Chiles

More than 5,000 acres in the Sulphur Springs Valley are dedicated to growing chiles. They are grown in crop circles, or pivots as they call them here, and this is harvesting time. The chiles ripen to their gorgeous red color on the plant and when a field has just been harvested you can smell the peppers in the air.

In the couple of years that I have been gardening here, I had not had much luck with chiles, or any other peppers for that matter. Not this year. We have a bumper crop, as do some of my gardening neighbors. The orange bell peppers are huge, sweet, and thick fleshed: delicious stuffed. But the amount of chiles from 6 plants is amazing! Here is what I gathered from those 6 plants in one morning. And the plants are not done yet.


Having been raised on European food, spicy-hot is not one of my got-to-have tastes, but I use some jalapeno and poblano chiles in Mexican cooking. I planted one variety of chile though that beat all the other plants, and its chiles are fiery hot. Well beyond my tolerance for heat. Rather than waste all that beauty and abundance I decided to make a ristra, a chile braid, which is commonly seen around here at this time, and hung it by our front walk. It is supposed to bring good luck (as if we need any).