Well hello there and welcome to Hot Chilli Mama. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read our first blog.
Why are we setting up a blog you may well ask, well simply because when we are out and about so many people come up to us and want to talk chillis, what varieties we have, how we grow them, what we make with them and how they can use them, so we thought, why not make the most of our Coronavirus isolation to put in all down in one spot for people to read at their leisure and learn not only more about us, but also what we do, why we do it, how we do it and maybe pick up some tips to try yourselves.
So over the course of this next year, I am going to take you on a weekly journey through Hot Chilli Mama Central. You're going to get the good, the bad and the ugly my friends. We'll be getting down and dirty at the farm with preparation, propagation, planting out, maintaining and harvesting. We'll introduce you to a whole world of chillis you may never of even heard of and then we will also get into the kitchen and cook up a storm of chilli delights. So to help you navigate, the blog will have three categories, 'The farm', 'Our chillis' and 'Our products.
If there's anything that you are particularly interested in hearing about, just drop us a line and will endeavour to cover that topic.
Throughout the year, we will also be asking you for feedback and suggestions about your favourite chilli delights, and if I can work out how too, there will even a competition or two with the chance to sample our new products.
So let's get this blog rolling and where better to start than with the formal introductions.
Introducing the Hot Chilli Mama team
Hot Chilli Mama is a small family business set up by Hot Chilli Mama (aka Sue), Hot Chilli Son (aka Matt) and Hot Chilli Daughter (aka Kate) in 2017; combined with the hardworking Hot Chilli Husband (aka John) behind the scenes. I really need to get the poor bloke his own tshirt.
We originally started as a means of combining my love of chillis with a desire to help our kids set up a small business to earn and learn the value of money. Yep, if they want money they have to work for it and the more they work the more they earn. Matt is saving hard for his first car and Kate is just enjoying counting her shekels - I can see her being the company accountant one day. Since those humble beginnings it has grown leaps and bounds, yet it remains a family business with the Hot Chilli kids still an integral part.
Welcome to Hot Chilli Mama Central
Our farm is based in Deans Marsh, in the foothills of the Otway Ranges.
It is primarily a small beef farm (Hot Chilli Husband's babies), yet we have carved off a section of the old horse paddock to create our dedicated chilli patch. We started with nothing, worse than that we started with compacted and depleted soils - not much life there! We had a lot to do.
Our first growing season was in 2017 and boy have we achieved a lot since then. We have built fences, made garden beds, propagated, built a greenhouse and plenty more. But we're not finished yet, we still have plenty to do.
We have learned a lot along the way, made a few mistakes, had plenty of laughs and some tears and made some wonderful friends in our community we didn't even know.
So please come along on the journey with us and we hope you enjoy it and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
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Great to see you jot down your chilli journey and lovely to have you as a neighbour. Your products are wonderful!
Congrats on getting your dream up and running, have no doubt it will be a great success.