Hatch Chiles – Year 2
Posted on August 13, 2010 by Leslie Blythe No comments
You’ll never guess what I’m doing tomorrow, so I guess I better tell you. I am picking up five 38 pound bags of roasted Hatch Chiles. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Actually, they are not all for me. I guess you could call this an addiction. They really do have a very unique flavor.
In the hot southern New Mexican sun, the heat of the chiles intensifies. In the high desert country, at 3900 feet above sea level with little or no cloud cover, low humidity, and an average of only 8 to 9 inches of rain a year, a blistering hot sun beams down on fertile fields along the Rio Grande. The chiles thrive.
If you want to find out about Hatch chiles just visit the New Mexico Chili website. Hatch’s plant breeders and botanists are most unique. Hatch is widely known as the designer chile/chili headquarters because Mesilla Valley farmers are constantly developing new breeds and various tastes to satisfy a steady throng of new converts.
They tailor-make chiles, which are then introduced to the locals and consumers from all over the US and many, many countries around the world.
Behold the Hatch chile!
Roasted to perfection!
Pre-roasted sacks of Hatch chiles.
Chile Facts
One fresh medium-sized green chile pod has as much Vitamin C as six oranges.
One teaspoon of dried red chile powder has the daily requirements of Vitamin A.
Hot chile peppers burn calories by triggering a thermodynamic burn in the body, which speeds up the metabolism.
Capsaicinoids, the chemical that make chile peppers hot, are used in muscle patches for sore and aching muscles.
The color extracted from very red chile pepper pods, oleoresin, is used in everything from lipstick to processed meats.
There are 26 known species of chile pepper, five of which are domesticated.
