@Garp - hi. Are you in France too? I have never tried any in Bdx but have eaten curry in other places like Angouleme. It was OK but not BIR - I would liken it to the curries we used to get in South Africa. How about you?

@Rich - yes. The standard of cooking looks very high here. Still struggling to find recipes that have been widely tested and agreed to be the DBs among all the dedicated questing and experimenting.  I'll soon learn to find my way around though. Totally agree that being a chef is a life choice that comes with a lot of hard work, not a certificate

Cheers,
Tim

You need much bigger pots. A healthy chilli is so big and leafy that you don't even notice the flowers to start with.  I would repot into something at least 3 times bigger, and if you use a decent compost, they shouldn't need feeding. Not sure how much sun and heat yours are getting, but they love both.  And they hate being cold or draughty at night.
Good luck - plenty of time still to get them cropping nicely...but it sounds from your last post as if they are coming good anyway. Fingers crossed
Tim

We only tried okra once. The plants were very attractive (I think ours had red flowers), but the summer here is harsh and dry, and the little okra we got was tough with big seeds. Inedible.
I like the idea of growing it in pots because you can control shade and watering so much better. Might try it again.
Cheers,
Tim

Hi,
I buy basil seedlings in pots from the supermarket and break them up to plant on - cheap and easy.
But I agree that this would work less well for coriander, which doesn't like being transplanted.
You can get a variety of coriander called Slow Bolt. We started growing it about 10 years ago, and it self-seeds now all over the place.  Trouble is, the slow-bolt characteristic wears off, and soon you have plants that produce very little leaf and go straight to seed.  To avoid that, we only keep the seed from plants that bolt very late on.
One word of warning...I went away last year for work, and didn't grow any coriander. I tried planting the 2-year-old seed this year and it was all dud. I doesn't keep well. So I had to order more Slow Bolt and start the whole process again.
Cheers,
Tim

Clever! That really looks the biz.
Cheers,
Tim

Hi Rich,
Good to hear from you. God it's hot here, but it would probably be a cold snap where you are
Cheers,
Tim

Thanks guys. You can call me MF for short  ;D
We're in South West France near Bordeaux / Bergerac.
Cheers,
MF

Hi,
I joined a while back but haven't been active.
I have worked in Indian restaurants and now run a catering business in France. Our style is BIR Bangladeshi rather than Punjabi, so we cook the sort of curry you get in the southern part of the UK, rather than say Glasgow.
This looks like an interesting site with plenty of activity and plenty to chat about. And with any luck I'll learn some new tricks!
Cheers,
MacFerret