A starting point

Mexico, chilies and me

For me, the starting point was a small chili tree I bought in a plants sale at the University. I am Mexican, and I arrived to the UK to pursue my postgraduate studies. I was missing many things from home, and food was one of the top-3 of the list. I missed spicy hot food, but it was hard for me to find the right ingredients. Thus, when I passed by the plant sale and saw this small cute chili tree, it occurred to me that I could have a bit of that taste of home, so I bought it. It was not the right species for all the recipes, but it was nice being able to add some spiciness to my cooking.

Time flew, and by my second Christmas in the UK, I left my plants in charge of a colleague while visiting my family at home. Unfortunately, she had a last-minute journey and left them alone. When I came back, my small tree was dry. I was very sad, and for a while, I did not have the heart to dispose of it. I kept the pot. Later in the year, I planted some seeds (from a chili I bought at the supermarket for cooking), hoping they would grow in the pots I had. I was very surprised when I saw all the seedlings; I did not expect so many of them to develop. I was encouraged by this and decided to acquire more plants I use to cook. I bought basil (I am a fan of pasta) and I regularly use its leaves when making an Italian dinner. This experience motivated me to keep growing some of my food at home. I realized I did not have to commit a lot of time to care for an allotment. I could grow small plants that do not require as much time, effort or space.

Growing my salad at home

The next thing I wanted to try was growing lettuce because I eat many salads. I had heard that you could use the stem you usually discard to re-grow it and decided to give it a go. I put the stem into water for about a week, and it started to grow roots. The following step was to transplant it. Instead of buying pots, I decided to use the strawberry punnets from the supermarket and a bit of soil from a nearby park for my little experiment. I planted two lettuce stems and watched them grow. I was happy to see they grew a lot, although their shape was unexpected. They did not look like the ones at the supermarket. Instead, they resembled the leaves of a dandelion. I searched online and found out that lettuce likes cold and light. I also learned that when the weather is too hot for them, they grow tall instead of wide, and they bloom sooner. With this unusually hot summer, all my lettuce looked weird. Most horticulturist posts recommended starting another harvest when conditions improved, but I decided to wait and enjoy the leaves in a nice salad after they bloomed. I also collected their seeds, and now that weather has changed, I want to try it again.