Chiles, chiles, chiles...

Friday afternoon, after having lunch with my lunch bunch, Matilda and I took a road trip south to Hatch, New Mexico.  Driving I 25, it is about 115 miles south of me, very near Las Cruces and the world famous Chile Pepper Institute.  Hatch is called the Chile Capital of the World.  It is a village of 1600 people, and it also serves 7 other unincorporated communities with a combined population of 6000 individuals.  I was going there on the eve of the Annual Hatch Chile Festival.  The place was humming.

On trips back and forth from San Diego, I have gone through Hatch, always wanting to go back and look around.  In a local paper I had just read about this guy who loves buying huge figures, like advertising things.  With the town's okay, he has put them up around his restaurant and in front of his RV Rental business.  I really wanted to see these and that was my main purpose in going down. 

Holding an RV in his hands, this guy stands looking out at the street and almost beckoning to people to come in...

 

Down the street and around the corner, was Yogi Bear holding a hamburger, along with two silver horses.  There was a huge buffalo also, but he moved and turned his head so I couldn't get a clear picture of him....

 

Do you suppose that is supposed to be the Lone Ranger and his horse Silver?  Some of you might not remember that.  "Hi-ho Silver, and away...."  Maybe Silver was actually a mare, and that is her colt!!

Further down the street was a tall Soda Jerk with a tiger on his left ready to pounce on that ice cream cone and hamburger in his hand.

On the other side of the Soda Jerk was a huge steer, but he was too shy to let me take his photo.  

The newspaper article had mentioned Sparky's, a hamburger/BBQ restaurant also owned by the same individuals who own all the large objects.  It was directly across the street from the tiger, and you couldn't miss it.  The paper had mentioned that their green chile cheese burger was what they were famous for, and I was determined to try one.

I parked Matilda, and walked to the door of the restaurant.  Greeting customers were Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders...

I said hi to both of them, and went in.  What a wonderful place.  The menu is on the wall.  I ordered a green chile cheese burger and was given a number and told to sit wherever I wanted.  On the walls, there are all kinds of old signs and artifacts, most having to do with food and drinks.  I got my water and sat down. Shortly a waitress delivered my hamburger.  And I must say it was good...and hot!!!  Roasted green chiles are diced and put on top.  No using green chile sauce for these folks.  By the time I left, the place was getting packed, but they have opened another store front right next to the restaurant for the overflow.  The waitresses are running in and out, but a happier group of people I haven't seen recently working in a restaurant.  They have fun!

Now, you might ask, why, when you just had lunch with your lunch bunch, were you eating again.  Well, that is quite simple.  In Socorro we met at Don Juan's, and had Mexican/New Mexican food.  I ordered a combo with green chile sauce.  There was an enchilada, a burrito, and a crisp small flat taco.  And they all were firey hot!  I ate about half of each one, with the intention of taking the rest home, but then realized leaving it in the car in the hot sun was not a good idea.  So I left what I had not eaten.  Something I do not like to do.  I can always hear my mother's voice saying, "Clean your plate, remember the starving Armenians."  I had no clue who the Armenians were, but I was a member of the Clean Plate Club.  And I have to admit that I laid that same behavior on my children for most of their young lives.  It has only been within the past 20 years that I have given myself permission to leave food on my plate if I want to.  So there, Susan Waller Hawley Atwell Freeman!

Leaving the restaurant, I noticed that there was a family of burger lovers up on the roof...

In the garden in front of Sparky's, there were not only beautiful flowers, but the Statue of Liberty...please note that she has gone green and has a coil bulb in her torch...

...and a gadget man, standing in the fountain, complete with cup, a red white and blue pinwheel, green googles, and a bright pink pail.
I can understand why he was in the fountain, as it was hot as blazes out.

Walking to Matilda, there was Uncle Sam guarding the parking lot, with a green chile in his left hand.  I am not sure if it is constitutionally legal for him to be partial to one small town in Southern New Mexico, but there he was anyway, strutting his stuff...

I waved at him, and he smiled and took off his hat and bowed, careful not to drop the chile pepper.

Then Matilda and I went off to find the pink pig.  At the restaurant, one of the gals told me that they had moved it down to its own field for the festival.  Since I couldn't get close to him, the picture was taken through the fence.  No one wanted a pig that size to get loose and run amok during fiesta time for heaven's sake!

I told him that his cousin was on my dresser full of coins.  For some reason he didn't reply.  I thought it was kind of rude.

My last stop before heading back to Lemitar, was at Hatch Chiles.  Now I must say that there are literally dozens of stores and vendors selling chiles all over this little town, all along the roads leading in and out.  I was told I would get the best prices here, and I think I did...

What I wanted was two medium size ristras, which is what you see in the pictures.  I want them to hang outside for decoration.  Most of the people here in New Mexico not only use them for that, but also as a means to always have dried chiles on hand 24/7 - 365 days a year.  I bought two which were not dry, and a nice young man told me to keep them in a shaded area until they start getting dry.  

The store also had the most beautiful big sweet onions.  My father always grew Bermuda onions, which looked like these.  They were in fifty pound bags, and I really couldn't use fifty pounds.  A couple however did buy one of the bags, and I asked the wife what she was going to do with them.  "Oh, I always give them away as gifts to my friends."  Now that's a good idea.  If it were nearer Christmas you could give them as stocking stuffers.

Matilda and I were back on I 25 and heading north.  I love to look at the scenery around me when I am driving, and this drive was no exception.  A valley exists near to Hatch where I saw fields of green, probably more chile peppers, and a huge orchard of pecan trees.  The valley went in and out of sight, as the hills and arroyos appeared and disappeared. We crossed the Rio Grande several times.  Then it was back to the high plains desert with the many types of gray-green bushes dotting the hills.  The mountains were visible to the north, east and west.  Some folks think that it is boring scenery, but I don't. 

After picking up the mail, Matilda parked us in the back and I got out and went inside the house.  It was the next day when I realized that I had left the ristras in the back of Matilda.  I went out to fetch them, and they were just fine.  Now where to hang them.  I didn't have any place outside where they wouldn't be in the sun, so they are now hanging from a chair in my kitchen...

Once I figure out where to put them in front, they will be hung up outside.  I have to find out how long I have to keep them in shade before I do this, however.

Remember last year when Edna, Mike and I went to the dedication of the site where the new Mission Church in Lemitar was going to be rebuilt?  Well the building has started.  The first pic is just as they were grading the area and putting up markers.  The second pic is basically where they are now.  It is hoped that the church will be finished by January 1, 2013, for the Fiesta, which I hope to attend.

That's it for now.  I am going to get myself something to eat and watch BERNIE.

Life is good.

I love you all,

Sally