The Hatch Chile
Festival A visit to the Chile Capital of
the World! (article, photos, & video by Gary
Smith)
If you have High-Speed
Internet, have a look at this video
we made at a recent Festival.
Hatch is located in the fertile Rio Grande
Valley, about 40 miles north of Las Cruces. The abundant New Mexico
sunshine and irrigation water from the Rio Grande River combine to
produce lush crops of cotton, corn, vegetables, and of course, chile
peppers. "Hatch Chile" is not actually a variety of pepper, but is a term
used to describe peppers of several different varieties grown in the area.
Actual variety names might include "Big Jim", "Joe Parker", "Sandia", and
others. Green chile is the favorite at the beginning of the season, made
into rellenos, enchiladas and stews. Later, the peppers ripen and turn red
and are dried to be made into that delicious red chile sauce that flavors
a multitude of dishes that will keep you warm all winter!
From
Albuquerque drive South on Interstate 25, about 2 hours. From Las Cruces,
head North about 40 miles to the Hatch exit. As you enter town you'll be
reminded several times you're entering the "Chile Capital of the World"!
First-time visitors may be surprised at what a small town Hatch really is
with a population of only about 2,000 residents.
Are we there yet?
A local equestrian group
rides the streets of Hatch at a recent parade.
The Festival begins with a parade, usually about 10 a.m. on
Saturday. (Check the official schedule, as there have been a couple of
years when the parade didn't happen.) Some years it's better than others,
but is always typical of small-town New Mexico... maybe some horses, a few
floats, a band, and the ever-present local fire trucks and law
enforcement vehicles with sirens blaring. Get here early enough to
stake out a good spot on the sidewalk from which to watch the
parade.
Several years back
the Festival was
featured on cable TV's Food Network, resulting in a significant jump in
attendance, and increased interest in New Mexico chile. Still, the Hatch
Festival is a small-town flavored event, and visitors expecting something
like they'd see in Dallas or Santa Fe may be surprised at how quaintly
laid back Hatch is.
You'll probably never see or
hear the word "chile" used more often in one weekend.
A recent Hatch Chile Queen and her court reign over the
festivities.
The Hatch Chile Queen will be
formally crowned later out at the Festival grounds. The Festival runs
Saturday and Sunday and includes a variety of activities and
entertainment, arts and crafts vendors, and of course the real reason for
being here, the Chile
vendors.
After the parade, walk around
town, check out the chile vendors, smell some green chiles roasting,
though you may want to check them out at the festival grounds before actually buying. Drive by The Chile Express, a shop devoted entirely
to chile-related products. At festival time each year they cover their
roof with red chile peppers, a perfect photo-op for
chileheads!
Brilliant red chiles cover the
roof of The Chile Express, Hatch
NM.
It's a couple of miles to the
Festival grounds. Traffic usually backs up for most of those two miles, so
be patient. (These brave souls
walked!)
Admission to the Festival is free, parking
costs $
10 a car. Bring sunscreen and a hat.
In recent years they added a "Beer Garden", if you care to have your
beer in a cage!
Personally I'd rather sample the various "agua fresca" drinks for sale
outside.
Roasting green chile
at the Hatch Festival. Some of these gas-powered roasters are
hand-cranked, others are motorized.
As you enter
the Festival grounds, you'll immediately smell that unique aroma of
roasting green chile. As we mentioned in our "Tale
of Two Chiles" video, this aroma says it all. Numerous roasters
go non-stop all day long. Check out the chile vendors, have a look at
their chile, do a taste-test, purchase a bag of chiles, and watch (and
smell!) as they're
roasted.
Food vendors offer some great
eating...green chile cheeseburgers, gorditas, enchiladas, burritos, etc.etc.
Be
sure to get in line before the lunchtime rush starts
or you may be standing in
the sun a while longer than you planned.
Typically the food vendors are not
quite able to handle the hungry crowds very quickly.
Inside the old airport hangar a
variety of entertainment runs throughout the day, local dance groups,
old fiddlers, etc.
The seats fill up pretty quickly, depending on how hot it is
outside, so be prepared for Standing Room Only.
If you arrive early, you might
see the Mayor's welcoming speech and the crowning of the Hatch Chile
Queen. Throughout the 2-day event there are events like a "chile-toss", a
chile-eating contest, and a cook-off competition.
Colorful Ballet Folklorico
groups work hard to entertain festival-goers.
Local Mariachi bands team up with the dancers to provide
an authentic flavor to the afternoon.
Under the same tin roof there
are arts and crafts vendors, mostly chile-related or Southwest items,
and there
are more vendor booths outside.
There's also a carnival with kiddy rides and
games.
Meanwhile outside, things are warming
up!
Blue New Mexico sky, red chile
ristras, the smell of green chile roasting...it doesn't get much better
than this! (I know, I'm repeating
myself!)
The chile vendors don't do much haggling on price...It seems
that the Festival requires them to all sell for the same
price...
but at least you can
have a look at their chiles, taste one, check out their roaster...
then stand by and watch (and smell!) your bag of peppers
being roasted.
"Okay, we got our chiles,
now what do we do with them?"
Green chile is normally sold
in 30-40 pound burlap bags. We take the roasted chiles home, separate them into
small bags
,
and freeze them right away, but if you've driven from afar, you might
consider taking your chiles home unroasted. Go
Here for instructions on how to roast green chile at home.
Then check out
our "Tale
of Two Chiles" cookbook for all the recipes you need to get you
cooking!
People ask,"What is
it about Hatch Chile"?
We don't really know, but maybe it's similar to what happens in
the wine country of France and other places. The combination of sun, the
rich river-sediment soils, and the waters of the Rio Grande give the
chile grown here a flavor different from any other. Or maybe the farmers here have some magic ingredient that
nobody else knows about. Or perhaps it's the people, the music, the beauty
of the land
itself. Who knows?...Who cares? ... Just Enjoy!
