What to Know
- Chile orders open on July 15
- 25-pound bushels
- First delivery/roasting day is on Aug. 11
We know. We seriously, truly, and really honestly know.
Your freezer? It's packed with ice cubes, and frosty treats, and goodies that involve some sort of icy element, and a number of other desserts that are as cold as a snowball on the coldest day of the year.
But here's the cold truth: You'll need to make room in your icebox soon, even though it is stocked with stuff that is helping you chow your way through the current heat. For there is more heat to come, this time in food form, because the season for roasting Hatch chiles is nearly here.
Surely you know Hatch, New Mexico? The center of all that is pepper-tastic and chile-choice and downright delicious?
It's the town that chile aficionados look to for all of their late-summer, early-fall green chile needs, and, as they've done for so many years now, El Rey Farms will help those aficionados out, if those chileheads happen to be based in Southern California.
That's right: The Whittier-based company, which has been trucking fresh Hatch chile to the LA region since 1970, will begin taking local green chile orders on Sunday, July 15.
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As with years gone by, you'll need to decide how hot you want your chile when ordering, and how much of it you'd like to pick up when the chile trucks begin to roll into the parking lot of La Puente High School, the traditional roasting spot of El Rey Farms.
This is where your freezer comes in: If you order a lot of roasted chile, you'll want a lot of room to store it for winter.
The bushels? They're big, boy. They're 25 pounds each, hoo yes. More chile, please.
But it is worth it, isn't it, to stock up? When you think of all of those posoles and enchiladas and rellenos you'll be making come December and January? Mmm.
And here's another mmm to add to that one: The roasting is complimentary.
The deliveries will be on Saturdays in August and early September, with the first Saturday scheduled for Aug. 11, 2018. The roasting season wraps on Sept. 8, but if they can, El Rey says they'll push onto Sept. 15, if there's still chile to deliver.
Find all of your chile-drenched need-to-knows at the El Rey Farms site, then start making room in the freezer: You'll be eating rellenos this winter like you're enjoying ice pops now.
So, almost daily, is our conservative prediction.
