Johnsons's Garden Centers Text File document - copyright 2004 
PDFfile available at http://www.johnsonsgarden.com/newsletter/misc.html

Hatch via Roswell
Sept/Oct 2004
Marty Johnson, President, Johnson's Garden Centers,
                Kansas Certified Nursery Professional

    Chile season is upon us again. The roasting of fresh green chile
from Hatch, New Mexico, the chile capitol of the world, is truly unique.
The roasting process does not really cook the green chile, but makes the
pepper shed its outer skin and ready to add to almost any dish. These
peppers range from mild to extra hot. Although the hotter types are
great, I have learned to really love the milder ones just as well.

    Why Hatch New Mexico? The growing conditions in the lower Rio Grande
River Valley provide ideal conditions for growing chile peppers. The
long season enables the plant to produce an abundance of flavorful
peppers.

    We make several trips to southern New Mexico every fall to pick up
peppers. There are a couple of routes that we take getting to Hatch. I
think that my favorite way is to drive out on Highway 40 to Albuquerque.
This lets us visit "beautiful" western Oklahoma and Texas on our way
out.

    The return trip is truly a scenic route. We leave Hatch in the
afternoon and drive across the eastern New Mexico desert through
Roswell, always on the lookout for alien life. We continue on through
the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma into Kansas during the middle of
night. It is quite a site to see the sunrise on the Kansas landscape.

    It's quite a long trip, but worth it to see the sites, and to bring
back the best green chile possible.