Hey guys, Chris here from Fresh Chile, coming to you from the 575.
I just got back from the field and I need to tell you what happened this week, because I'm still buzzing about it. We hand harvested Big Jim Hatch green chile. Hand harvested. I was standing in that field watching pickers pull these giant green pods off the plant one at a time, and I filmed the whole thing so you could see it, because I'll be honest with you, once you see it you can never look at a jar of chile the same way again.
So watch the video. Then come back here, because I'm about to walk you through every single step between that field and your front door.
First, you need to know what Big Jim is
Big Jim is a legend. This pepper was developed right here in New Mexico at New Mexico State University, and it holds the Guinness World Record for the longest chile pod ever grown. We're talking pods over a foot long. A foot long, baby. When you're standing in the field and you pick one up, it fills your whole hand.
And here's why that matters for your kitchen. Big Jim gives you these long, thick, meaty walls. That's what makes it perfect for rellenos, perfect for roasting, perfect for the thick meaty pieces you find in our jars. Medium heat, huge flavor, and flesh you can actually sink your teeth into.
Now where does it grow? The 575. That's the area code for Hatch and southern New Mexico, and it's where our farmers are. Think what Napa is to wine, that's what Hatch is to chile, OK? The soil, the water coming down the Rio Grande, the hot days and cool nights in that valley. You cannot fake that anywhere else on earth. People have tried. It doesn't work.
The dirty secret
Let me tell you a little dirty secret about the chile business. A lot of what gets sold as "Hatch" chile never touched Hatch, New Mexico. It's a name on a label. Somebody grows a pepper somewhere else, slaps Hatch on the jar, and counts on you not asking questions.
So ask questions. Make sure it's from the 575. Ours is grown there, picked there, and roasted there, and that's exactly why I brought a camera into the field. I want you to see the dirt. I want you to see the hands doing the picking. Let that sink in next time you're standing in a grocery aisle reading labels.
Step one: the harvest
Every pod in the video was picked by hand. A machine bruises the pod, breaks the skin, picks the good ones and the bad ones together because a machine can't tell the difference. A picker can. A picker looks at that pod, feels it, and makes a call in half a second. Ripe, firm, ready. Or not.
That's slower. That costs more. We do it anyway, because everything downstream depends on what comes out of that field.
Step two: the flame roast
From the field, those chiles go straight to our factory. Same day. And this is my favorite part of the whole operation, because this is where the smell happens.
You guys know this, and if you don't, I'm about to tell you. Roasted Hatch green chile is the official state smell of New Mexico. The only state in America with an official smell. Isn't that wild? Isn't that beautiful? An entire state smelled something and said that's us, that's who we are, put it in the law books.
The flame does real work here. It blisters the skin so it peels away clean, and it puts that smoky char into the flesh that you flat out cannot get any other way. No oven does this. No steam bath at some industrial plant does this. Fire does this.
Step three: peel, chop, cook
After the roast we peel every chile and chop it into thick, meaty, one inch pieces. One inch. That's on purpose. When you open a jar I want you to see chile, real pieces of a real pod, something you can put on a burger or fold into eggs and actually taste. You've seen those sad little flecks floating in other jars. That tells you everything about what went in.
Then it goes into the kettles. A little garlic. A little lime. A little salt. That's it, and then we slow cook it. Why so short a list, Chris? Because when you start with Big Jim picked at its peak and flame roasted the same week, the chile is the recipe. My job is to stay out of its way.
Step four: it ships to you
Rinse, roast. Chop, cook, ship. From our kettles into jars and out the door to your house within 24 to 48 hours of bottling. Two days, maybe less, and the harvest you just watched in that video is sitting on your kitchen counter.
Can Frito-Lay do that? Can Kraft Heinz? I don't think so. Their product sits in warehouses and trucks and distribution centers for months before you ever see it. Ours was in the ground in the 575 the same season you're eating it. Same season. Let that sink in.
The 2026 Big Jim harvest is spoken for fast. Here's how you get yours.
The chile you watched us pick is headed for our 575 Big Jim Hatch Green Chile jars, and pre-orders are open right now. Jars start shipping in September, and every year I watch this harvest get claimed before some of you even hear about it. So I'm telling you first. Reserve yours now.
And if you want to roast your own, we've got you too. We ship boxes of fresh Big Jim and Charger peppers straight out of the valley, five, ten, or twenty five pounds, and you can fill your own neighborhood with the official smell of New Mexico.
Pre-Order the 575 Big Jim Hatch Green Chile →
Get Fresh Big Jim Hatch Green Chile Peppers →
You saw the field. You saw the fire. Now taste it.
See you in the next one from the 575.
Chris Lang