The Hatch Chile Festival

The Hatch Chile Festival
A visit to the Chile Capital of the World!
(article and photos by Gary Smith)

July 25th was a red-letter (green-letter?) day again this year! Joe Lujan opened his field for "U-Pick" green chile, and we just happened to be in the neighborhood! Lujan's is about 10 miles up the road toward Hatch from Las Cruces, and it's our favorite place to spend a sunny morning picking green chile. We picked just enough peppers for a couple of meals, and will be making weekly visits now until time for the Hatch Festival. He also has a nice tomato crop this year, and we picked a nice sack of them as well. Joe says the chile crop is good this year, as long as the monsoon rains will hold off and not spoil the harvest, as it sometimes has in the past few years.

Back home on our patio, chiles roasting on the grill, filling the air with that indescribable aroma. Wrap a peeled and seeded pepper in a warm tortilla, add a little cheese, a little fresh tomato salsa...an ice-cold drink...our favorite chile-season lunch! Green chile doesn't get any better (or fresher!) than this!
(If you pick 20 pounds or more of chiles, have them roasted right at Lujan's. They do a great job for a very small additional fee. The tumbling propane-powered roaster blisters the chile skin quickly, roasting the peppers nicely without drying them out. We do small batches on the gas grill, high heat, then wrap them in a damp towel to steam for a few minutes. They'll peel easily when cool enough to handle.

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.

In 2003 the Festival was featured on cable TV's Food Network, resulting in a significant jump in attendance in 2004. Growth is good, but we hope the Festival doesn't grow so much that it loses its small-town charm. As "escapees" from a large metropolitan area we've witnessed first-hand that "More and Bigger" is not always Better when it comes to events like this.	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.

Admission to the Festival is free, parking costs $5 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, at least not very quickly.

Inside the old airport hangar a variety of entertainment runs throughout the day, local dance groups, young and 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.

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.

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.

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 the mystique of Hatch Chile?" I don't really know, but the prevailing theory is that 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!

Festival 2009 is Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 5 &6.

Town is deserted...everybody must be at the Chile Festival!