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Saturday, September 03, 2005
Hatch Chili Festival 2005
About 40 miles north of Las Cruces is the center of Chili farming in New Mexico and possibly in the country. When a town claims to be the "center of" or "best of" something I have no idea if it is a bit of hype or a bit of truth or both.
Hatch itself is a little town that hosts a Chili Festival that thousands of people attend each Labor Day weekend. Well our friends Tom & Karen & I drove up there this morning. I didn't know what to expect. Well it was a lot smaller in scale than I expected. Tom was saying that you can see the whole thing in 20 minutes if that's what you want. He was right. There were vendors selling bags of freshly harvested chilis, roasted chilis, chili jam, chili in peanut brittle, chili butter and probably other foods as well. There were food vendors selling kettle corn, corn on the cob, turkey legs and mexican food. Mariachis were playing in the stage area and local artists were selling paintings, metal work, furniture, etc.
By far the best part was watching the chilis being roasted and taking in the aroma. Chili roasters are filled with 50 lbs. of chilis and the fire is turned on. The roasted is turn round and round while the chilis roast. It only takes a few minutes for each batch. I bought 3 lbs. to put in the freezer and then we were on our way home.
We stopped to take pictures of the jalapeno harvest. We also climbed a barbed wire fence to see a small cemetery containing only six sites and looked old. We never did learn the story about its history.
We had a nice adventure.
Hatch itself is a little town that hosts a Chili Festival that thousands of people attend each Labor Day weekend. Well our friends Tom & Karen & I drove up there this morning. I didn't know what to expect. Well it was a lot smaller in scale than I expected. Tom was saying that you can see the whole thing in 20 minutes if that's what you want. He was right. There were vendors selling bags of freshly harvested chilis, roasted chilis, chili jam, chili in peanut brittle, chili butter and probably other foods as well. There were food vendors selling kettle corn, corn on the cob, turkey legs and mexican food. Mariachis were playing in the stage area and local artists were selling paintings, metal work, furniture, etc.
By far the best part was watching the chilis being roasted and taking in the aroma. Chili roasters are filled with 50 lbs. of chilis and the fire is turned on. The roasted is turn round and round while the chilis roast. It only takes a few minutes for each batch. I bought 3 lbs. to put in the freezer and then we were on our way home.
We stopped to take pictures of the jalapeno harvest. We also climbed a barbed wire fence to see a small cemetery containing only six sites and looked old. We never did learn the story about its history.
We had a nice adventure.
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