About us

We are Christine and Terry owners of The Chilli Patch.

The Chilli Patch is tucked into the mountainside at Finca Colina. (Hill farm) in the Malaga province of Andalucia.

Inspired by The South Devon Chilli Farm, when we moved to Spain in 2006 we created The Chilli Patch which is just that, a patch of cleared land on the side of a mountain.
We were given seed by Trees Can’t Dance which after a disastrous start (see our history) flourished and produced an amazing variety of wonderfully hot chillis, Thai Dragon and Ring of Fire being our favourites as they have just the right “kick” for sauces, dips and jams.

In 2008 we had a good harvest of Thai Dragon, Ring of Fire, Habanero and from a gift of mixed Cayenne seed from our friend Irene.

The winter of 2008 was long and wet. Spring seemed a long time coming and our seed took a long time to germinate. The resulting crop for 2009 has been interesting. Seedlings of Thai Dragon and Ring of Fire, plants which flourished in 2008 made a brief appearance then disappeared! The Jalapeños flourished as did various Cayennes which made a return and are now bushes. We found some fleshy round chillis which we don’t remember planting.

Now in January 2010 with cold wet weather quite unlike any experienced in Andalucia for 60 years you'd expect our little patch of unprotected chillis to be dead or at least hibernating but they're still producing even if at a much reduced rate. I've just braved temperatures of 14 degeesC to pick a few chillis for lunch. It feels good to pick, rinse off dust and use. No chemicals to worry about.The freezer is full of Cayennes, Jalapeños, a few Habaneros and some Cherry Bomb waiting to be used in cooking and jam making so, although we have no fresh or dried chillis for sale at the moment,if you live in the Malaga area we can get frozen ones to you.

As we use no chemicals of any kind and none have been used on the land for at least 7 years (probably never) we have been inspected by CAAE (Comité Andaluz de Agricultura Ecológica) for organic certification.

Operator Number 13212 .

info@thechillipatch.com