Hatch Chiles 2012

[boxerma]

Nob Hill market in Alameda has flyers out today about the hatch chile roasting. The clerk mentioned that they would be roasting this weekend and next weekend. Sorry that the details are sketchy but my brain decided to momentarily go on vacation leaving the rest of me in line at the store. I thought a flyer was in my bag but no.

[Melanie Wong]

I went back to the Petaluma Raley's today with my rain check. Only hots available, no mild or regular and the produce folks said they keep ordering mediums and only hots are delivered. No cases on display, so I picked through a big pile to pull out the largest, thickest, firmest and straightest chiles with no blemishes, cracks or wrinkles ending up with 18 pounds. They were weighed before roasting and I was charged $1.09 per pound, which was the price last week including roasting service. Lance took care of the roasting for me and did a very good job, swapping in a new propane tank for maximum flame. Well-charred, blackened skins and the flesh staying firm to the touch. He said that everyone wants something different and he accommodates. Apparently some people want the roaster to keep cooking and tumbling until the skins come off completely and the flesh compresses and goes all the way soft.

Petaluma Raley's will continue to offer roasting service for the next week. Some people are buying other types of peppers and they're happy to roast those too. The non-promotional price for Hatch is $1.65+/-.

[hhc]

Sunflower Grocery Store has in their ad Hatch Chiles 69c/lb! Do your own roasting. Sale prices 8/22-29, 2012.

[Pius Avocado III]

Alameda's Nob Hill has cases already roasted and ready to go stacked up next to the roaster right now- by far the most organized I've seen them in the 4-5 years I've been doing this.

Thanks to nestorius for the intel on the supplier.

[Mission]

I was at Alameda 2 hours ago and roaster dude was taking a hour long lunch and there was no roasting going on or any already roasted for sale.

Plus the guy in produce could not tell me which were mild or hot of the peppers in the produce section?

Even though their signage outside and advert. said they had both.

WTF?

If this is organized...the past years must have been pretty special.

[Pius Avocado III]

Yeah- last year was the worst. Officially there were no pre-orders, but someone who didn't get the memo signed up so many pre-orders that they took an entire day to honor.

My wife tells me roaster dude was MIA when she arrived at the advertised time of 2pm. About 10 minutes later, he showed up and said that the boxes stacked up by the roaster we're already roasted- there was no outward indication of this, and everyone around immediately began hoovering them up. When she got ours, there were 10-12 left.

As for the produce section, in my experience it's just a heap of chiles in the bins and could be all hot, all mild or both. I agree that that is lame in the extreme. And roasting is not tough; they really should have had a backup roaster dude.

Prior to this year we've always experienced some form of frustration; now I know we lucked out.

[Pius Avocado III]

Looks like I spoke too soon. When we began bagging the chiles for freezing, more than half were in tatters. I've never seen this before- the majority of these are practically unusable. I don't know what happened, because those that aren't totally unusable are fine.

We did buy those that were already roasted when we arrived, so it's best to avoid those if you see them.

[nestorius]

I bought a case at noon today at the San Ramon Nob Hill for $24.99. Benjamin, the "Produce Manager of the Year", who was manning the roaster, said that Raley's had switched suppliers after receiving a lot of complaints last year that the chiles weren't up to par. He noted that these were extremely fresh, which means they blister better and are almost skinless when they're done. Sure enough, after 13 minutes of tumbling around in the iron cage over high flames, the peppers were cooked and clean. I'm set up for the year.

Although they were planning on only roasting today and Saturday, Benjamin said they've had so many calls that they ordered more chiles and plan to roast on Sunday too. He noted they sold 50 boxes last year in San Ramon but he expects sales will be greater this year. The sweet peppers were already sold out when I arrived, but I was really interested in the spicy ones. He gave me a roast chile to try and it was superb.

[j mather]

I bought 10 pounds at the Nob Hill in Walnut Creek. I'll have to roast them myself, but maybe I'll get down to San Ramon over the weekend and let them roast some more for me. Chile verde tonight.

[Pius Avocado III]

Said supplier is Diamond K Produce. The box says "Authentic New Mexico/ Hatch Green Chile," and "Grown and Shipped from Hatch and Deming, New Mexico."

I note that Deming is 60 miles from Hatch, and that the satellite view on Google maps shows a large area under cultivation surrounding Diamond K's address. Their page on the NM Ag Dept's website mentions that they grow beans in addition to chile and onions, so unless the fields in the image are all beans it strikes me that these all may well not be from Hatch.

Edit- my wife says the hot had a different name on the box; my comments pertain to medium.

[nestorius]

The chiles I bought were from Young Guns Produce, Inc. Their website (www.younggunsproduce.com) states they are a grower, packer and shipper with a warehouse located 5 miles north of Hatch. They sell 10 lb bags of frozen fire-roasted chiles (mild, medium hot, hot and extra hot) for $35 from the website.

[Pius Avocado III]

Due to my dissatisfaction yesterday, we returned to Alameda for another case this morning. This time we got the Young Guns; they looked and tasted far better than the Diamond K. They were roasted perfectly, by the same guy. From this I conclude that Diamond K had a high proportion of chiles too thin-skinned to withstand roasting.

[hhc]

There was a bunch of Hatch Chiles in the Raley's Newark store. I bought 4 just to try, under $1.
Raley's Fremont - they didn't get any in when I called Thurs afternoon.

[Melanie Wong]

Petaluma sold out today. Might get another delivery in the morning, and definitely by Saturday. Also, will be roasting next week. I got a rain check for the sale price.

[Melanie Wong]

Here's the roasting schedule for Nob Hill/Raley's
http://www.raleys.com/www/promotions/...

Three Bay Area stores: Petaluma, San Ramon and Alameda have times this week.

[hhc]

I checked online for a roasting schedule & couldn't find it: raleys.com
Called Fremont store, they told me to call in the AM tomorrow; Newark store said they don't have them yet, & they don't roast at their store.

Raley's/Nob Hill ad said they will be 89c/lb Mild or Hot grown in New Mexico, The World's Best Green Chile. Available only a short time, so hurry in! Prices start Wed 8/15-Tues 8/21

I watched a video from Raley's on how to roast it in the oven:
http://www.raleys.com/www/videos.jsp?...

[cakebaker]

Yesterday the produce mgr Nob Hill Alameda told me they weren't going on ad until next Wed (15th) and the roasting would start next weekend.