British-Grown Chillies in Season
British-grown fresh chillies are generally available en masse between July and October. They tend to ripen with the early, milder varieties first and the season finishes with the hotter chinense peppers such as Habenero and Scotch Bonnet chillies. Piri-Piri peppers also appear later rather than sooner. It is wise to stock up and freeze the chillies when available - they will only lose texture, not taste or heat!
The chilli cookery courses maximise the use of fresh chillies as available and the recipes covered reflect chillies in season at the time of individual courses. I do always manage to obtain some out of season varieties and I keep stock frozen so that you don't miss out - but not quite the range that I would have to show you during July and October. For example; a course that takes place in October would feature a larger amount of fresh chillies with more unusual varieties than a course that took place in February. That is not to say a February course should be avoided - from February to April I focus on whatever fresh chillies are available, use frozen stock and throw in a range of recipes for dried chillies. Some guests find this type of course more useful as they consider it harder to get the best out of dried chillies. Also - once you have the basic techniques and understanding of fresh and dried peppers - you can go away and experiment yourself using what you learn on the course.