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Hatch chilie in jeopardy?
- Thread starter The Hot Pepper
- Start date
Man, when I was a kid in Southern New Mexico, just down the road so to speak from the Hatch valley, the Rio Grande was a full on raging river. Now, it is a completely dry ditch, that is fun to drive my truck around in, when I visit New Mexico.
Since the name is trademarked, and can only be grown in that specific area to be sold as Hatch, the supply could never feed any huge number of people outside of chile hungry New Mexicans, even without a dry river system.
There will always be enough Hatch chiles to feed New Mexicans (~2 million people), and any New Mexican ex pats.
Running a restaurant outside of New Mexico, and expecting to be able to serve Hatch chiles year round is an absolutely stupid business idea in the first place. There just aren't that many chiles to go around.
Here is a pic from a few years ago when I was driving my truck by the Rio Grande, which used to flow under this bridge. Bone dry, as always.
Since the name is trademarked, and can only be grown in that specific area to be sold as Hatch, the supply could never feed any huge number of people outside of chile hungry New Mexicans, even without a dry river system.
There will always be enough Hatch chiles to feed New Mexicans (~2 million people), and any New Mexican ex pats.
Running a restaurant outside of New Mexico, and expecting to be able to serve Hatch chiles year round is an absolutely stupid business idea in the first place. There just aren't that many chiles to go around.
Here is a pic from a few years ago when I was driving my truck by the Rio Grande, which used to flow under this bridge. Bone dry, as always.
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Albuquerque Journal/NM chiles are a hot commodity
It wasn’t long ago that skeptics predicted the end of the chile industry in New Mexico. Their predictions proved to be ill-fated as chile production has remained healthy in recent years. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 8,100 acres of chile were planted in 2017. In all, some 7,600 acres of that was actually harvested. The value of New Mexico red and green chile production in 2017 was also estimated at $44.6 million, an increase from the $41 million value in 2015.
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I guess it depends on your perspective...
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Albuquerque Journal/NM chiles are a hot commodity
It wasn’t long ago that skeptics predicted the end of the chile industry in New Mexico. Their predictions proved to be ill-fated as chile production has remained healthy in recent years. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 8,100 acres of chile were planted in 2017. In all, some 7,600 acres of that was actually harvested. The value of New Mexico red and green chile production in 2017 was also estimated at $44.6 million, an increase from the $41 million value in 2015.
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I guess it depends on your perspective...
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That article you referenced is stating statistics about New Mexican chiles, NE Man. New Mexican chiles are grown all over the state, and are in huge supply.
The author of the article that you posted has a farm in Hatch, but is using statistics for the broad spectrum of New Mexican chiles, by the Department of Agriculture.
The original article that THP posted is about Hatch chiles, which are grown exclusively in Hatch valley NM.
Think "Champagne", except with chiles.
The author of the article that you posted has a farm in Hatch, but is using statistics for the broad spectrum of New Mexican chiles, by the Department of Agriculture.
The original article that THP posted is about Hatch chiles, which are grown exclusively in Hatch valley NM.
Think "Champagne", except with chiles.
I read the first article, and found too much misleading (or just stoopid) "info" in it to trust its general gist.
I was gonna read the second article, but I realized that it's really no big deal. NM peppers are in no danger. If Hatch proper has turned itself into a place too bougie to support a chile industry, that's their problem. I mean, is a shame, but there's far sadder shit going on these days...
I was gonna read the second article, but I realized that it's really no big deal. NM peppers are in no danger. If Hatch proper has turned itself into a place too bougie to support a chile industry, that's their problem. I mean, is a shame, but there's far sadder shit going on these days...
Boy, my Neanderthal palate must be dull, because between the Anaheim-to-Big Jim Chiles I grow myself up here in the primordial wasteland of Minnesnowtakstan and the Hatch Chiles I've had shipped up from Hatch (and paid for the privilege), there is no difference I can taste or detect texturally.
We had a shipment of Pueblo Chiles sent last Spring from Colorado, and they were noticeably hotter and meatier. I've also heard more than one farmer from the Pueblo area claim that geologically the Hatch Valley is much larger than the marketing from the New Mexican market would suggest. All I know is that those Pueblo Chiles really livened up the pork green chile we made with them.
I think that any slack created for whatever reason by the Hatch market is already being compensated for. That name, however, is a powerful thing....
We had a shipment of Pueblo Chiles sent last Spring from Colorado, and they were noticeably hotter and meatier. I've also heard more than one farmer from the Pueblo area claim that geologically the Hatch Valley is much larger than the marketing from the New Mexican market would suggest. All I know is that those Pueblo Chiles really livened up the pork green chile we made with them.
I think that any slack created for whatever reason by the Hatch market is already being compensated for. That name, however, is a powerful thing....
Ive had both excellent Hatch and homegrown Anaheims too. Big Jim Heritage had great flavor. Our specialty market gets some really tasty Anaheims. I have no idea where they get them from. No idea what variety either but they are LARGE.
Probably 75% of my grow is now New Mexico chile (popularly and inaccurately known to the general public as "Hatch Chile"). This year my production was so good that I needed to buy this nice drum roaster:
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_Uleph86A&t=1s[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_Uleph86A&t=1s[/media]
stettoman said:
Eric, I had the extreme luck to travel to Pueblo last summer during the harvest season. My daughter took me to Musso Farms, on the St. Charles Mesa, where all the chile farms are. I'll post a video ASAP...
windchicken said:
Those Anaheims grow really well here too, Gary. The fact that they're really good green or ripe adds to the huge crops we can get here. Our friends in CO who (used to) make and market salsas got all their chiles from Pueblo. Our next trip out there is supposed to include a day at the farm....
That's badass!windchicken said:
stettoman said:
Eric, my very first chile garden, back in 2008, included 6 plants of Anaheim...The rich flavor was a revelation to me, and the plants and fruit were so pretty.
Maybe I will be in Pueblo at the same time as you! Carl Musso invited me back out for a tour of the farm when I was there, and I mean to take him up on it during growing season 2019...Check out this little video I made while I was there visiting with my daughter Hollie last summer (That's her in the white shirt).
As to the superiority of Pueblo Chile over any of the New Mexico types, I can only say that I love them all, and have yet to find one that didn't give me that wonderful rich flavor one looks for in that pod type. This year I'm growing 25 plants of Pueblo Chile alongside 25 plants each of Big Jim, Hatch Mild, Rattlesnake, and probably NuMex Sandia Select...So we'll see how they do in prime Louisiana forest soil anyway...
Thegreenchilemonster said:
Thanks Brock!
[media]https://youtu.be/3E1K26y_htQ[/media]
windchicken said:
I'd love to meet up with you down there! We haven't really set a schedule for the next trip out (last year was May, not a great time for chile roasting), but my best friend growing up runs a music store in CO Springs, so I could conceivably head out there just about anytime. My Darlin' Bride was born and raised in the state, she NEVER says no to a trip back there.
I hope I wasn't misunderstood in my earlier post: As much hotter and meatier the Pueblo chiles were than the Hatch, I'd be evil if I didn't include that the Hatch Chiles from http://greenchileco.com/ were off-season and roasted & frozen. The Pueblos were shipped fresh overnight by a friend who went to the farm and picked out what she wanted. But the Hatch variety were great, especially having to compete with fresh.
Two seasons ago I grew +/- 20 Anaheims of different lineage, we're still finding frozen packages of roasted pods from then. This last season I grew 4 Big Jims and even with a shit season they produced what looked like bunches of green bananas. I'll be growing the green bananas again this year, thinking a dozen of 'em...
Just an observation from ground zero, over the past 5 years, the green Chile has been from Lemitar, New Mexico. Folks have no idea they are not buying Hatch. I see lines around the block buying what people assume to be Hatch, but alas it's Lemitar. I have to ride 13 miles on a bike to get genuine Hatch at a little hole in the wall. The harvest this year was not hot at all.
Voodoo 6 said:
So is there really no discernible difference then?
I am not a fan of the Green Chile out of Lemitar, they taste like hay to me. I asked my friend what it tasted like to him without telling him what I thought, and he say hay/grass also. i haven't found the heat levels on par with a few years ago. Even the ones I found from Hatch a xxx lumbre variety were kinda weak. A nice item they have in stores here are the frozen packages of roasted and peeled Green Chile from Young Guns in Hatch. those are excellent with good heat.
I remember reading an article about the Colorado green Chile saying they are on par with Hatch. There was some sort of dispute of them using the hatch name when selling the Colorado Green Chile. I will see If i can track it down. Cheers!
I remember reading an article about the Colorado green Chile saying they are on par with Hatch. There was some sort of dispute of them using the hatch name when selling the Colorado Green Chile. I will see If i can track it down. Cheers!
stettoman said:
Lol, Eric!!! Yeah I love me some Big Jims...It's definitely a compulsory variety for me.
I love the whole rivalry between the New Mexico and Colorado growers. It can only be good for the green chile industry on the whole.
Let's keep one another updated on our Pueblo plans...
windchicken said:
Done deal. Unless we drive, which does happen now and then, we usually give ourselves a months warning, to get flights/dogsitters/garden waterers scheduled.
When we do drive it can go one of a number of ways, last time it was 10 days of stop-where-we-stop, go-where-we-go, stay-till-we're-ready. I found what I thought was one of the best hole in the wall Italian places I've ever walked into in North Platte, Nebraska....No shit. Almost spent an extra night there 'cuz I found the Budke Harley shop and spent too much time drooling over Dynas....But that's another story....
