For many who call the desert Southwest home, it is not the grandeur of aspen leaf carotenoid shifting gold, red and orange that signifies the approaching fall season. It is the heat of propane-fired rotisseries, the crackle of blistered chile pods and that distinct smoky-sweet smell of roasting green chile wafting through the air that signals the change in season – It’s fall and finally green chile season.
It would be unheard of and verging on blasphemy to be unfamiliar with the green and red chile pepper, capsicum annuum, that has become synonymous with New Mexican and Southwestern cuisine. However, it wasn’t always this way. The chile pepper is not native to the area. Its origins stem from central Mexico and into Central and South America. According to the nonprofit Archaeology Southwest, it wasn’t until Don Juan Oñate brought a few seeds with him in 1598 that the chile pepper made its way into the region and was slowly adopted into indigenous cuisine.
Fabian Garcia, the father of the U.S. chile pepper industry and founder of the chile improvement program at New Mexico State University, went on in 1888 to develop the now-familiar Anaheim and New Mexican chile pod shapes and flavors. And, notably, most chile pepper varietals such as the New Mexico No. 9, Big Jim, Sandia, Lumbres and many more were the result of his and regional cultivar efforts and genetic cross breeding of pepper varieties.
Sutherland Farms, a third-generation family farm operating at 745 Road 2900 in Aztec for the past 35 years, has been growing and providing the region with fresh roasted New Mexico chile for nearly 20 years.
Don’t confuse their chile with Hatch chile, though. The Sutherlands are proud to offer what they call Animas Green Chile. To avoid any disputes, think of chile varieties like varieties in wine. Similar grape varieties grown in different regions will produce wines with a unique terroir – the impact that environment, soil type, temperature and the like has on a given crop. Much the same of wine can then be said of green chile.
“We irrigate with the Animas, and our soil and the unique climate in Aztec helps create the taste of our chile,” says Autumn Sutherland, daughter of Bobby Sutherland.
“We have been farming green chile for about 20 years. I’m 21, and that’s how I can keep track of it,” Sutherland said. “We grow varieties that range from mild to extra hot. Big Jim’s are a medium, Sandias are hot and our Lumbres are extra hot. New for us is the G-76 ,which is more consistent in heat than the Big Jim’s and is still a meaty green chili that works for all of our meals when cooking at home.”
For the chile novitiate, the strange-looking fruit might be frightening for many reasons, but the biggest fear Sutherland has seen is that of burning your mouth in a scorched-earth kind of way. Sutherland recommends that anyone new to chile should start with something familiar such as a green chile cheeseburger or her family favorite, calabacitas. She also has a few insights and tricks to identify the heat of your peppers.
“The variety is a big indicator of what can be expected,” she says. “Also, the hot ones tend to be smaller in size and the big meaty ones are often less hot. Sometimes color can help distinguish the heat, but we usually go by the size of the chile pod.”
The Sutherlands can be found roasting green chile at the Durango Farmers Market on Saturdays, Ska Brewing on Thursday nights, the Aztec and Farmington Grower’s Market and on the Sutherland farm. Each member of the family plays a role in producing something from green chile to okra, squash and corn. Even their roasters are handmade.
For the Sutherlands, green chile is a family affair. They celebrate as a family in May during planting and hold a Green Chile Festival for the community in mid-September. For more information about the Sutherlands or their green chile, visit: www.sutherlandfarms.net.
Sutherland’s calabacitas ingredients
Calabacitas Squash
Roasted Big Jim or G-76 Chile
Onion
Corn
Ground Beef or Chicken
Cheese melted or as garnish
