10/03/2026
There’s nothing quite like chile season in New Mexico.
For generations, chile has been woven into the food, agriculture, and culture of New Mexico. Green chile is harvested from late summer into fall, and when harvest season rolls around, you can feel it everywhere — chile fields ready for picking, grocery stores with giant roasters spinning out front, and that unmistakable smoky-sweet smell of roasting chile filling the air.
It’s more than a crop. It’s a yearly ritual.
And you don’t have to make the trip all the way down to Hatch to experience it for yourself, either. If you’re in Albuquerque, you can pick your own chile at Big Jim Farms (Jimmy Wagner) and have it roasted right there in the field.
This batch was picked for personal use, but we do use New Mexico Hatch green chile from family-owned producer Young Guns Chile (Young Guns Hatch Chile ) in our New Mex Stew, adding to that sweet, spicy, smoky flavor we love.
This year, though, the chile is bringing a little extra heat. Hot, dry growing conditions can push chile toward higher heat levels, so there’s plenty of potential for some seriously spicy peppers in this year’s harvest.
If you’ve ever been in New Mexico during chile season, you know exactly what we mean when we say you can smell it before you see it.
Chile has been part of New Mexico’s agricultural history for centuries. Over generations, growers developed and passed down different varieties, while the work of New Mexico State University helped shape many of the New Mexican chile varieties we know today.
For those of us who were raised in New Mexico, the smell of roasting chile will always feel like home.
