7 Signs Hatch Green Chile Season Has Arrived in Texas

There are five seasons in Texas: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, Hatch Green Chile Season. This is the season when these popular chiles start making their way from New Mexico into Texas, making them impossible to avoid. Grocery stores start roasting peppers in the parking lots, restaurants start adding green chile dishes, and families start stocking the freezer to ensure year-round chile. Hatch Green Chiles become a religion.

Hatch Green Chile Season lasts from the end of July to October. The Hatch Green Chile has a long history. The name Hatch comes from the region where the chile is grown. The soil and environment cannot be replicated, so the real, authentic Hatch comes from Hatch, NM. Hatch, NM is located 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces, NM. Every year on Labor Day Weekend, 30,000 people descend on Hatch, NM to celebrate the Hatch Green Chile Festival.

A Timeline of Hatch Green Chile

• 1894 - Dr. Fabian Garcia establishes Chile Improvement Research at New Mexico A&M, which is now New Mexico State University.
• 1913 - Dr. Garcia releases what is known as the great-grandfather of Hatch Green Chile, New Mexico No. 9.
• 1917 - An immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Joseph Franzoy, became the first commercial farmer in Hatch Valley.
• 1921 - Flood hits the valley, destroying crops and community, but after the waters receded, the sediment became the perfect place to grow chiles.
• 1971 - The First Hatch Green Chile Festival took place when farmers celebrated the harvest.
• 1975 - The Big Jim was released by Dr. Roy Nakayama and named after Jim Lytle, a Hatch rancher. This is the largest chile pod ever grown, a development that changed the chile relleno industry.
• 2012 - New Mexico passed the New Mexico Chile Advertising Act, making it illegal to advertise peppers as "New Mexican" unless they were actually grown in NM.

What Makes a Chile Truly 'Hatch'

Make sure when you are purchasing Hatch Green Chile it comes from Hatch, NM. Check the labels and make sure the chiles you are buying are from the 87937 ZIP Code. Imposters will be readily available, so make sure you're not being chile duped.

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The Hatch Green Chile Season is officially here, so run to your local grocery store and start stocking up on these delicious peppers.

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