As far as fests go, this has got to be one of your more subdued iterations . . .


Hatch Chile Fest @ Sunset Foods Highland Park - 19.0824

By the time we got there at 11:30, they were either out of -- or never had -- any roasted chiles hotter than mild.

=R=

Just to follow up, I wouldn't buy roasted hatch chiles again at Sunset because the ones we bought were roasted by someone who had either no clue or simply didn't care. Yes, they were charred on the outside but the chiles were still mostly raw and in keeping with that, the skins were virtually impossible to remove from the flesh. I do not appreciate Sunset's bandwagon jumping in the hatch chile arena. Either do it right or don't bother.

=R=

Sorry to hear that Ronnie. One of my former students who now lives in Chicago asked me yesterday where he could get Hatch chiles in Chicagoland--glad I didn't mention Sunset. Where might he go instead?

BTW, my cousin from Santa Fe last Tuesday sent me a USPS flat rate ($19.95) box containing slightly over 5# of Hatches, which arrived in fine shape on Friday. Ummmm. I immediately stoked up the Weber gas grill, and roasted those beauties. They're now all safely in the freezer, sort of IQF in bags. [Spread them out on pizza pans to freeze, then bundle them.] Ate *three* directly out of the Weber. Couldn't help myself. House still smells wonderful.

Geo

Geo wrote:Sorry to hear that Ronnie. One of my former students who now lives in Chicago asked me yesterday where he could get Hatch chiles in Chicagoland--glad I didn't mention Sunset. Where might he go instead?

I remember the roasted ones I bought at Heinen's last year being pretty good. But, like with so many other things, the best approach is to buy them fresh and roast them yourself. It's not difficult or time-consuming. Plus, when you buy them roasted, you still have to skin and seed them, so buying them raw doesn't add much more work at all.

=R=

HI,

I would not totally discount Sunset Foods as source. I think a phone call might clear up whether they have what you want.

Before Hatch Chiles became so easily available, I filled the back seat of my car with cases I brought back from Kansas for people. I was not aware there were heat gradients, I bought what I saw. In the same boxes randomly given to people, it was random hitting a mild or hot chile within the same box.

Regards,
Cathy2

Hard Times for a Hot Commodity, the Prized New Mexico Chile
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/dini ... -ios-share

Dave148 wrote:Hard Times for a Hot Commodity, the Prized New Mexico Chile
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/dini ... -ios-share

Behind a paywall for me mostly but thought it hilarious that the picture showed a worker dumping the chilies into a bin while noting they had to be picked carefully by hand.

Rick T. wrote:

Dave148 wrote:Hard Times for a Hot Commodity, the Prized New Mexico Chile
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/dini ... -ios-share

Behind a paywall for me mostly but thought it hilarious that the picture showed a worker dumping the chilies into a bin while noting they had to be picked carefully by hand.

That doesn't seem to weird to me: the chiles themselves are pretty sturdy, but without a careful hand, it's easy to do damage to the plants when you pick, reducing your overall yield. The peppers ripen at different times so you want to keep coming back.

I have been in the fields outside of Hatch when they are harvesting in September. Chiles are handpicked into buckets and placed in huge bins.

I don't know how they would use a harvester as that would pick all of the immature fruit.

Article that I heard on the radio told about how the Chili crop in New Mexico is 1/3 of what it was 15 years ago because farmers cannot get workers and so are not planting the crop.

These folks roast here in the Portland, OR area, and also sell their shelf-stable, roasted, chiles (plus sauces, etc) online. I bought their roasted green fresh, and have used the roasted red instead of chile powder in a posole, and it was fantastic. http://www.losroast.com/

From Jewel's FaceBook page

AUG29
Hatch Chile Roasting
Sat 10 AM · by Jewel-Osco
Jewel-Osco (125 E Stearns Rd, Bartlett, IL)
Bartlett, IL
Identity Crisis at Hatch Chile Roasting at Jewel Osco - Bartlett
Jewel-Osco (125 E Stearns Rd, Bartlett, IL)
Bartlett, IL (This is a band that will be there

Jewel-Osco (885 E Belvidere Rd, Grayslake, IL)
Grayslake, IL

Jewel-Osco (1202 State St, Lemont, IL)
Lemont, IL

Jewel-Osco (2855 W 95th St, Naperville, IL)
Naperville, IL
-------------------------------------------
SEP5
Hatch Chile Roasting
Sat 10 AM · by Jewel-Osco

Jewel-Osco (805 Joliet St, Dyer, IN)
Dyer, IN

Jewel-Osco (7525 W Lake St, River Forest, IL)
River Forest, IL

Jewel-Osco (119 S Randall Rd, Batavia, IL)
Batavia, IL

Jewel-Osco 2520 N Narragansett Ave, Chicago 60639

Jewel Hatch gigs:
https://catchthehatchatjewel.com/

Spotted at Jewel Randhurst at $1.99/#, not roasted.

Plan is for green chile cheeseburgers tomorrow.

Dave148 wrote:Jewel Hatch gigs:
https://catchthehatchatjewel.com/

Starts Saturday = https://www.catchthehatchatjewel.com/?f ... jDqYcFF8ns

Mariano's had Hatch chiles for under $1/lb unroasted about 3 weeks ago. I bought some of the mild ones. Roasted on the gas stove, they seemed about medium heat to me. Not bad but I don't know that they were far superior to the poblano chiles available pretty much anywhere anytime.

I can't remember if this has been talked about here before.

Market Place on NPR had an article about how the farms in the Hatch region have started growing far fewer chilies and more of other crops such as onions. The reason was Hatch chili harvesting is very labor intensive and the farmers are having a hard time getting workers. If the harvest takes to long and the chilis turn red, then they are basically unmarketable.

This makes me sad.
I'ma still find em and try em.
But, it still makes me sad.

Mariano's near me sale ad shows them on sale.

These people done gone too far! Is nothing sacred?

https://www.johnsonville.com/products/hatch-green-chile.html

When I clicked on the Johnsonville link, it showed that they are available at Target.

Going back to last October, why would they be undesirable if they turned red?

Last year Johnsonville had Bratwurst with Hatch Chile.
They sold out everywhere and we finally purchased a case at the Factory Store in where else, Johnsonville Wisconsin.
They were very good but the hatch chile flavor could have been more predominant to my taste.
This years production labeled ‘sausage’ had sold out at our local Pick n Save but we did procure two packages just down the road at the ‘Pig’.
We will have them in a few days.
BTW, our local Pick n Save did have Hatch Chiles this year and I picked up a few packages and stuffed some with Quesadilla cheese.
I also made stuffed Turkey Breast in a Hatch Chile sauce.
Excellent!
The rest were oven roasted and frozen.
-Richard

Bought a handful of mediums and one hot at a Sendik's just outside of Milwaukee last weekend. The mediums had barely more heat than a standard green pepper and the hot seemed mild-to-medium (to me, YMMV).

I don't know if this happens to be what Sendik's got or if it's characteristic of this year's crop. In past years, we always got our Hatch from Heinen's and the medium were pretty hot and the hot were blazing.

Sunset Roasting

8/13 = Lake Forest
8/14 = Highland Park & Libertyville
8/20 = Long Grove
8/21 = Winnetka & Northbrook

budrichard wrote:This years production labeled ‘sausage’ had sold out at our local Pick n Save but we did procure two packages just down the road at the ‘Pig’.

Sounds like Kenosha but could be New Berlin...or many other places in Cheeseland. I assume the Pig didn't have the chiles themselves?

budrichard wrote:Last year Johnsonville had Bratwurst with Hatch Chile.
They sold out everywhere and we finally purchased a case at the Factory Store in where else, Johnsonville Wisconsin.

-Richard

I was at my favorite salvage supermarket in Phoenix, a place that Johnsonville uses to get rid of its excess stock and saw 10-15 cases of Bratwurst with Hatch Chile along with a lot of precooked bratwurst. Maybe it is not that popular elsewhere.

I can say that there are currently dozens and dozens of Hatch chili products around. It is getting to be like the pumpkin spice products every fall that dominate the salvage stores after Christmas.

We picked up a couple of bags of fresh hatch chiles at TJ's in Glen Ellyn a couple of weeks ago. Will be making salsa today and am hoping they're hot as they are labeled as such.

Went by the LF sunset today at 1, supposedly in the middle of the chilifest. Nothing going on. Cold roaster sitting against the wall. No signage or anything. When I inquired inside I was told that they previously roasted the chilis and they were available for sale. There were a couple of trays of wrapped, roasted chilis, and a few prepared foods using them, but nothing remotely resembling a "fest." Not even any samples. Back when they first opened, Heinens had a great one but not in the last few years.

-Will

Jewel has few roasting options = https://www.catchthehatchatjewel.com/

For Ron:

Sunset Chile Fest 2024 = 11am - 2pm
8/9 = Libertyville
8/10 = HP & Long Grove
8/16 = Lake Forest & Glencoe
8/17 = Winnetka & Northbrook

A few Jewel/Osco locations will be roasting them...and live music
Aug. 24th from 10am-3pm
Lemont
Batavia

Aug. 31st. 10am-3pm
2940 N. Ashland, Chicago
885 E. Belvidere Rd. Grayslake