Windowsill to Plate
Grow chillies on your own window ledge, with no fancy equipment
A founding membership for beginners in the UK. Each week: one simple chilli recipe, one short video and one small job for your plant, alongside other beginners doing the same.
- Your first recipe arrives in week one, before anything has grown.
- A windowsill, a pot and what's already in your kitchen. No propagator or grow light to buy.
- One plan for a UK windowsill, and your first month back if it hasn't helped.
The problem
Seeds that never come up, and trying again with nothing to show
Seeds that never come up. Flowers that drop before they become chillies. Advice that says sow in January, then April, and watering out of worry.
Plenty of people have tried more than once, got nothing, and started to wonder whether a windowsill can do it at all.
Windowsill to Plate gives you one plan for a UK windowsill instead of advice that disagrees, one small job at a time, and something good to cook while your plant grows.
What you get
Everything a founding member gets
The weekly recipe
One simple chilli recipe a week, for shop chillies now and your own later.
The weekly video
A short video of that week's recipe being cooked.
The week's job
One small job for your plant, set for a UK windowsill.
Show your windowsill
Post your plant or your plate in the week's post and see how other beginners are getting on.
Two pages to start
A windowsill starter list, and a rescue card for when a plant struggles.
Every past week stays
Join late or miss a week, and the earlier recipes, videos and jobs are there to catch up on.
How it works
From telling John to your first recipe
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Tell John you'd like a place
In person, or by replying to the message that brought you here. Nothing to pay.
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Hear first when places open
John tells you before anyone else hears. There are up to 20 founding places in the first pilot.
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Cook in week one
Your first recipe arrives in week one. Cook it with shop chillies while your own plant gets going.
The price
A founding price, held while you stay
Founding price
£8a month
Being tested with the first 20 members, and held for as long as you stay. Monthly, stop any time. Later rounds may pay more. Nothing to pay until week one opens.
Joining opens here on the day week one starts. Until then, tell John you'd like a place and you'll hear the date first.
Our promise
The first-month promise
For your first four weeks, cook the recipe, watch the video and do the week's job. If you have done that and it has not helped, tell John before the four weeks are up and he refunds your first month in full.
Questions
What people ask before joining
Can't I get all this free on YouTube?
The free advice is real, and it disagrees with itself: January or April? Windowsill to Plate gives you one plan for a UK windowsill, a recipe for what you grow, and people on the same week as you. Your first month is covered by the promise.
Isn't it cheaper to just buy chillies?
There's nothing else to buy: no propagator, no grow light. The founding price is less each month than the cheapest grow kit we found (£13.35), and the recipes are worth cooking with shop chillies too.
Isn't it the wrong time of year to start?
You start by cooking, whatever the month. The weeks before sowing are recipes and getting ready. Sowing starts in January, or keep a plant going over winter, or start from a plant in spring.
I usually just buy a plant. Is this still for me?
Yes. The plan works from a bought plant too. Getting a plant is the easy part; keeping it going, getting chillies and cooking with them is what the weeks are for.
Will this actually work for me?
Nobody can promise a harvest. What is promised: a recipe, a video and a job every week, other beginners alongside you, and your first month back if it hasn't helped.
Founding places
Founding places open soon
There are up to 20 places in the first pilot. Nothing to pay until week one opens.
Tell John you'd like one
In person, or by replying to the message that brought you here. When the founding places open, John tells you before anyone else hears.
This page does not collect names or emails. Nothing you do here is saved.