What we Sell at Farmers Chile Market

At Farmers Chile Market, we have a wide variety of different New Mexican products, but much of it is different at different times. There are deeper explanations of this in our post about the chile season. We are open from the first Friday of August every year until Christmas. In 2024, we will be open from Friday August 2nd! In early August, we typically have the least amount of products available, as it is quite early in the chile season. We typically have a few varieties of fresh green chile available for roasting, and also have those varieties already roasted in the freezer for people who want a smaller amount. We also often have a decent amount of dried red chile pods for sale at this time too. Other than that, we usually have chile pasado from the last year to cover the different chile flavors that people are looking for.

Dried chile

Some of our most important products are dried chile, whether they are Hatch red chile pods, Mexican chile, chile pasado, red chie powder, green chile powder, dried superhots, dried aji charapita, or something else. The main reason why is that by drying chili peppers, they can keep a good flavor for a couple years, even without refrigeration. Sun dried red chile pods are especially important in New Mexico, as they are a core component in a red chile sauce. Although a ristra you get from us will be edible, it is a better value to buy a full sack of dried chile pods, as the amount of chile is much more. Ristras are beautiful, but they take a lot of time to make, so the price is higher.

New Mexico Red Chile Pods

We normally carry New Mexico red chile pods in medium, hot, and extra hot varieties, and also try to carry the XXX-hot Lumbre chile variety when we can get it. Usually we don’t run out of these varieties of red chile pods, but occasionally shortages happen, like what happened in 2023, when most of the state of New Mexico ran out. In case we sell out of a specific variety of red chile pods, we typically have at least two trucks per week from Hatch that we can get more from. If the chile season is normal, the new crop of Hatch red chile pods comes out around late October or early November.

Chile Ristras

These dried strings of red chile make great southwestern accent pieces for an entryway, a doorway, a kitchen, or patio! More than just that, all the ristras we sell are edible red chile! We don’t treat ristras in order to keep them as a double use item! The red chile pods that ristras are made with are quite delicious, and whip up into a great red chile sauce!

New Mexico Red Chile Powder

We carry many different varieties of red chile powder, including mild, medium, hot, extra hot, and XXX-hot varieties. In addition to this, we also try to carry ghost pepper powder, as some people are really looking for the hottest stuff they can get. Our New Mexico chile powder is made from sun dried red chile pods grown and processed right in the sunny Hatch valley of southern New Mexico. Red chile powder has a ton of different ways to cook with it, such as using it as a simple spice or making a whole chile sauce with it! We have a page dedicated just to that, so you can get more ideas about how to use red chile powder!

Hatch Green Chile Powder

We also carry New Mexico green chile powder, ranging from mild to extra-hot as well. Green chile powder is typically machine dried, as the color of sun dried green chile isn’t really appealing. Because of the machine drying process, it tends to be a little sweeter than sun dried red chile, as the sugars in the chile haven’t had the time to ferment. That being said, it still makes a great flavor base, and can add a nice chile flavor to whatever dish you want!

Chile Pasado

We roast green chile every day during the chile season! This chile needs to be preserved, and although the most common modern way is freezing, chile pasado is in some ways the best way to preserve roasted green chile. Chile pasado is roasted, peeled, and dried green chile. As the shelf life of chile pasado is years instead of days like fresh green chile, we typically have chile pasado flavors available sooner than fresh green chile. This goes especially for the chile varieties which take longer to mature enough for roasting, like extra hot and Lumbre varieties. In case you are buying chile in the very early season and can’t wait for the really spicy stuff to come out, consider getting some chile pasado to hold you over! The flavor is amazing, and it doesn’t need to be frozen!

Mexican chile

We try to carry a decent amount of dried Mexican chile as well in order to have a wide variety of chile products! The varieties we usually stock are guajillo, ancho, chile de arbol, chipotle morita, and more. Mexico has a very wide range of different types of chili peppers available, and we try to get whatever we can. I take at least two trips to El Paso every year to pick up dried chile products from Mexico. We are at our core, a chile market. I want to sell more types of chili peppers than anyone in Albuquerque!

Superhot and Exotic chili Peppers

Although we also stock plenty of fresh superhots and exotic chili peppers, we also have a large selection of dried chili pods as well! The season for these kinds of chili peppers are shorter than the Hatch chile season, so we try to stock up a lot to dry when they are available! We typically dry a lot of Carolina Reapers, Ghost Peppers, and Aji Charapita primarily. In addition to dried pods, we try to carry at least one variety of superhot chili powder like ghost pepper powder. The superhot chili peppers are fantastic for making fiery sauces, as just one pod will turn a whole pot into something that will make you breathe fire! Aji charapita on the other hand is not terribly spicy, with a heat level not too different from chile pequin. It has a nice fruity flavor profile, and makes a really nice brightening addition to many things. Personally, I love using aji charapita in a chimichurri sauce!

Fresh Chile

Green Chile

In terms of fresh chile, we try to carry five different New Mexico green chile varieties whenever they are available. These are Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra-Hot, and XXX-Hot. We start every chile season with exclusively chile from Hatch, New Mexico, but also sell chile from other popular growing regions of New Mexico as the season progresses. Regardless of where our chile comes from in New Mexico, you can be sure that we do our due diligence to find the best chile at the best price every year. In the early season, usually less varieties are available, and the late season is the same. If you come in September, we almost always have all heat levels of green chile available daily.

Red Chile

Around the start of September, we also carry fresh red chile out of Hatch, New Mexico. Whether you would like us to roast it for you, or if you are planning to tie a chile ristra, we should have fresh Hatch red chile available, but it frequently sells out quickly! We get fresh chile shipments 4 times a week throughout the season, so if we run out, more will be coming soon!

Superhot and Exotic chili Peppers

During the season, we also carry superhot peppers like Carolina reapers and ghost peppers in our refrigerators ready to slice up and mix with some other ingredients to make some fiery sauces! Fresh exotic peppers like Aji varieties are quite fruity, and taste better fresh than dried in my opinion. With superhots, the spice is so potent, that fresh or dried both feel quite similar. The flavor is less pronounced than other chili peppers, but the spice comes through in force!

Other Local Produce

Although we get a small amount of products from out of state like Colorado peaches, over 95% of what we sell is locally grown in New Mexico. We get new crop pinto beans and pumpkins from Ness Farms in Estancia, watermelons and onions from several farms down in the Hatch valley, cantaloupes, honeydews, and tomatoes from San Antonio, NM in the Socorro Valley, apples from Velarde, NM, chicos from Espanola, and more. Like my dad did decades ago, I drive all around looking for different local farms to get high quality produce from New Mexican farms.