What You Don't Know About the New Mexican

For starters, don't call them Hatch chiles!

- Dave DeWitt

 

ACCORDING TO MANY ACCOUNTS, CHILE PEPPERS WERE INTRODUCED INTO WHAT IS NOW THE U.S. BY CAPITAN GENERAL JUAN DE ONATE, THE FOUNDER OF SANTA FE, IN 1598. After the Spanish began their settlement, the cultivation of chiles exploded, and soon they were grown all over New Mexico. It is likely that many different varieties were cultivated, including early forms of jalapenos, serranos, anchos and pasillas.

But one variety that adapted particularly well to New Mexico was a long green chile that turned red in the fall. Formerly called ‘Anaheim’ because of its transfer to the more settled California around 1900, the New Mexican chiles were cultivated for hundreds of years in the region with such dedication that several distinct varieties developed. These varieties, or “land races,” called ‘Chimayo’ and ‘Española,’ had adapted to particular environments and are still planted today in the same fields they were grown in centuries ago; they constitute a small but distinct part of the tons of pods produced each year in New Mexico.

PLANTS, PODS AND VARIETIES