my little seed shop

Growing chillies is great! In a few years’ time, this hobby got somewhat out of hand and now I fill most of my spare time with it. But growing these formidable plants has its implications. First of all, there’s the chillies themselves. 
Even though I absolutely love everything related to chillies, I have difficulty eating them. Our friends, colleagues, and family were so swamped with chillies, we had to find a new destination for our spicy fruits. Luckily, a festival was organized just around the corner: the Dutch Chili Fest. 

Without expectations, but armed to the teeth with seeds in fun packagings, flaming hot powders, and of course loads of free chilli vodka, we were quite a hit. Since then, we’ve been at 5 editions, and the popularity of the festival and our enthusiasm have only increased.
 

All seeds in the shop proceed from chillies we’ve grown ourselves, both in the greenhouse on our city center rooftop in Eindhoven, and simply in our garden. We’ve raised all the fruits shown on the website’s pictures from the seed, one by one and with lots of love, to later harvest, photograph, dry or eat them. 
 

Over time, we will try and make this website as spicy, inspiring, informative, and of course as entertaining as our stand at the hottest festival of The Netherlands! 

Naturally true to type

Different chilli varieties can crossbreed when standing close to one another. This happens when the pollen of one chilli lands in a different pepper, either by pollinators like bees or bumblebees, by the wind, or by yourself when brushing past the plants. If this happens, the seed you take out and sow next year, won’t produce the same peppers as the previous year.  That’s no real disaster, a new pepper will grow from it that’s also special and usable. But you might want to isolate your plants to prevent crossbreeding. I only take seeds from the plants in the greenhouse, where no pollinators can enter. Also, I put varieties together that don’t or are unlikely to crossbreed. This minimizes the chance of my seed not being true to type. Still, occasionally a different plant comes out than I’d intended. I’m amused when this happens, because it only shows that fortunately, nature has a will of its own.