The Fresh Chile Company Podcast

I was talking with an agricultural researcher some years ago. He said something that I still remember: this success we have in growing plants, it all came about from our many failures. Only by finding what didn’t work, did we discover what worked best. While it seems odd, all that great Hatch Valley chile that you enjoy, well now, came about first by failure.  Love this Podcast? Check out our webs...

As Civil War battles go, the First Battle of Mesilla July 25-27,1861 was interesting but not right for a Hollywood movie, or was it? Could there be heroes and villains, brave men and cowards? There were mistakes made by both sides. Let’s explore this Civil War battle in New Mexico to see if it would make a movie. What to call it? The Civil War battle mistakes in Mesilla. Love this Podcast? Check o...

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 Mexico, our farmers do flat land agriculture. Judging by the enthusiasm people for Hatch Valley chile, I would say that flat land growing of Hatch Valley chile is a winner. Looking at Southern New Mexi...

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 unique to New Mexico. Consider Albuquerque. Don’t need to say New Mexico. Another one that has lots of history and stories is the quaint New Mexico town of Carrizozo.  Love this Podcast? Check out our we...

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 over or get in a gunfight or have say 30 to 50 people get killed. You can buy salt at the store cheaply. We are talking about the varied life of Albert Fountain, and he did get involved in this conflict i...

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 an official food. You don’t just smell the official smell of New Mexico, you have the official food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack. Stand by for Green and Red Chile. While the pleasant smell...

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 Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain and his 8-year-old son in 1896. The story has so many angles this is the first of three podcasts about Albert Fountain, a man who had enough adventures for three lifetimes...

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, Las Cruces has quite a history. When the Sun is rising or setting, it often looks like a picture in an art gallery. Las Cruces is a City of Enchantment and Mystery. Let’s talk about it. Love this Podcas...

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 became a motivational speaker helping people live the good life. He grew up in Portales and maybe that is the secret of his success. He always started his seminars and speeches by saying I know you ar...

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 area and taxes out of the local coffers but provided several interesting attributes including spreading the taste for Hatch Green and Red Chile over our nation. I will tell you why White Sands Missile...

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 than agriculture. Let me give an example: I love Green Chile and can grow it and onions in my backyard. But I cannot grab a shovel and dig in my backyard for gold or silver. Might be some there but I am...

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 run for the U. S. Congress in New Mexico’s Second Congressional District as a write-in against the replacement for Runnels, David King. Then the incredible happened. Love this Podcast? Check out our we...

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 Trinity Site July 16, 1945. The Kodak organization had to find out about the Trinity atomic explosion in an unusual way. Also here is a question: what part did Green Chile play in New Mexico becoming...

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 death of a loved one. Example: if you are driving in Las Cruces near Picacho Hills there’s Quesenberry Lane. For most people it is just a place name, but it is more than that.  As to Quesenberry Lane, it...

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 television series Gunsmoke . Weed today has less than a hundred people. And there isn’t a monument to Gunsmoke , the twenty-year television series starring James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillion but there is in...

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. While we think of him for his work on Chiles Peppers, he was instrumental in the research on Pecans, Onions, Alfalfa, and Cotton. Importantly, he was a very good researchers along with being a kind an...

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 is now Eastern Ne...

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 had very little c...

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 Powder or Dried Red Chi...

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 else. Faith is not e...

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 think about seed...

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 century in New Mexico. S...

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 must distinguish hims...

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 people to go down t...

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 Alice King when I...