Hatch New Mexico - Chili Peppers

One day we took a drive over to Hatch, New Mexico. It is a small community just north of Las Cruces, has a population of about 1,600 people and is at an elevation a touch over 4,000 feet. It is mostly noted for touting itself as being the Chili Capital of The World and that’s what we went there for, chili.

We stopped at a local eatery named B&E Burritos. Hatch mostly consists of eateries where you can get a wide variety of chili dishes and places that sell chili in all it’s myriad of shapes forms and sizes.

At B&E when you order chili that is what you get, chili. It is accompanied with a tortilla period. But then in reality that is all you need. You can get it with beans added but we opted not to dilute the rich and wonderful flavors. We did order some chips and salsa which was extra but chili is the main attractant.

Here is a closer look at the wonderful bowl of the magic elixir for which we came. It is shredded pork, green chilies, and a bunch of spices. This dish is not for the faint of heart but really tasty. If you don’t like spicy food, don’t try this. This bowl is green chili, you can also order red chili which is just a slightly different flavor and no substantial differentiation in heat value.

Just across the street from B&E is a retail outlet for Grajaeda Farms. As you can see they sell peppers, lots and lots of peppers. The red ones you see here are dried.

Here is a large amount of peppers drying in the sun. Lots of pepper here. We borrowed this image. The peppers are harvested in August and September and then dried. Those two months are the busy time of the year in Hatch and they have a big chili pepper festival.

These are some long strings of chili peppers. They are removed from the string and used as needed. it is reported that the dried peppers hung and dried like this in a dry weather climate can last up to five years. When the dried peppers are removed for use they are soaked in water to reconstitute them.

This is a jar of green chili peppers. They can be purchased in varying heat values. The difference in heat is adjusted by the type and quantity of different peppers used in the jar. This method of canning along with freezing green peppers allows you to have the green chili any time of year.

You often see the pepper arranged in various decorative shapes sometime intertwined with garlic or other items for decoration. In this case a different type, smaller, pepper, was used in the arrangement. The hanging pepper forms whether straight or decorative are called ristras and are often found hanging in patios throughout New Mexico and are said to bring good health and good luck. I know they taste great regardless of the form.

Here is just another row of hanging peppers in case the longer presentation was more than you might use in the 5 years of shelf life.

If you don’t really care to have your peppers hanging around the patio, kitchen or living room from the ceiling you can easily buy just a large bag of peppers. They are wonderful to use in cooking a wide variety of dishes and the storage medium that you prefer doesn’t matter.

We hope you enjoyed this brief visit to Hatch and a smidgen of information about the wonderful tasting peppers.

As always, let us know if you have any questions or comments
All the best - George & Deanna