Hatch Chile Peppers

I found these today in a box I unpacked from long ago. They aren't the real thing of course, way down here in New Zealand. They are made of fabric, but they sure reminded me of home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hatch is a small village in southern New Mexico which is famous for it's fabulous chile peppers. The air in the fall in Santa Fe is rich with the aroma of roasting chili peppers, which they do outside in the parking lots in huge wire tumblers.

Some random Chile Pepper facts I got from the Hatch Chile Festival website:

One fresh medium-sized green chile pod has as much Vitamin C as six oranges.
One teaspoon of dried red chile powder has the daily requirements of Vitamin.
Hot chile peppers burn calories by triggering a thermodynamic burn in the body, which speeds up the metabolism.
Teas & lozenges are made with chile peppers for the treatment of a sore throat.
Capsaicinoids, the chemical that make chile peppers hot, are used in muscle patches for sore and aching muscles.
Chile peppers are relatives of tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants, all belonging to the nightshade family.
The color extracted from very red chile pepper pods, oleoresin, is used in everything from lipstick to processed meats.
There are 26 known species of chile pepper, five of which are domesticated.
Adapted from the New Mexico Chile Institutes’ “Chile Pepper Facts”

I do miss my Santa Fe chile!