New Mexico Chile getting trademark to protect reputation
Rain is both a blessing and a curse to the chilli grower – the right amount at the right time can lead to a record-breaking crop – but too much at harvest time can wipe you out. At Glen Duggins’ place near the Socorro County village of Lemitar, “Wipe Out” is just an old tune on the radio. The harvest is robust, just like the heat and flavour of the chillies themselves.
“We did have some rain but we just had luck on our side,” said Duggins, who has been growing chilli for more than 30 years. "Every time it rained, we needed the water, and it hasn’t hurt us. The chilli is just beautiful – the mild, the hot, the extra hot – looks like a bumper crop!”
On Monday Duggins had 18 field hands harvesting five different kinds of green chilli in addition to jalapenos. He said finding experienced hands who want the work and have the permits to do it is another challenge he and other farmers face every year. He said you don’t find workers like Raphael Gomez every day.
Mechanized chilli picking is still a dream for the future. No one has yet developed a machine that can harvest the chilli pods without damaging or killing the plants, which bear fruit long after the middle of August. The chilli Duggins grows with his son Kyle is called the “ Five Star” brand. You can find it at Sprouts and Fruit Basket stores. Each burlap bag is clearly marked.
“We started marking our bags 25 years ago,” Duggins said. Every bag that comes out of here has our name – Lemitar, New Mexico – Five Star Chilli.”
This week, the state will launch a “New Mexico Certified Chilli” trademark that is aimed at putting the state’s chilli in the same protective status as Idaho potatoes or Florida oranges. Foreign competitors are known to flood American markets with less expensive, lower quality chilli, even falsely labeling it as grown in New Mexico. Farmers say bogus chilli siphons off money and weakens the reputation of the New Mexico product.
More chilli competition comes from China, India and Peru, not in the form of fresh green chilli but red powder and pulp products. The stakes are high. The chilli industry supports more than 4,000 jobs in New Mexico, and has an economic impact of more than $400,000,000. Last year, New Mexico farmers harvested just under 9,000 acres of chilli, which is only about one quarter of the record year of 1992 – 35,000 acres harvested.
Source: kob.com
