July to October Peppers

Peppers, along with tomatoes, aubergines, potatoes and most of their Solanaceae cousins are native to Central and South America. In 500 years their variant forms, along with chillies, have become indispensable in kitchens around the world but life would have been easier for UK growers if the conquistadors had left them to the Incas and the Aztecs. It is virtually impossible to grow a reliable crop in our climate, and even with the help of a tunnel or greenhouse the season is just a few short weeks in autumn. Heating the greenhouse and even using supplementary lighting will extend the season and increase yield but, according to our sums, a UK crop grown in this way has 10 times the carbon footprint of a pepper grown in Spain and trucked north, which is surely insanely environmentally destructive, even to the most bellicose locatisi We make no apologies for importing the majority of our peppers from our growers in Andalusia, and during the summer from our French farm in the Vendée.