When is Hatch Chile Season?
As hatch chile continues to become more and more popular around the country, some interesting questions start to become common for us to hear. For instance, "just when is hatch chile season"? One of the biggest complaints we receive from potential customers is that they missed the fresh hatch green chile season. Because the season is so short (and it's the only time that you're able to purchase fresh, authentic hatch chile peppers) many people miss out and have to order our more expensive roasted, frozen option.
The typical season for chile here in the Hatch Valley runs from the first of August through the end of September. However, depending on the weather, we may have chile coming off by mid July. Some years, we've even harvested into the third week of October due to warm weather. On average, the season comes and goes pretty quickly though! This is why we recommend pre-ordering earlier in the year (plus we give you a great 15% discount on early orders).
One thing that sets our farm apart is our pick-n-ship policy, meaning we load your order of fresh hatch green chile onto a FedEx truck the same day it's picked from our fields. This ensures your order of fresh is as fresh as is physically possible on delivery.
If you DO miss the season, like I mentioned earlier, we've still got you covered with our flame roasted, frozen green chile. We flame roast and hand peel our frozen chile in the traditional New Mexico style, and then freeze them in vacuum-sealed bags before shipping them to you overnight on ice. Though its much pricier than our fresh chile, frozen is actually a really good deal. Not only do you have more finished product (5lbs of frozen is the equivalent of around 10lbs of fresh) you also don't have to go through the lengthy process of roasted, peeling, packaging, and freezing your chile. If that's half the fun for you and your family, stick with the fresh! But, you enjoy just pulling a package out of the freezer and getting right to cooking with it, you should definitely try our frozen.
Considering the brevity of hatch chile season, it should be no surprise that our annual Hatch Chile Festival takes place at the same time. The 2013 festival saw tens of thousands of chile connoisseurs from all over the world come to the Hatch Valley for our crazy chile-inspired festival. We've also written a nice article answering another popular question we get "When is the Hatch Chile Festival". The hatch chile festival is part of what has made our town so famous and has been going on for decades in our tiny little town.
If you see "fresh" hatch chile being sold at other times of year, then it's not the real deal. We often see chile from China or South America advertised as "Hatch Chile" and think it's a real shame. Of course, we hope you'll choose to order your fresh hatch green chile direct from us here at The Hatch Chile Store but regardless of where you get your chile, don't let it be fake!