AAAACCKK! What are we gonna do without our Hatch chiles??? This is a sad, sad story, Jay. I hope we'll be able to find them in the D-FW metroplex this year, and I imagine they won't be cheap. This is almost as sad as the story about the wildlife abandoning their babies because of a lack of food and water due to the drought, which is the AP story linked at the right side of your link. That same AP story was in the Gainesville, TX, newspaper today. We are feeding so much hungry wildlife here on our place that I hope no mamas are abandoning their babies. Buying food for the wild things is just a regular part of our grocery-buying routine and I guess that will continue until the drought ends, and I put out water for them twice a day too. Having discovered how much the wild birds love to play in the sprinkler, I use it twice a day for 20-30 minutes to water some area that needs water...but mostly just to put some water out there for all the little wild things. Even the bees come to the puddles of water. And, to return to the pepper topic....I have continued watering my bed of peppers in the hopes that I'll get enough to can, roast, freeze, etc. I'm getting lots of peppers now, but despite what I consider a whole lot of watering, they're maxing out at about half their usual size.

Anybody know anything about NMSU developing GMO/GE versions of their NuMex chiles? Someone posted a video on another forum describing how the native American (and other) farmers were upset in 2008 that the state was going to fund R&D to develop a pepper that could be mechanically harvested. I know they've been having problems with curly top virus too and total acreage under production has gone down. I found this on NMSU's website saying they were "unlocking the genetic code" and were going to be breeding tastier chiles since flavor had gotten diluted with cross pollination but no mention of GE. I know they did come out with some new Big Jim variety and a "Heritage" variety - any idea if those are traditional hybrid crosses or GE? I don't think there are any GE seeds available to home gardeners now but I didn't know if NMSU had test fields of GE peppers, and/or had seeds available for growers to test or even commercial production by now. Here is a link that might be useful: NMSU genetics research on chiles

Enjoy your trip! Ashamed to say we have not tried the burgers at the Buckhorn & have lived here over 50 yrs. & hubby goes back 7 generations in NM. Albertson's earlier this Fall had the 30 lb. bags of chile roasted for $15 but I see our local chain of John Brook's stores had the 'Sandia' (35 lbs.) x Sickler Farms in Los Lunas, NM for $19 roasted this past weekend so the chile seems to be running higher $$ this Fall for some reason lately yet the crops all over seemed to be great. We just harvested the few Bhut plants we grew & are drying & grinding them for powder. We also did some green chile the 'pre-freezer' way: roasted, peeled & dried the green fresh in both dehydrators & on the clothesline (the real old way!)! That dried chile keeps forever & when we want to make some chile stew we just grab a handful from the plastic bag the dry chile is kept in, rehydrate it for several hours in water & then drain, chop it up with scissors, add onions, garlic & pieces of cooked beef, etc. for a stew. The flavor of 'chile verde seca' has a really different good flavor I think! Your trip will be in the midst of the chile harvest! Have you ever visited the NM State U. Chile Institute near Las Cruces? Might be interesting! My favorite nursery there in S.Fe is 'High Country Gardens' & they have a small outlet here on San Mateo with the Jackalope store.

Vieja I want a couple of bags. I sent you an email. I hope you can help. If you send me your phone, I can call you and we can setup any details. Thanks Gardendawgie