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On The Range is a weekly exploration of the history and lore of Texas menu items.
As the song says, deep in December it’s nice to remember…
Every Labor Day, the tiny town of Hatch, New Mexico springs to life with
the Hatch Valley Chile Festival. Thousands of Chileheads from all across the
country converge on this remote corner of Southwestern New Mexico for two
days of music, eating contests, tractor pulls, horseshoe tournaments,
eating, and more eating.
At the center of all this revelry (and tractor pulls) is a long, green
chile pepper that was developed in New Mexico but is named after a town in
California.
How can this be?
According to Paul W Bosland and Eric Votava, researchers at The Chile Pepper
Institute at New Mexico State University, New Mexican chiles date back to
the 1880’s when a man named Fabian Garcia developed a program for chile
improvement to help the local farmers grow better and more productive pods.
In 1913, he released one called New Mexico Number 9, which became the
prototype for all chiles grown in that state.
Today Garcia’s creation is more
familiarly known as long green or Anaheim, so named because although Anaheim
seed originated in New Mexico, it “was taken to Anaheim, California, where
it was widely cultivated.”
In other words, strange as it may seem, there is no such chile as a Hatch
Green Chile, at least according to Robb Walsh.
Writing in the Houston Press, he puts
down the development of the Hatch chile legend to the miracle of modern
marketing:
“Hatch isn’t the name of a pepper variety, it’s the name of a place. Yes,
peppers are grown in Hatch, New Mexico, but they aren’t any better than
peppers from neighboring towns. And there is no way tiny Hatch produces all
the chiles that get sold under that name. Farmers from other parts of New
Mexico and other states including Arizona ship green chiles to Hatch to be
resold. Some Hatch chile producers are reportedly shipping seeds to Mexico
and having the chiles grown south of the border, where labor and water are
cheaper.”
Not only that, but the original name of Hatch, New Mexico was Santa Barbara.
Most Anaheim chiles are very mild, but some of the New Mexico varieties pack
more of a punch. Whereas the typical Anaheim pepper heat is 500 – 2500
Scoville units, or about the same as poblanos, some of the New Mexican
chiles can reach as high as 5000 to 8000 units, which is more in line with
your basic, garden-variety jalapeno.
Hatch fever reaches into the Metroplex with such establishments as
Central Market and Blue Mesa Grill touting the pepper at harvest time.
However, if you wish to sample Hatch chiles year-round, look no further than
Chuy’s, the venerable Austin-based chain well known for its kitschy décor.
Although Hatch green chile chicken enchiladas are a
featured special every Friday, you can have the fiery sauce served atop any
entrée, including the Elvis Green Chile Fried Chicken. (You see, the Chuy’s
chain has a thing for the King.) The batter is light and crispy and made
from potato chips, and in any case, it’s better than journeying all the way
to Southwestern New Mexico just to watch a tractor pull.
