MikeCT wrote:
After harvesting most, and sampling a few of my conservatory grown
chillies, I am sure that they are much hotter than last year's crop.
Could this be due to the very hot summer? Mr Fothergill's "Fiesta"
has been really impressive with my two remaining plants still
producing many fruits. I have often read on this newsgroup different
methods of preserving and using chillies during the winter. I prefer
allowing them to dry out naturally and storing the whole chillies in
screw top jars. A friend who is mad on "Habaneros" boils them up, and
when cold, blitzes them with added non-virgin olive oil before
storing the resulting pulp in screw top jars. Any chilli
recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA
MikeCT

I grew some from seeds sent to me by a poster in this group, they have an
excellent flavour and did really well in a plastic greenhouse planted
directly into the soil, I harvested them last week, some pix he

http://i15.tinypic.com/2cy65vm.jpg

and

http://i9.tinypic.com/2a9ekxu.jpg

These are from 5 plants in semi shade and largely ignored since early August

I dried a dozen out, for seeds and also for cooking or grinding into powder,
the rest I sliced into one inch pieces and froze in a bag, seeds and all, I
believe they taste almost fresh once defrosted, pickling takes away all the
heat and drying takes away most of the flavour but not the heat, if you have
a lot, use a few methods and see which is best for you / your chillis.