How to store chillies

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What’s your preferred way to store or preserve chilli peppers? I always grow a few chilli plants and they normally produce more than enough fruits to keep us going for a year or more. The varieties vary, depending on what I have grown from seed or what young plants caught my eye in the garden centre, and of course some years some varieties do better than others. A couple of years ago we had lots of ‘Apache’ which are smallish and not too hot. Last year I had some plants of ‘Thai dragon’ which did particularly well. They produced loads of long thin chillies. I had a ‘Scotch bonnet’ plant as well but only got a couple of chillies from that. This year the same ‘Scotch bonnet’ plant has excelled itself and is covered in fruit. These are pretty hot so I imagine they will be used sparingly! Lots of the ‘Apache’ chillies got chopped up and frozen, and there is still some of those in the freezer. Last year, since our freezer was fairly full, I tied the ‘Thai dragon’ chillies in bunches and hung them around the kitchen to dry. They looked quite decorative and kept well. Most have been used but there are still 10 left. I’m not sure what is best to do with this year’s crop. I have had to wash the fruit as they had a bad infestation of greenfly, and they’re difficult to dry properly because of their folded shapes. In the past I’ve made chilli jelly which is delicious. What else do you like to make with chillies? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.