In all of its varieties, chile is a staple of New Mexican culture and cuisine. Chile composes iconic dishes such as chile relleno and posole; ristras are strung up everywhere; and even the state’s official question, “Red or green?” references New Mexicans’ deep love for their peppers.
Jhett Browne is a chile roaster and seller whose family has been in the chile business since 1962. Roasted green chile did not become popular until around the 1980s, though Browne’s family began roasting its chile in 1977.
“We start roasting every year in August. We roast typically (in) August, September and October,” Browne said.
Green chile grows so well in New Mexico thanks, in part, to the warm climate, according to New Mexico State University. Chile plants are incredibly sensitive to even light frost and temperatures under 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They require long periods of warm weather, which New Mexico provides.
Browne explained that the “godfather” of New Mexican green chile is a horticulturalist named Fabián García, who developed a chile known as New Mexico No. 9, the first truly New Mexican chile. This variety exhibited the traits New Mexican chile is best known for: a low, almost sweet heat and thick, flat pods. Subsequent varieties, such as the Big Jim and the Sandia peppers, were cultivated from New Mexico No. 9.
García sponsored scholarships to help Hispanic Americans get into school back in the early 1900s, Browne said. García was also the first Hispanic to be named director of research at a United States land grant university, according to NMSU.
Green chile’s presence in New Mexico is entwined with the historical presence of Indigenous and Hispanic people in the region, according to Browne.
“It has a lot to do with different Native American tribes using different land-grown chiles,” Browne said. “But, because that area was colonized by Spain, the overarching culture and diaspora is based on the Spanish language and Spanish culture.”
Although green chile fever has taken over America, with all types of products popping up in grocery stores thousands of miles away from Hatch — deemed the “chile capital of the world” — chile growth is threatened by an outside force: climate change. Like much of the global agricultural industry, rising temperatures and changing precipitation levels have wreaked havoc on chile crops across the Southwest.
There has been more heat stress on chile plants in recent years, Browne said. Last year, for example, it was hard to get ahold of fresh and dried red chile. A lack of water has also been negatively impacting the industry, he said.
Farmers and plants alike are adapting to the changing climate. Chile is developing to adjust to harsher environments when it comes to heat, Browne said.
Green chile is a major part of New Mexico’s past, and it will likely be a part of its future.
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“A lot of people make new friends here, too. It’s a New Mexican town hall,” Browne said. “People come together, meet new people (and) get ideas.”
Journalist Jeff Proctor moved to New Mexico in 2002. Though he has always been a fan of green chile, he said it took him a while to warm up to the pepper as a pizza topping. Recently, he posted on X about how he changed his mind, and the post blew up.
“I’ve been a journalist for 22 years,” Proctor said. “It crushes my soul that I've been sharing journalism on that website for more than a decade, and nothing ever got anywhere close to that much engagement. It was a wild thing to observe.”
New Mexicans don’t get to have a lot of nice things that are uniquely ours, Proctor said.
“Everybody recognizes us as the greatest at something,” Proctor said. “And, you know, chile is one of those things. So it's part of the sort of national zeitgeist and culture in that way, I think.”
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
Elijah Ritch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
