Instead of showing you my usual harvest I thought I'll share some of the sights from New Mexico Hatch Chile Festival. Our chile harvest and roasting season runs from mid-August through September, you can smell chile roasting in the air wherever you go, New Mexicans load up their cars with sacks and sacks of chiles to stock up for the year. To give you an idea of how serious we take chile roasting and how much we eat chiles in NM, some big box stores like Wal Mart runs 4 roasters in their store front, grocery stores in town offer free roasting service, churches do fund raising event this time of the year selling and roasting chiles. Yes, we love our chiles, big time!
Hatch chiles come in different sizes and shapes, from sweet to super hot.

The village of Hatch is home to to the "world's best chile peppers".
Admission to the event is $10 per carload.
Inside the building --- entertainments, crafts, demonstrations, foods, etc.
Mild, medium, hot, extra hot, extra extra hot chiles in 40 lb sacks.
This vendor is selling 3 different varieties of green chiles.
Varieties of red chiles.
Try a combo ristra when confusion kicks in.
Checking out different varieties of chile.
Ristra making demonstration.
Here in NM we buy chile by the sack, each sack is 40 lbs,
notice the chile roaster behind the tent, the price of chiles includes
roasting and delivery to your car.
notice the chile roaster behind the tent, the price of chiles includes
roasting and delivery to your car.
Every vendor has at least one roaster in service.
Hot dried peppers.
Red or green ground chile powder.
Yummy chicharron with hot salsa and lime, do you eat fried pork rind?
we enjoy eating greasy unhealthy foods once in a while,
(Who's counting fats and calories when you're having fun?)
There are some healthy real fruit juice too.
and something in between
Gimme one of those super hot pepper ristra.

Chile sauce without onion is nasty, we buy chiles by the sack
why not buy onions by the sack, they go well together.
Hand operate roaster is faster than automatic roaster, compare the width
and diameter of this roaster with the automatic roaster below.
Automatic chile roaster takes a little longer to do the same job.
Chiles chiles, chiles everywhere, can you smell chiles roasting in the air?
Typical street scene as you drive through Hatch village.
A sack of green chiles is 40 lbs.
Roasting
Few minutes later, it's done, boxed, and delivered, all for $25 (this year).
Take a closer look --- all blistered and slightly charred, heavenly aroma.
Hard work begins at home, you have to peel the skin and remove seeds,
(for rellenos you just peel the skin), bag chiles in serving portion and freeze.
Hopefully one buys enough for the year, chiles imported from neighboring
states and Mexico don't taste the same and fall short of the unique aroma.
(No offense to our neighbors, we are mighty proud of our "designer" chiles.)
Visit Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday for more harvests.
Red or green ground chile powder.
Yummy chicharron with hot salsa and lime, do you eat fried pork rind?
we enjoy eating greasy unhealthy foods once in a while,
(Who's counting fats and calories when you're having fun?)
There are some healthy real fruit juice too.
and something in between
Gimme one of those super hot pepper ristra.

Chile sauce without onion is nasty, we buy chiles by the sack
why not buy onions by the sack, they go well together.
Hand operate roaster is faster than automatic roaster, compare the width
and diameter of this roaster with the automatic roaster below.
Automatic chile roaster takes a little longer to do the same job.
Chiles chiles, chiles everywhere, can you smell chiles roasting in the air?
Typical street scene as you drive through Hatch village.
A sack of green chiles is 40 lbs.
Roasting
Few minutes later, it's done, boxed, and delivered, all for $25 (this year).

Hard work begins at home, you have to peel the skin and remove seeds,
(for rellenos you just peel the skin), bag chiles in serving portion and freeze.
Hopefully one buys enough for the year, chiles imported from neighboring
states and Mexico don't taste the same and fall short of the unique aroma.
(No offense to our neighbors, we are mighty proud of our "designer" chiles.)
Visit Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday for more harvests.






















































