Starting the 2024 Hatch Chile Season

It’s late July! What that means is that the Hatch chile season is just getting started. Although some places have already started roasting chile for a few weeks, we don’t handle early chile as it almost never meets our standards. We won’t roast chile that is tender and easy to burn or shred.

This year, like others, water is an issue for farmers. The lack of water availability is the main thing which is causing chile to be grown in less and less acreage every year. More and more farmers prefer growing feed for livestock, as federal subsidies make it a guaranteed profit source with less work than chile.

That being said, we work with farmers who grow chile as a passion. This food is the lifeblood of New Mexican culture. Without chile, our cuisine would would be as bland as Colorado’s. I’m joking, they love our chile up there too!

We start roasting on August 2nd

This 2024 Hatch chile season, we will start roasting on August 2nd, 2024. As with other years, we should have Medium and Hot flavors available, with other varieties like mild and extra hot coming in about a week later. The last to arrive is the xxx-hot Lumbre chile, as it is small and tender, so needs more time to mature into the firebomb of spice it is.

As with years past, we will try to carry a lot of local produce, as well as the best peaches in the world from Palisade, Colorado. Be sure to come by any time we are open to get fantastic beans from Estancia. The new crop typically arrives in late September. We will also be carrying fresh superhot peppers, such as Carolina Reapers, Ghost peppers, and Pepper X. In addition to that, like before, we will be selling Aji Charapita, the most expensive chile pepper in the world!

In the 2024 chile season, just like the last 47 years, we will do everything in our power to ensure you have a great chile buying experience at Farmers Chile Market! Whether you are looking for a small amount or to buy 100 sacks wholesale, you can be sure that we will do our best to satisfy you. New Mexico chile is in our DNA. Whether it is fresh chile, roasted chile, red chile pods, chile pasado, chile powder, chile ristras, or something else, we will have something to satisfy you!