We have been very lucky so far this year in that we have had no **crosses every digit * fruit fly strike any of the chillies in the patch.. The bell chillies near the house were my big concern as they have no protection unlike the the large chilli in the hoop house.. 
A few weeks ago I decided to use up the collected chillies in a chilli paste so went searching on the interwebs for some inspiration.. An online friend (Tar Joy) pointed me in the direction of one she had tried & liked.. It looked promising but we were missing a few ingredients so I decided to make up my own using the recipe as a rough guide..
Below is what we came up with & am quite chuffed to say that the sugar & vinegar are the only ingredients we didnt grow ourselves :)»

Sambal Oelek...

• 500g/1 lb chillies, chopped
• 300g/10½oz galangal, peeled & chopped (some ginger would be nice as well as or instead of the galangal)
• 300g/10½oz garlic, peeled
• 4 stalks of lemongrass, chopped
• 2tbsp of grated lime skin (we use our kaffir fruit)
• small hand full of Kaffir lime leaves
• 350ml/1.5cup coconut vinegar
• 200g/7oz rapadura sugar
  
  

Add all ingredients, except for the sugar & vinegar, to the food processor & chop on high for about 30 seconds.
Slowly pour the vinegar in while the processor is on high until a smooth paste has formed.
Move the paste to a saucepan & bring to the boil.
Slowly add the sugar & stirred through until dissolved.
Reduced the heat & let simmer on low for 5 minutes. Adding a lid at this stage will aid in the clean up later as I found out ;)»

 This batch filled 3 sterilised 500ml jars..  2 of these were added to a hot water bath for 10 or so minutes so they could be stored for later use with one being gifted to some friends..

We have been very pleased with the fresh citrus flavour off this paste.. We have used it to spice up some leftover roast pork & also to make an AWESOME coconut prawn curry.. Cant wait to experiment with the next batch we make up..
Nice & easy Chilli paste..
A simple no frills recipe to make up this basic yet versatile paste..
Thanks to Granny Mel for a few pointers on the paste..
250g/½lb Chillies, chopped in ½
125ml/½ cup Vodka
15g/½oz salt
2Tbsp water



Process chillies on high for 30 seconds or until finely chopped.
Add to saucepan with water & salt then bring to the boil.
Reduce to a high simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Turn hotplate off & allow past to cool for 5 minutes.
Stir Vodka through paste then add to sterilised jar & seal.
I would recommend storing it in the fridge.

This is such a basic recipe that only takes 15 minutes to whip up & can be used in so many different styles of cooking..

Shall post the other chilli paste recipes later if I think they are tasty enough..

For more regular updates about the patch come visit us at https://www.facebook.com/Bitsouttheback
Have a great one All...
:)»

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A recent news release aimed at the microcontroller and Internet of Things communities got me thinking about ways to participate on the leading edge of an emerging technology.

When someone develops a new product, they often need to also develop a market for that product. When that new product becomes available, people who might use it usually are busy with life and are not looking for and waiting for that new product to be released. Getting people to use the new product takes more than just making it available. If the new product is revolutionary, has immediately obvious benefits and is priced reasonably, the developer of the product need only do a good job of communicating to the target audience what the product does and how they can get the product. Then the money comes pouring in. That sometimes happens, like with the iPod, but its rarely the situation.

If the product is evolutionary instead of revolutionary, if the benefits are not immediately obvious, or if it is priced high enough that people decide theyll do without or keep using a competitive alternative, the developer of the product must work much harder to get people to use or buy the new item. Some ways to engage potential users are:

1. Provide free samples of the new product.
2. Provide the new product at a very low introductory price.
3. Provide services, for free or very low cost, that will help potential users understand the benefits of the new product and will help minimize the time and cost for them to begin using the new item effectively.

The news release I mentioned at the start of this post was about the Bluetook Smart Starter Kit, a free training package to,

"...walk developers through building a Bluetooth Smart device and creating a Bluetooth Smart Ready mobile application. The free kit is designed to work with an Arduino board (not included) and includes sample code to get developers up and running..."

If you want to create mobile apps that use Bluetooth and dont already have decent tools to let you do that, you might be interested enough to sign up and try out the free kit. The kit is only software, so there is minimal cost for these developer tools because companies must provide developer tools or no coder is going to develop apps that use the new product. The few app developers who take the time to even look at the free kit will likely go meh and continue using what they already use. A few people, most likely app developers who also like Arduinos, will seriously try out the kit. And a few people in the Arduino community might play with the kit because theyre interested in Bluetooth.

A stronger way to convince people to try using your new product is to offer it for free when there is true value in them trying it out. A pre-internet example was receiving a small personal sample of a new type of shampoo or other useful consumer products in the (snail) mail. An example more relevant to people who work with microcontrollers is the free samples which some electronics manufacturers offer.

Two examples of the free electronics samples are the Texas Instruments (TI) my.TI program and the Microchip Sample program. Create an account in those two programs, then you will be able to get designated electronics samples for free, usually new products. You might also be able to get individual samples for free even if a component is not listed as a free sample. Providing you with free samples is valuable to the manufacturer because you might not otherwise consider using that item, especially if there are obvious competitor items, either from the same company or from other companies, or if its totally new. To use a new item, you have to spend your (limited) time learning how to effectively use it. People like free stuff, so giving away a few samples of relatively low cost electronic components can convince people to try using them.

The second way mentioned above to engage potential users is to price the new item low compared to its competitors. Right now Arduino single-board microcontrollers have a lot of media buzz and a very active user community. When TI released a new single-board microcontroller, the Tiva C Series Connected LaunchPad, they priced it significantly lower than the Arduino Uno with significantly better capabilities. That convinced one of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group participants to order a Tiva C LaunchPad as soon as he read about it.

The third way mentioned above to get people using your new product is to provide services to help people more quickly start using your product. One examples of this is the upcoming MediaTek launch of the LinkIt platform for the Internet of Things and the MediaTek Labs developer support program.

"MediaTek Labs will stimulate and support the creation of wearable devices and IoT applications based on the LinkIt platform. Developers and device makers who are interested in joining the MediaTek Labs program are invited to email labs-registration@mediatek.com to receive a notification once the program launches."

Another example of providing user support is when a tech manufacturer or distributor sends a representative to a user group meeting to explain and promote their products. I worked with Adobe one time to put on a Tech Cafe in Milwaukee which talked about recently released Adobe products and gave a short workshop on how to use some of those products. Adobe sponsored the meeting by having one of their employees lead the workshop, and they provided breakfast and beverages for the workshop participants. Everyone thought that was fantastic -- learn about powerful products, like Creative Suite, get to ask a knowledgeable company rep questions and get informative answers, and have free snacks on top of it. What geek could ask for more than that?

Oh by the way, the Adobe rep gave away a $2500 software suite at the end of the workshop, along with a few other valuable Adobe goodies and company swag. That was an awesome way to support their users and potential users!

How could the developer of a new product get you to try it out? Maybe at the next session of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group we can make a list of all the ways people at the meeting know of that companies are willing to support the microcontroller users community in Humboldt. And one or several of us can start reaching out to those organizations to make them aware of us and to let them know we are interested in working with them to expand the use of their products!

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