Well, we’ve officially finished the chile harvest! We picked 127 macro bins full, which is about 41 tons of fresh chiles. When Nacho told me the final count yesterday I responded, “No wonder I feel so tired!” We have been busy.
I expect that we will have all the chiles dried and ground by the end of next week, almost a month earlier than last year. Big thanks to Nacho and Alejandro for building us a second dehydrator this summer. Having double the dehydrating capacity has meant that as soon as we have chiles processed, there’s room to get them dried. It’s been pretty seamless this year, something I’m incredibly grateful for.
Other things I'm grateful for? People like you who are part of the success of our farm! We've worked so hard this year to have a successful harvest in order to have delicious chiles, beans, strawberries, and olive oil for your kitchen (and for the kitchens of your friends and family and maybe coworkers, babysitters, delivery drivers, neighbors, and whoever else might be lucky enough to be on your list for gifts this year!). If you're just starting to think about gifts (I have yet to wrap my brain around anything for this year), we hope you keep our farm in mind.
Inspiration for Your Thanksgiving Table
Are you starting to figure out your Thanksgiving menu? We’re here to make sure you have the chiles you need to make Thanksgiving flavorful and delicious. There has yet to be a Thanksgiving dinner I’ve been at probably in the past decade without a pot of Piment d’Ville Chile Cream Sauce to ladle on the roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and green beans. In my opinion, it’s the star of the meal! We have the brand new 2024 harvest of Classic Piment d’Ville available in 1.2 ounce jars right now ready for bringing the heat to Thanksgiving. These chiles were harvested the first week of October and were ground into powder on October 11. It really doesn’t get much fresher than that! I'd recommend getting orders in by early next week if you want ingredients for Thanksgiving.
If chile cream sauce isn’t your thing, maybe you’d be more into Brown Butter Piment d’Ville Cornbread Muffins? I’d recommend seasoning some roasted sweet potatoes or cauliflower with our new Cali Birria Spice Blend (we’ve had someone already order 4 jars!). Don’t forget to add Piment d’Ville (or really any of our chile powders!) to whatever herby blend you are using to season your turkey. I also recommend frequently basting it with butter for tasty crispy skin! Don't forget that we have a whole library of recipes for side dishes, sauces, and a bunch of other things if you want to opt out of roasting a turkey this year.
You could also make Dorie Greenspan’s Sweet Potato Galette that has a spicy layer of quasi-Pimento cheese between the dough and the sweet potatoes and apples. Use this gift link from NYT Cooking to access the recipe without a NYT cooking subscription! I had so much fun talking to Dorie Greenspan back in 2021 for this article and recipe and still feel incredibly honored that she took a liking to our Piment d’Ville! [If for some reason I didn't do the gift link right - I'm sorry!]
Bean and Olive Oil Update
We know so many of you have been waiting since February when we sold out of beans for the next harvest. We’re picking up all 2,500 pounds of our dry beans from the folks who clean them for us on Friday and Gideon and I are spending the weekend getting them packed up. The goal is to have them on the website as soon as we can - the end of next week at the latest! Keep an eye out for another email when they are live. We’ve got about double the quantity of beans we had last year and are excited to get them into your kitchens!
In the midst of a busy chile processing week, we harvested olives last week Tuesday as well. While 2023 was a huge production year for our trees, this year was pretty minimal. We ended up with 25 gallons of olive oil (quite a bit less than the 100 we had last year!). This won’t get bottled until February and we’re not sure how much of it we will actually sell. I’d recommend stocking up on our 2023 harvest of olive oil as there’s a bit available.
