Chile Crop for 2011

[cosmicrowbar]

Originally Posted by joqua

Interesting. At one time "cotton was king" along the Rio Grande irrigation districts. And it was high-grad Pima cotton too. It was necessary to rotate planting with alfalfa every other year. I wonder how many of the cotton gins still exist in working order?

I'm not conversant on cotton's ups and downs but am guessing that other crops began being planted when cotton prices plummeted as a result of foreign competition. Onions were a big crop at one time.

Read it and weave..
Cotton price chart, 2000-2010
Cotton is still a major crop in the river valley, as are onions, pecans and, of course, chile.
A lot of the gins have closed, being replaced by new, far more efficient plants. The one in Mesilla just closed a few years ago but it's still there and, at least in theory, could be reopened if needed.
A look at the chart linked above shows prices starting to come off their highs, but cotton is still very expensive by historical standards.

[BrianH]

They just set up the roasters and tanks at the grocery store. I can almost smell it now!

[Greenchili]

I was just in LC last week,went to Hatch,brought me back about 40 lbs of roasted green,med and hot. And I live in California!

Greenchili

[Poncho_NM]

Chile roasters say this year's crop will go fast
From: kobtv4, Aug 12, 2011

green chile season is going fullblast in new mexico now - but farmers warn the crop may be smaller and prices may be a little higher. stuart dyson was all over the albuquerque area this afternoon and this evening... ... checking out the prices and the merchandise - he's in our newsroom now. this is a great job - i spent monday in the chile fields talking to farmers and friday out with the chile roasters - inhaling the aroma of august in new mexico - and i'm here to tell you - the time to buy is now. " these are real big jim chiles right here so..." the reason to buy early is that with a smaller crop - the harvest season will be over earlier and the chile merchants will sell everything the growers send them. " there's definitely less chile this year than there has been in previous years - that's definite - they grew a lot less chile this year then they did because of the drought - they grew more cotton.". you know your money's burning a hole in your pocket the minute you smell the roasting chile anyway - we found a guy looking to buy 200 pounds or so. " fixin' to head back east for the better part of the rest of the summer and a bunch of my friends back in ohio are saying - hey - bring some green chile - so they want me to do the shopping for em and bring it out there and than we'll roast it as soon as i get there." will it stay fresh in the car - heck yeah - if you keep it cool. " some good chile out there as far as what's out there and everything like that - just make sure you get new mexico chile - th's the big thing - to make sure we buy new mexico chile so we can support that new mexico farmer - it's very important to make sure that the place you're getting your chile is getting it from hatch new mexico!" well there's also chile from sierra county and socorro county and up north too. prices? we found a wide range all over town - from fifteen bucks a sack to thirty four dollars - with a good many places asking for right about twenty bucks - sometimes roasting is five bucks - sometimes it's free. a sack of roasted chile will weigh about 35 to 40 pounds - if you're finding it below about fifteen bucks it's a loss leader - selling for less than it cost the merchant - the idea being to lure customers to the store for the chile - then they'll come in and buy more stuff



kobtv4's Channel - YouTube





Rich