Sunday Hot Pepper Blogging

A colleague sends this LA Times article suggesting it as "perfect for New Mexico blogging." And, indeed, it is. The subject is New Mexico's chile industry, which has been in trouble lately because "since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the state's chile crop has plunged almost 50% as cheaper foreign imports from Mexico, Peru and China pushed local growers out of the market." As a result much former cropland is being sold for the developers who bring you the southwest's impressive sprawl. To the rescue, of course, come education and technology so chile scientists working at New Mexico State University are looking to preserve the state's chile competitiveness by developing superior peppers.

Comments

Well, no one else has commented on this, so I'll just say that it makes me sad, since one of the happiest memories of my life was buying ground peppers in Chimayo with my daughter from some guy with a stand that almost certainly had seen another customer all day. Which for an El Nino February is not surprising; what is perhaps more surprising is that I couldn't figure out that I'd have to go through snow on my way back to California.

And since I've mentioned Chimayo, my favorite undigestible fact of American economic (and maybe ethnic) history is that in 1800 Spain was encouraging the emigration of highly skilled weavers to Chimayo to boost the wool producing industry. Apparently their descendents are still there making absolutely wonderful (and incredibly expensive) blankets.

Posted by Gene O'Grady | April 30, 2007 5:59 PM