The Green Chile Strip

It is early fall in New Mexico, which means a lot of things. Cool mornings, start of the state fair, the approach of Balloon Fiesta, and most importantly the green chile roasting. Hooray for roasting green chile! Even the slightest whiff of the heavenly aroma that permeates the air this time of year makes me drool. We had noticed were down to the last few tiny bags of green chile in the freezer from last years harvest and it was time to restock. So we banded together with some friends to peel and chop roasted green chile.


Left: picking the goods, right: doesn't look good now, but just wait....

We got two sacks of fresh hatch green chile (~70 lbs of medium heat) to split between 3 couples. Then over a few beers we spent the next 3 hours peeling and chopping away. The total yield was about 11 pounds per couple, which means that 4-5 able bodied people are able to produce about 10 lbs of chopped chile per hour. (One to two people were needed to wrangle the two babies). It was fun - the conversation, the beer, and the toiling and working toward something that will pay dividends for the winter months ahead. Yum!


Left: the assembly line, right: the bounty