I had an interesting question from someone: “Why is everyone so taken by chile?” Most of us were born here in New Mexico and do not remember a time when we were not eating chile peppers. Yes, we had baby food, but then came green and red chile. We loved it. Let’s explore why people here and all over the world find New Mexico chile so very great. And it is great. There are facts about New Mexico chile to think about: for people coming to New Mexico, it is a taste that some visitors and residents embrace enthusiastically, while others do not. Why is that, Michael? Chile Peppers are unlike other edibles; they take getting used to early on in your adventure in a novel taste. The enjoyment of chile peppers works out over time if you have a satisfied expression after a meal using chile peppers, what we call the chile afterglow. Now we are talking chile with an e, not chili with an i in Texas or winter chilly with a y.

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When you see a new chile pepper salsa at the Fresh Chile Company, you know this didn’t happen by accident. It took lots of work and innovation to invent, yes, invent a new salsa. Well now there is a new one and I will tell you about what it took to create Randy’s Salsa. Fresh Chile Company owner Randy McMillan wanted to have a salsa with larger chunks and wanted to use a chile pepper variety, Matador, that is loved by chile fans. The development team started the inventing process. It started with the chile: Matador, the chopping was one-inch squares. If it was just chile they could stop there but they wanted a big chunk salsa, so they combined Green and Red Matador, juicy tomatoes, crisp onions, a hint of lemon juice to adjust acidity and added a unique taste, some water, garlic, a vegan chicken-type base and get this a touch of black pepper for an extra kick. How did all of these delicious items get into the mix? It is all here.

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It was with sadness that I learned on Wednesday that former NMSU, St. Louis Cardinals and Denver Bronco quarterback Charley Johnson has passed at age 85. It wasn’t his intention to leave Texas and come to New Mexico. A couple things happened. He was raised in Big Spring, Texas. A super athlete in high school, he intended to play football in college. One problem: he got a football scholarship to Schreiner Institute which is now Schreiner University. But the year that Charley Johnson arrived at college, the football program where he intended to play football was cancelled. Charley Johnson was determined to play collegiate sports, so he checked around and through several coaches we was able to find Presley Askew, the basketball coach in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He transferred to the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts and started taking courses in Chemical Engineering. While a student, the college changed its name to New Mexico State University. One major problem he couldn’t fix was that the football coach, Warren Woodson didn’t have a football scholarship to give him. Charley and his family didn’t have the money for him to just attend but he was able to get a scholarship for Aggie Basketball and an odd thing happened to him.

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In New Mexico we have what I’m going to call the New Mexico grown chile pepper plant. It’s central to our identity. We go to restaurants for their chips and salsa. The question: red or green is answered in New Mexico as both, in a blend, The official smell of New Mexico is roasting green chile. We have many chile peppers. There’s secrets of New Mexico chile.

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This weekend is the 52nd annual Hatch Chile Festival in Hatch, New Mexico the Chile Capital of the world. Saturday and Sunday, August 31 and September 1st the small Southern New Mexico town will be brimming with good food, good people and good times. Learn about chile pepper tastes and different ways that the chile can be prepared. Be prepared for fun and YUM. But as you enjoy the ambrosia of chile this weekend be certain that we could put names on these great 2024 chile peppers. If we are talking chile pepper related names, who is first? That would be Fabián García. Even though he passed in 1948, two years before I was born, I think of him often, usually with a mouthful of delicious Hatch Valley Green or Red Chile. Fabián García is often given the title, The founder of New Mexico Commercial Food Production. While we think of him often for his work on Chiles Peppers,

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With some New Mexico towns and cities only the name is needed, not having to say, New Mexico. Example: Albuquerque, where there is no need for New Mexico. But some, like Las Vegas, need New Mexico or some people will make a 700-mile geographical error and an even worse cultural assumption. And Las Vegas, New Mexico was a booming town long before the first building was built in Nevada. Let's talk about New Mexico towns.

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New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment and Mystery. There is no greater mystery than the 1896 disappearance and obvious death of Albert Jennings Fountain and his 8-year-old son Henry. This is the third of three podcasts about Albert Fountain and this mystery that has gone on from February 1st, 1896 to today. Who killed Albert and his son Henry Fountain?

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In the last Enchanting Stories Podcast I talked about 15-year-old Jim White who discovered and explored and over the years promoted Carlsbad Caverns. Several people were surprised to find a 15-year-old was working on a cattle ranch. The Child Labor laws of 1938 set the early age at 14. Before that we had even younger boys working in New Mexico. And it wasn’t all bad.

Youngsters did work in New Mexico history, I’m not advocating young people be forced to work in awful conditions early in life. But in New Mexico’s history there were thousands of young people who came, learned how to work and stayed their lifetime.

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