The Farm

The Upton Cheyney Chilli Company can be found on Manor Farm in the village of aforementioned name.  Upton Cheyney itself is a picturesque village situated on the steep slopes of Lansdown Hill within the greenbelt and the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Manor Farm, which was mentioned in the Doomsday book, is predominantly a organic Beef and Pork farm, from which all the produce can be bought from the fantastic farm shop (www.manorfarm-shop.co.uk). It has only been since the beginning of 2009 that Chilli’s have been grown on Manor Farm, although the success of demand for the products has meant that serious developments have been required!

The Chilli Farm, currently consists of 2 poly tunnels. One (a 15ft x 20ft tunnel) is used for germination and propagation, whilst the other (a 20ft x 60ft tunnel) has been used this year for our main growing crop.

Crops grown in the large tunnel this year included Orange Habanero, Peach Habanero, Bhut Jolokia, Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax, Serrano, Cherry Bomb, Super Chilli, Pepper Heatwave, Joes Long, Cayenne, and Twillight.

The season provided us with a bumper crop, totalling tens of thousands of chilli fruits. Prior to next year’s growing season we will be erecting a third tunnel, matching the size of our existing 20ft x 60ft tunnel. This tunnel will be known as the “Hot One” as it will be dedicated to the cultivation of the “Chinense” variety of chilli peppers. These chilli’s are basically the hottest ones, often described as “Scotch Bonnets” due to their shape. They often measure close to 1,000,000 units on the Scoville scale, and are to be taken very seriously!!!

The original tunnel will become known as “The Not So Hot One” where a variety of chilli’s of the “annum” variety will be grown. Annums which include Jalapeno and Cherry Bomb are still very hot in nature but not on the same scale as the “Chinense” variety.

All of our plants are grown in raised beds, with a leaky hose irrigation system. Manor Farm is an organic farm, and so although not organically certified, all of the chilli’s were grown without the use of pesticides, with aphids and other pests being controlled via either human intervention (i.e picking the little critters off the plants and humanely seeing them off!) or with biological methods such as the introduction of Ladybird Larvae.

The main farm is open to visitors all year long, where you are free to wonder round, visiting the various animals, whilst the chilli farm is open from early April till late November when you can watch the plants grow from small saplings into bushes of exotic hot fruit.