[Glosterboy]

First time I have grown Chillies. I now have lots of green chillies on my six plants. Do I wait until they turn red before picking, drying and storing? Can I pick them whilst green, dry and store them?

Any advice on storing Chillies would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[tenderness]

You could freeze them. Or you could make them into a pickle. That way you get the strength of chilli when you add pickle to recipes, but don't have to worry about them going off.

They keep in the fridge in a paper bag for quite a while if you are using them regularly.

[Elcie]

Last year I strung them up and dried them in the airing cupboard, then transferred it to the kitchen once they were dry.  I used a needle and thread and sewed them together really in one long string.  The thread went through the stalk and when I needed to use one I cut the stalk from the string.

Don't do what I did though and take ages making the red/green/orange ones look pretty.  When I took them out of the airing cupboard they had all turned red 

[dig4victory]

You could freeze them.   

Is that whole, intact?  I'm thinking chopped up in some water in ice cube trays?

[Kristen]

Do they "crush" easily if frozen whole?

I dried mine last year (fan-assisted hot air drier) and they were very easy to use - crush between thumb-and-forefinger - but after a month or so they had re-absorbed moisture, so had to re-dry them again.

Does needle-and-thread drying improve on that?

[sunshineband]

I think it does Kirsten, as there is plenty of air flow around them, I still have some left from last season, which I crumbled up and kept in a screw top jar... round about February I think it was.

They are good to go 

Also of course now have rather a lot more too 

[zazen999]

I strung all mine, and once they were all cripsy put them in the food processor to get them into powder

a - the powder released into the air was v strong and I cried all morning.

b - I could not get it to total powder, but it was 80% powder with a few bigger bits.

Put it into a plastic container and we used it instead of chilli powder for months.

this year, will do the same but will put the food processor outdoors on an extension lead AND put a good solid tea towel over it. And leave it a good hour after stopping the processing before going back out there to transfer the powder.

[Cazzy]

I tried drying some in the oven at 50C, i'm sure I had read for 1hour, ended up having them in there for a few hours.

When I eventually took them out they are more like leather than anything that could be crumbled.

I'll give them a whizz in the processor and see what happens as I like the idea of using them like powder.

[Jonajo]

I freeze them whole (after blanching) and take them out as I need.

I also make loads of chilli oil: a handful of chillis, mix with loads of olive oil and heat gently but do not allow to boil or even bubble - just get the oil warm to hot. Then take off the hob, leave to cool in the oil and bottle them up with the oil.

The chilli oil keeps for ages (still have some from last year) and not only is the oil great for using with things, the chillies in the oil are perfect to be used up in things too.

[sunshineband]

I've threaded a few stringfuls now, just fresh picked and hung them up to dry. No special treatment and they are looking fine a week later