Hatch Chile Festival 2007

They certainly are delicious.

Labor Day weekend, September 1st and 2nd was the date for this years Hatch Chile
Festival. Hatch is a little town of 1000+ souls 40 miles south of TorC. Today, the
population was probably ten times that. As soon as you turn off the highway, you meet
bumper to bumper traffic. You also begin to see the reasons for it! Chiles, chiles,
everywhere.

Check out the chiles drying on the roof!

And this is just driving through town. The long strings of dried chiles, red, green, orange
and yellow, are called "ristras". The air is perfumed with the mouth watering aroma of
fresh chiles roasting in big, rotating cast iron roasters. The road is lined with chile stands
and Mexican restaurants, each touting their specialty made with fresh Hatch chiles. Sure,
there were onions and small watermelons and other delicious looking produce available
at some stands – but chiles rule the day.

The main festival was at the Hatch Airport – given over today to carnival rides, games,
barkers and more. It isn't just everywhere you can buy Kettle Corn in Red Chile or
Jalepeno flavor and for every booth with a roaster and huge bags of chiles, there is
another offering delicious authentic Mexican food – all made, of course, with Hatch
chiles.

Under a large metal hangar you find a dance floor with live band and auctions of all sorts
of chile goodies. You can get a Chile Festival t-shirt, of course, or other souveniers like
magnets, or buttons. Vendors offer goods from Mexico like warm serapes (don't need
them now – but winter is on the way!), blankets, rugs, ceramics and all sorts of goods.

Tucked behind the main building is a smaller building with the Chile Art show – over
100 beautiful works by area artists for show and sale. Some are definitely chile themed (I
liked the "dream catcher with chiles" painting) and others are typical Southwestern fare,
such as a marvelously joyful painting of three Kokopellis, or gorgeous landscapes and
skyscapes. The public is invited to vote for their favorite, and there is also a drawing for
a free painting.

Back to the main row to admire even more ristras and to listen to chile experts describing
the various flavors and types. You can purchase chiles roasted or raw, one at a time, or
30-40 pound bags for just $15! I'm tempted, but what on earth would I do with 30
pounds of chiles?

Well, I could buy the Chile Festival Cookbook too, I guess.

This was written for my Traveling with a Demented Pixie Blog, but I thought my fellow vegetarians might like it, too! I know I've been neglectful lately - which is shameful because I have some delicious and easy new vegetarian recipes to share - but I have been really challenged for time. The good news is not only do I plan to make this blog an MT blog so you can blogroll, comment, grab the RSS feed, and all that good stuff, but I am also finally going to get Internet out at the ranch (we think) in about two weeks. At last I won't be trying to do a weeks worth of work in two hours while listening to kids playing video games together, yelling back and forth things like "Kill him, kill him, hurry, no stupid you're shooting me" (although there are some fairly amusing moments there) and will be able to stretch out, catch up, and blog any time the mood hits me - or right after dinner if something I tried comes out good!

Patience, please, patience...