Capsicum Grading and Uses
Chilliies are very useful. You can eat them raw, sliced, pickled, fried, baked, cooked. Here we describe how we grade our chillies after harvest and some of the things we (and you) can do with your fresh chillies.
Growing Chillies in the Western Cape
Chillies grow well throughout the year since we traditionally have minimal frost during winters.
Harvesting
We harvest our chillies at three different points in their lifecycle.
Green – almost mature green chillie – flavour is well developed but heat is still developing – fresh taste without too much burn.
ColourBreak – The green chillie has reached its full size and is about to turn red – think of it as an adolescents chillie :-). This chillie will eventually turn Red if exposed to sunlight and other ripening fruits (bananas, citrus etc)
Red – this chillie has matured on the tree, flavours have matured and the seeds are viable if planted.
After red the walls of the fruit start to soften and becomes mush, the pod falls from the tree and will either be consumed by a chillie loving creature, become compost or create more chillie plants next season.