I haven’t been taking notes, so I can’t be sure, but Aug. 12 seems awfully early for roasting chiles. It’s the smell of fall here in Albuquerque, as they put the big gas-fired roasters out in market parking lots. You buy a bag and they roast ’em for you on the spot. The only other time I’ve blogged about it (which is the closest I come to keeping reliable records on such things), it was Aug. 27. A couple of nights ago, though, walking out to my car after work, it just smelled like fall. Still hotter than hell. Maybe it’s something about the quality of the light, as the sun starts to run back south, fleeing its summer peak.
I had to make a U-turn across traffic to get this, at the little mercado at the corner of Broadway and Mountain on the northeast edge of downtown Albuquerque. Hatch chile. Mmmm.
jfleck at inkstain
A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico
Is there any particular type of chile one should roast for it to be Fall?
Big fat green ones, fresh from the fields in Hatch, down along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico.
Big fat green ones, fresh from the fields in Hatch
…or the ones right from my garden: poblano, anaheim. Yum! I’m going to make chili next week for work, as I have Thai dragons and jalapenos coming on too.
Another sign of fall I’m trying to convince my better half is planing Maximilian’s sunflower. Chomping on chiles while looking at them, now that’s fall.
Best,
D
At some point we planted a few of the Maximilian’s, and now we have to weed them back to keep them in a reasonably contained area. They’re wonderful.
My family visited Abq in fall some years back. We bought a big basket of roasted chiles. A friend and I ate as many as we could while my parents went grocery shopping, but a lot stayed in the back of the car. That car smelled of roasted chiles almost as long as they owned it. It was great.