and Alberto’s Locoto. The latter produce big fat juicy fruits that are best used fresh – I have tried drying them, but they go very hard and need soaking before use. The Lemon drop, however, are more versatile – delicious fresh, beautiful to look at and very easy to dry.

If you look closely there are lots of unripe fruits on this Lemon drop plant

Sadly, it’s getting rather cold and mouldy in the greenhouse now and I know that if I leave the pepper plants out out there, the crop will rot before it ripens. So, I am bringing some plants in to nurture over the winter. I do this most years and some survive in order to fruit again next year. This also allows growing fruit to ripen on the plants. However, there isn’t room indoors for all of them, so some of the chillies will be picked green and allowed to ripen up off the plants in the company of an apple or two… these are usually the ones that are destined for drying.

Fat, juicy Alberto’s Locoto starting to ripen indoors

Whatever way they ripen up and make it onto our plates, I know that we will be enjoying the heat of the summer for months to come!