The Fresh Chile Company Podcast

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 bills that first allowed California to enter the United States as a state without slavery. The state of Texas had its northern and western borders defined giving back to New Mexico what i

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. New Mexico was front and center of that surprise. Let us look back 15 years to a tough little gelding named Mine That Bird that oddsmakers had at 50 to 1, meaning they thought the horse h

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 father, Arnold McMillan, who loves food and loves to cook came up with the idea of using fresh, crisp Hatch Red Chile right off the Chile Vine instead of traditional Dried Red Chile Powde

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 has to be done, They have faith in several things beyond traditional religion. Don’t get me wrong, they are on their knees often in prayer to the good Lord. But there is something el

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 having a toy shovel when they were small to driving a real tractor as a teenager as part of their learning. I asked one what was the most important part of being a farmer? He said when you

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 of New Mexico. What’s the problem? Finding it. Let us talk about “Get rich in New Mexico with gold” efforts. I am mostly talking about the second half of the 1800s to the 20th ce

Today I’m talking about Sid Gutierrez, who had a dream and then did so much more afterwards. What he knew was that he wanted to go into space as an astronaut and that there were steps which must be taken. First was to be the top of his high school class at Valley High School in Albuquerque and get an appointment to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There he mus

For ten thousand years people have been walking in and around what is now Southern New Mexico. Paved roads are a luxury of less than a hundred years, but the improvement was great. The Interstates 10 -25 and 40 are just over 50 years and now Southern to Northern New Mexico is quick. Before that it was travel New Mexico on dirt trails. Some trips took weeks. We are not the first peo

There are some people who you know not so much individually but as both of them. Like my Mom and Dad. People referred to them as George and Joan. Or Randy and Carol McMillan, the owners of the Fresh Chile Company. They sponsor these podcasts and many Fresh Chile Company videos have both of them or Randy and daughter Jenna. In that manner I say former New Mexico Governor Bruce and A

Think of how far growing Chile has come over the years. Today it is a major crop in New Mexico with thousands of acres. A long time ago it was a family garden staple that most families in Southern New Mexico grew, one family at a time. Long ago each family who year after year grew Chile in their garden did so by keeping some of the seeds from the last Chile harvest. Those seeds wer