General Information
The Hatch Valley is located in the middle of the Rio Grande agricultural area of New Mexico. “Hatch chilies” refer to the five or six primary varieties of New Mexico chilies that are grown in this region. The NuMex 6-4 Heritage, Barker, Big Jim, and R-Naky are all variety names that fall under the broad New Mexico “Hatch Chile” umbrella. They present similar flavor profiles and have a short growing period. They’re planted in April and harvested in August and September.
The Hatch chilies types were created by combining three different chile varieties: Chile Negro, Chile Colorado (a red mature New Mexico Chile variety) and Chile Pasilla. It was the perfect consumer friendly chile, great for flavor, size, using as both green or red, fresh or canned. Today, roughly 50,000 acres of “Hatch” chiles, are cultivated annually throughout New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California. Much like AOC designations in Europe, though, it can only be called a Hatch chile if it is grown in Hatch Valley, New Mexico – otherwise, it is called a New Mexico Green chile.
History
Located right in the middle of the Rio Grande agricultural territory, Hatch, New Mexico, declared itself to be the Chile Capital of the World. “Hatch chilies” refer to the five or six main cultivated varieties of New Mexico chiles. The most common is the NuMex 6-4 Heritge. It comes from a long line developed by New Mexico State University. Others are Barker, Big Jim, and R-Naky. They have similar growth and flavor profiles. New Mexican chiles have a short growing period. They’re planted in April and harvested in August and September.
