Hatch, NN - September 5, 2026

During Labor Day weekend is the largest Chile festival in America and possibly the world. During the 1600s, the Spanish brought chiles to this region of the United States. In 1894, Dr. Garcia from New Mexico State University started to scientifically breed these chiles and created a meaty and flavorful chile.

Every year only during this time around August thru September is the harvest season for these New Mexico hatch chilis which means that getting these chiles fresh is extremely rare and hard to find. That is why 30,000 people descend to the Hatch Valley during Labor Day weekend. 

Shell and I decided to drive down to Hatch, New Mexico this Labor Day weekend. The drive is about 1.5 hours from our home. Parking was a little difficult. It's probably best to park at Hatch High School and walk. The problem is that during Labor Day weekend, temperatures in this area can reach 100℉. On this day it was 95℉. 

Most of the booths are at the High School, however it's mainly a craft fair with food vendors and entertainment and wasn’t too exciting. We ended walking about 1 mile down the road to the different stores near the high school. I believe these stores are owned by the farmers in the area. Even though it was hot today, it was a great experience watching the workers roast the green chiles. 

There are different types of hatch chilis ranging from mild to extremely hot. There are actual names for these chiles. But I asked the workers about the different names and they said it's easier for them to list them mild to extremely hot. Here are the specific names for these chiles check out this infograph.

I went into one of these stores to buy some chiles. If you purchase 20 pounds they give you a ticket and you can have it roasted. They also are able to peel the skin off after roasting, but the technique they use is just spraying it with water. I believe it dilutes the flavor, so I just had them roast it. 

It took a really long time to get my chiles roasted, so a good idea is to find one of these stores that have a lot of people working and a lot of roasting machines, I assume it will be faster. 

After I got my 20 pounds of chile, we walked about half a mile up the road to the most famous burger place in Hatch. This place is called Sparky’s Burgers and they have all these old nostalgic signs and items in the front. For me waiting in line was brutal. It was 95℉ and I was carrying 20 pounds of chiles. Since I was here, I decided that I had to do it because you never know if you’ll be back. After about 1.5 hours of waiting I finally got to the front. Michelle, who was waiting under shade, saw a vacant parking lot, so she thought it was a good idea to get the car. The problem was she had to walk a mile to get the car.  Eventually, I ordered the green chili burger and pulled pork. It took about 20 minutes after ordering to get our food. The inside of the restaurant was packed and the only place to eat was outside, but with it being 95℉, we decided to eat in the car. The burger was really good, I’m not sure it was worth the wait in the sun, but the food was good. It was cheap overall for the entire meal, I only paid $40 and it included the tip.

It was a really hot day in Hatch, but I felt it was worth it. I ended up freezing the chile and giving most away. I also made nachos, green salsa, and chile rellenos. Eventually I would like to make chile stew or soup. In the future, I wouldn’t mind going again just to get and try the different chiles. Believe it or not one of the most popular chiles is the Lumbre which is an extremely hot chile that packs over 12,000 SHU which is kind of hot, not as hot as a habanero which has over 100,000 SHU.