The Fresh Chile Company Podcast

When as a young boy I was living in Japan, my father was stationed at Yokota Air Force Base. I saw the Japanese growing their rice crops both in the flat lands and on the sides of hills. Here in New …

In 1987 I moved from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Ventura, California. Imagine my surprise to find not many mile away a Las Cruces, California. But there are several towns where I have lived that are un…

In this second of three podcasts about Albert Fountain, his life and mysterious death, I want to point out the issue of salt. In today’s world salt doesn’t rise to the level of something to fight ove…

Rudyard Kipling said: The first condition of understanding a country is to smell it. Quite true. It applies to New Mexico. We have an official smell which I will talk about. More importantly, we have…

New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment and Mystery as was said by writer Eugene Rhodes 110 years ago. As to mystery in New Mexico, there is none greater than the disappearance and obvious death of Col…

Someone asked me about the history of Las Cruces. I could talk for hours, but in the next 15 minutes I will mention some stories, good and bad that locals know and some that they do not. Certainly, L…

Today I want to tell you how I learned to have a terrific day every day. It came from knowing Ed Foreman who served as a congressman twice, once from Texas and once from New Mexico. After politics he…

Every February the 8th we in Southern New Mexico specifically and all of New Mexico in general celebrate the establishment of the White Sands Missile Range which took a huge amount of cattle grazing …

Let us talk about Mining and Mining towns of New Mexico. Let us look at the effect of mining in New Mexico from single miners to big operations. First off, mining is a completely different activity t…

Today I’m going to talk about a strange New Mexico story that happened forty some years ago involving two very popular politicians. One, Harold Runnels, died suddenly, and the other Joe Skeen had to …

Today I want to do several stories about New Mexico. First up is about the company Kodak and New Mexico in 1945. Leaders of the company, Kodak, were not at the first Atomic explosion in New Mexico at…

Today is the Federal Memorial Day 2024, the designated federal holiday to honor those who died in defense of our nation. We should honor those who died and honor those who were left behind by the dea…

In Southern New Mexico, up on the Sacramento Mountains Southeastern slope is a small town or rather a hamlet called Weed, New Mexico. Founded in 1884, I think of it when I catch reruns of the televis…

I want to talk today about Fabián García. I think of him usually with a mouthful of Hatch Valley Green or Red Chile. He is often given the title, The founder of New Mexico Commercial Food Production.…

After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848 Congress wrestled with the slavery issue. The compromise addressed slavery in the newly established territories. President Millard Fillmore signed five bi…

This last weekend I was thinking about an interesting surprise in the history of New Mexico. Saturday, May 4th, the Kentucky Derby was run. There was a surprising Kentucky Derby fifteen years ago. Ne…

The Fresh Chile Company in Las Cruces, New Mexico, according to owner Randy McMillan, started from a culinary family tradition. One year it was Red Chile season in Hatch, New Mexico, and Randy’s fath…

Chile and Onion Farmers in Southern New Mexico have faith in many ways. I think of this fact as I munch on the world-famous Hatch Valley Chile and Onions. Day after day the farmers get up and do what…

There are several stages of being a Chile and Onion farmer in the Hatch Valley, the Chile and Onion capital of the world. Many are multi-generational, so they were born into the farmer role from havi…

Most people visiting New Mexico are not aware that they are walking on Gold some of the time. It is true. Because of the volcanic activity for millions of years there is Gold all over the great state…