Chile Season Returns

It’s officially chili season in Southwest Colorado. You’re watching the, “Local News Network,” brought to you by Choice Building Supply and Big O Tires, I’m Connor Shreve. The wait is over for chili heads, who stand by all summer for the season’s first bushel of roasted chili. Cortez-based Pueblo Seed and Food Company, began roasting the first green chilies off its farm at the end of August. But owner Dan Hobbs says, “The chili’s characteristics change based on whether it’s an early season chili or a late season chili.” He also wants to make sure customers know he exclusively grows and sells Pueblo varieties, rather than the more commonly sold Hatch chilies.

Now, Hatch is a pretty broad term for a lot of Anaheim type peppers, you know, a range of spice levels. They’re also called pod-types or New Mex-types. The Pueblo chili’s a very distinct variety, it’s called a Mirasol. Originally comes from the Oaxaca area of Southern Mexico. These chilies grow up on the plant. They’re a little shorter than the typical Hatch Rellenos type chiles, a little hotter on average, and very thick meated. So they’re just an ideal roasting pepper.

The first time Hobbs gets to fire up the roaster each season is special, he says.

So we brought in about 13 bushels this morning, cleaned up the roaster, did our first roast. And of course, that smell will take you back to many places. But for me, childhood, certainly. I grew up in Denver, and we would go down to Chimayo and Espanola on our annual chili runs. It wasn’t until later in life, I discovered the Pueblo chili and ended up moving there in the year 2000, and learned a lot about chile growing there.

This is just the third year Hobbs has grown chili in Southwest Colorado, after moving the farm from Pueblo. That move was based on better cultivating seeds and vegetables like corn, which brought uncertainty when it came to growing chili.

Looked all over Northern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, found a nice place in McElmo. We thought, “Well, the chilies, you know, ought to work here,” but didn’t know for certain, until we planted them our first season, which was 2022, and ended up being the best chili crop we ever had. They just looked beautiful. So we were happy that they found a good home here.

For Hobbs, green chili season is a ritual.

For me, there’s lots of memories attached to it, you know? I think of my dad, he was a chili head, and so that’s a big part of it for me. And of course, the flavor. It’s just, you know, there’s a romantic sensation that comes across when you eat a good chili. And of course, they release endorphins in your mind and make you feel good.

You can find Hobbs roasting fresh chilies in front of the Pueblo Seed and Food Company’s storefront in Cortez on Friday and Saturday afternoons, through the month. And he hopes to freeze some if you are desperate for a chili fix in the dead of winter. Find more information about this and other stories at montezumalocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of, “The Local News Network,” I’m Connor Shreve.