Chasing Chiles

Chasing Chiles... Part 2!?

2010-11-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

Its been awhile since I've been on here. I've been busy on this latest endeavor. Chasing chiles and climate change - the two combine and manifest themselves in the stories and personal tales of the farmers and chefs who cook and use the chile pepper all across North America. This project added new co-pilots on the Chile Chase and it took over a year to research and write... but we are in the final stages of the project, and I'm proud to announce that our book - Chasing Chiles is available for pre-order on Chelsea Green and on Amazon.com.

A chiltepin.... martini?

2009-07-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

The borderlands have a rich cultural heritage and cuisine that reflects the myriad of influences that its inhabitants bring with it. Yet it often carries an (undeserved) reputation of a dusty backwater. Those that live here know that the borderlands are teeming with artists, writers, chefs, who create bi-lingual works that reflects the unique cultural dynamic that exists here. They do so without pretense or putting on airs. In another salvo against this image, we present to you a spicy, borderlands interpretation of the quintessential sophisticated cocktail – a Chiltepin Martini.

Chiltepin martini

2 oz ~2 shots vodka (James Bond would disapprove, but vodka lets the chiltepin talk)

3 pitted green olives

tablespoon of pickled green chiltepin

crushed dried chiltepin

splash of dry vermouth

ice

cocktail shaker

Take your martini glass (doesn’t have to be a fancy stemmed one - an old-fashioned glass or rocks glass works too) and put some ice and water in it to chill the glass. Meanwhile, make a few chiltepin stuffed olives and spear them with a toothpick. Set it aside for a moment. Pour the vodka into the shaker, along with as many pickled chiltepins as you like, getting a bit of the brine in there. Muddle the chiltepins into the vodka with the handle of a wooden spoon. Add ice to the shaker, a splash of vermouth, then shake the hell out of the thing. Discard the ice water in your now cool martini vessel. Strain your chiltepin martini into your glass, garnish with your chiltepin stuffed olives and crush a few flakes of dried chiltepin on top.

Chiltepin for sale

2008-08-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

*** AS OF JULY 2010, ALL CHILTEPIN SUPPLY HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED. CHECK OUT WWW.NATIVESEEDS.ORG FOR SOME MAIL ORDER CHILTEPIN***

I happened to procure a small stash of chiltepin - the wild chile from NW Mexico or the "mother of all chiles" - on my way back to the USA. During various points of our travel, a number of folks have expressed interest in purchasing some chiltepin. So for those of you interested, I have about 60 bottles of chiltepin, packaged by Don Tepin. Don Tepin is a small business in Baviacora, Sonora. Its actually the hobby of a couple brothers and their neighbor. They purchase ripe, wild harvested chiltepin, the best of which get rinsed, washed, dried and packaged into these bottles.

You can buy a bottle of chiltepin (51 grams of dried chile) for $10 plus S/H. If you purchase more than one, I can combine the S/H charges.

To purchase, send me an email at kraigkraft [at] gmail [dot] com. I have a paypal account with the same email address as well.

Images of the border

2008-08-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

Lost in the return to Davis and in the subsequent frenzy of lab work and catching up here at home, I've failed to share with you some of the most interesting and poignant images that Heather and I have taken during our time in Mexico. So after some delay, here they are.

For the school year 2007-2008 UC Davis selected The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea as the Campus Community book. If you have not read it, the book follows 26 men as they attempt to cross into the United States by walking through the Arizona desert, telling the story from all of the angles - the border patrol, the smugglers and the would-be migrants.

Heather and I used the book as a road map of sorts and took some incredible images of the border - the concept of which I have trouble wrapping my head around all of the myriad issues, especially this particular border, which has its own controversial history and politics.

We encountered the border just west of Nogales, then followed it as it ended in the Pacific Ocean, on a stretch of municipal beach just outside of Tijuana's bullfighting ring.

This abarrotes in Altar sold everything you needed to cross. Dark windbreaker, dark hat, dark backpack and gallons of water.

Just outside of Sonoita, just south of Organ Pipe National Monument, the border is a rather simple series of 4x4 metal posts of alternating height with some barbed wire stretched across the top and bottom parts. Not much of a deterrent.

Ceniza, our newly adopted Mexican street dog crosses the border illegally.

Kraig and Ceniza approach the border's end - the municipal beach in Tijuana.

Vendors selling peanuts, churros and cold coconuts right up to the fence.

Footprints on the other side

The border patrol keeps a watchful eye on the vendors and the proceedings.

Chasing Chiles on the air

2008-03-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

I was recently asked by the local university radio program "Acontencer Agropecuario" (translates to farming happenings) to talk about why I was at the Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes and about his project.

The audio should be linked to this page, so you can listen along as I butcher the beauty of the Spanish language.

ACONTECER mañana.mp3

Doña Coyo's Mole Poblano

2008-03-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

I’ve alluded at various times to the great variety of chiles grown here in Mexico and how each has its own culinary purpose or niche. I’ve been quite remiss in providing some examples of dishes that incorporate the two major dried chile varieties that are grown in the state of Aguascalientes. I will attempt to remedy that now, with 2 posts on traditional dishes that are made with the dried peppers from this region. Today: a very traditional dish made with the Pasilla pepper...Later this week: a popular dish eaten during Lent made with the Gaujillo pepper.

*

The Pasilla chile is so named for the superficial qualities shared with the pasa, or raisin. When the Pasilla chile is dried, it wrinkles and darkens, resembling a black raisin. This chile is quite popular for use in sauces, especially in Puebla, where it forms the base of the dish Mole Poblano. Mole is a great example of how a “typical” Mexican dish, actually is an amalgam of ingredients, techniques and traditions that blend the pre-hispanic Mexico with the post-colonial version. There are as many different moles as there are chiles – perhaps even more so, as each mole carries its own distinctive combination of chiles.

This recipe comes from Doña Coyo – mother-in-law of my good friend and collaborator, Mario Perez. Doña Coyo learned this recipe from her husband’s childhood nanny...that means that the recipe is AT LEAST 100 years old.

Doña Coyo’s Mole Poblano
This takes 2 to 3 hrs to make and yields ~ 5 liters of sauce. You will need a powerful blender to make sure that all the ingredients are liquefied for the proper consistency.

Ingredients:

15 dried Ancho chiles
15 dried Mulato chiles
12-15 dried Pasilla chiles (*use less for less heat)
250g blanched almonds
2 bolillos – small French style dinner rolls...could substitute half a baguette if needed
4 corn tortillas
3 “rounds” of Mexican chocolate (i.e., Ibarra)
250g of manteca de puerco - pork lard
200g of raisins
2-3 tablespoons sugar
~2 L (about 8 cups) of chicken stock (we made our own stock with onions, garlic, salt and pepper, but you could use store bought to save time)
4 cups of water

1. Prepare the chiles by removing all the seeds and the stem. Thoroughly rinse the prepped chiles under running water.

Doña Coyo opens and prepares the dried chiles.

2. Lightly (!) brown the chiles, almonds, bread rolls (in pieces), tortillas and raisins in lard, working in batches. Set all the browned ingredients aside and allow to cool.

A really quick dip in some hot oil for the chiles

All the ingredients ready for the blender

3. Using the blender and working in batches, blend together the toasted chiles, browned bread, fried tortillas, almonds, raisins, chocolate and chicken stock. You may need to keep adding chicken stock to reach the right consistency. When the stock runs out, use the water that was set aside. . Blend until pieces of chile are no longer distinguishable and the consistency is that of a medium-thick milkshake.

Keep adding stock until all the ingredients all thoroughly blended

4. Pour into a large stockpot with a small amount of lard (keep on low heat). Taste the sauce and add sugar as desired. Dried chiles can sometimes impart a bitter aftertaste and the sugar mellows this out.
5. Simmer the mole for 30-45 minutes, carefully stirring to avoid burning the sauce at the bottom. The mole will thicken and darken in color. It's ready when the oil starts to rise to the surface of the sauce. Take the mole off of the heat and let cool. Once cooled, you can portion the sauce into containers and freeze them for later use (should keep if stored frozen for 2+ years).

On the stovetop to simmer

This mole is often served over roast chicken or pork, accompanied by a side of rice. Srpinkle lightly toasted sesame seeds over top and/or a few toasted raisins. For those in love with the flavors, true Poblanos take his/her mole any way they can get it – try it on top of a fried egg for breakfast or over beans.

¡Provecho!

Portraits of Chile Farmers

2008-02-23T07:58:00.001-08:00

I wanted to share some of these photos with you. These portraits are of survey participants, with each I have included their first name, age, acreage farmed and crops that they grow. I normally feel that pointing a camera in someone's face is very intrusive, but after talking with each participant on how they manage their crop, and of their concerns for their livelihoods, I asked for their photo to pair with their survey data. I'm thrilled with the results as I think each photo makes the data less abstract, giving it a very real, human connection. I think this subset of participants is fairly reflective of the entire group. Mostly men 50 and over planting small acreages to beans, maize and chile. A few plant cash crops, which in this region is garlic or tomatoes.

Santiago, 58
4 hectares of maize, beans and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Alberto, 66
9 hectares of maize, beans, garlic and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Baltazar, 54
4.5 hectares of maize, beans, garlic and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Gelacio, 53
7 hectares of maiz, frijol and chile
Pasilla chiles

Ismael, 57
5 hectares of maize, beans and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Israel, 36
25 hectares of garlic and chile
Pasilla chiles

Hot Peppers on the Presidential Campaign Trail

2008-02-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

Although this news is a few days old, and I am favoring her opponent for the Democratic Presidential nominee, this is blog worthy.

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to the power of the pepper. She swears by them, telling Katie Couric on CBS that eating peppers is the key to maintaining stamina on the campaign trail. So is this the secret to her fountain of youth, or is it just meaningless pander for key Hispanic voters in TX and OH? hmmm...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/hillarys-health-plan-hot-peppers/

And the Survey Says.... part 1

2008-02-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Forming beds for planting. This producer was fairly technified and had drip irrigation installed.

While the 15,000 mile chile chase to the Yucatan, Chiapas, Baja and back was the exciting prologue, we have now entered the real raison d’être of this Fulbright - the opportunity to wander the dusty teracerias of central Mexico and to have a face to face, honest conversation with the Mexican campo. Since my interests lie in the conservation of crop genetic resources and my host institution lies near the heart of dried chile pepper production - it made a lot of sense to tie all of these up neatly and to explore what kinds of chiles farmers were (still) growing, whether or not they were saving seed to plant in successive seasons, and if so, how do they select chiles to save for seed? By exploring some of the esoteric details of this particular farming system, we can explore “larger” topics such as the loss of genetic diversity as it pertains to chile and what this means for the public at large; the ageing of farmers and the decrease of acreage under the plow; the increasing technification of agriculture and the need for increased savvy from producers; the liberalization of agricultural trade bringing farmers in competition with farmers from all over the world. But let’s get our heads out of the clouds for a second, and step down from the steps of the ivory tower and I’ll recount how the survey got off the ground and what the initial responses have been.

Getting everyone on board

Although the chile chase ended in November, the survey was already in its final rough draft and piloted by early December, I was unable to start the survey work until the middle of January. Why? In order for the survey to be administered in a more “scientific” manner, I needed to obtain a random list of producers to survey. In order to get a list of producers of chile (from the state committee on plant health, whose mission is to combat insect infestations in crops), I need to meet so-and-so, to submit a letter to so-and-so, another meeting which gets delayed, and on. Finally, I received the green light and made a random selection of the producer list, taking down names, county and town. List and surveys in hand, I’ve been traveling to small towns and ejidos and I basically stalk individuals, asking about in the small stores and then finding them at their home or in their field. Once finding my “mark,” I introduce myself and the purpose of the survey and as soon as it’s clear that I know the chile farming lingo, the residual doubts about my purpose and origin disappear. Most answers beg follow-up questions and we often cover lots of ground that goes beyond what is on the survey. We talk about the irony that many from the rural parts of Mexico are trying to go the US and here I am, coming from the US to rural parts of Mexico. Many respondents have been in the US, or have kids/brothers/sisters/aunts/uncles/cousins in California, Chicago or Florida. Once, an interviewer’s small field crew came up in the middle of our conversation and basically told him that they were leaving tomorrow para el Norte, that they had obtained papeles. We talked about Hillary v. Obama, the US border wall, the US recession, the lunacy of the new anti-immigrant law in Arizona, and we talked a lot about chiles and chile farming.

Jose with his seedbeds

“Sembrar chile es como un vicio” - Planting chiles is like a bad habit

This refrain was repeated to me twice on my first day of interviews. Jose Montellano said this to me as we slowly walked out to his almacigo, or seedbed, where his seedlings were just beginning to emerge. In his early 60s, Jose walks with some difficulty and his gait is a slow shuffle, each huarache-clad foot laboriously placed one in front of the other into the dusty path. Jose plants 2 hectares (roughly 5 acres) of pasillas – long dark chiles that have a raisin-like look when dried and then are used to make moles or sauce – and he also plants about 2 hectares of maize for consumption and sometimes lettuce when he has extra money. We arrive at the almacigo and he carefully unwinds the cords that keep the plastic burlap covering taught over the seedbeds, serving as a modicum of protection against the wind and the cold nights. As he shows me the seedlings and the obvious care that has gone into their planting, he continued to narrate how the chile season proceeds. Each seedbed has around 45 thousand seeds, of which perhaps some 30,000 will get planted in one hectare. Each one will transplanted by hand, into furrowed rows. When needed, water will be pumped up from a well and diverted into the furrows via brick culverts. All application of inputs will be done by hand – insecticide is applied via a backpack sprayer and fertilizer is applied by the handful at the base of the plant. Upon dodging pests and disease for the long 6 to 7 month season, harvested chiles are brought to the secadora, or a commercial dehydrator, which charges for drying and packaging of the finished product.

First class Pasillas

More seedbeds - those are stalks of maize used as the cover.

In addition to the lengthy season, farmers have more reason for concern. In recent years, diseases and pests have been wreaking havoc as many smaller farmers cannot afford the chemical treatments and/or not readily following preventative measures (such as rotation and fallow) and there is increased worry from competition from abroad, namely Peru and China. This increased competition has dropped prices, forcing farmers to sell their crop ripe on the plant to coyotes, rather than paying to have the crop dried and packaged and looking for better prices. Add to this the increase in fertilizer prices, the increase in the electrical costs to power the pump, and this venture is less profitable and desirable than it has been in years past. For many who have the resources, they readily adopt newer techniques such as plastic mulching or drip irrigation, along with the hybrid seeds. Yet for the majority without resources, they stubbornly keep planting, hoping next year will be better, hence Jose’s reference to a bad habit…

More on this in a few days.

Mexico’s answer to the schwarma

2008-01-25T12:39:00.000-08:00

I have finally gotten the green light to begin my survey of chile producers in the region, so the chile chase will become the chile canvass very soon. Until that update, enjoy this piece about my favorite taco, al pastor.

If I return from Mexico slightly above my fighting weight, the blame can be laid squarely on tacos al pastor. Literally translated to “shepherd’s tacos”, tacos al pastor are thinly sliced pieces of rotisserie marinated pork leg served in a corn tortilla with a slice of pineapple, diced onions and shredded cilantro. Like the title of this post alludes to, the cuts of pork are stacked vertically, and thin slices are carved off as the outside portion begins to cook, leaving a tapered shape to the stack. Between the visual cues of the bright yellow pineapple, the dark red seasoned pork and the roar of the gas-powered rotisserie, the combination is more hypnotic than a barber’s pole never-ending stripes. Needless to say, the vertical rotisserie (called a trompo, lit. “spinning top”) is placed in the most visible part of the taqueria as to maximize the number of passerby who become ensnared by it’s siren song. As each taco is about 3 or 4 bites, its not uncommon to eat 7 or more in one sitting.

From what I understand of its history, it is another great example of culinary mestizaje, or mixing of the indigenous with the foreign, the process that has made Mexican cuisine so diverse across its various regions. Tacos al pastor are thought to have been an adaptation of the Middle Eastern schwarma or the Turkish döner kebab that were brought by a wave of Lebanese immigrants. First made with lamb (and hence the name al pastor), al pastor now is exclusively made with pork, a switch that probably ensured its place in the pantheon of Mexican regional tacos – carne asada in the North, fish tacos in Baja, birria in the central west, cabeza in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Traces of this history can still be found at the modern al pastor serving taquerias. Many of the taquerias still have an order called taco arabe, which will be served in pita-like bread. My local taqueria has gone as far as to name these orders with recognizable Arab names, such as the “Saddam Hussein” and the “Osama bin Laden”.

Tacos al pastor are a night food – a small dinner or a late night snack. My local taqueria here in Aguascalientes starts their rotissierie up at 5 PM every day and will run it until 4 or 5 AM. They start with about 40 lbs of pastor on the weekdays, and up to 90 lbs on the weekends. The marinade they use has some 25 different ingredients – I guessed at about 8 of them – orange juice, annatto, dried chiles (guajillo, arbol), clove, wine, salt, pepper, garlic… Duplicating the marinade will not be a problem, but how am I to replicate the trompo? Without that rotisserie, it just won't taste the same. Well there is a solution for everything. My new friend, Javier who runs the trompo pictured above, mentioned that I could easily find a trompo to import for as little as 380 dollars.

Tacos anyone?

Paleta paleta paleta

2008-01-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

we've been lucky enough to have friends and family join us along the way on the chile chase this year and we've asked a few to write about thier own culinary adventures in Mexico! the following is by our friend and guest blogger, Cathy Wirth.
--
As readers of this blog know, the search for the origins of the chile pepper have brought Kraig and Heather to Mexico, which sports an amazing natural diversity of chiles in more shapes, sizes, and flavors than I ever imagined possible. However, Mexico is not only the likely homeland of the chile. It is, in fact, a veritable birthing center of many culinary delights. Preliminary research conducted during my recent visit with Kraig and Heather in Mexico indicates that Mexico may also be a center of origin for an understudied but internationally recognized food, the paleta (or popsicle, as it is called in many parts of the U.S.).

The incredible diversity of paletas - flavor, size, texture, color - is a clue to it's likely origins in the region.

The Mexican paleta (pah-lei-ta) comes in a truly stunning variety of flavors, colors and textures. While the paleta is often classified into two main subcategories—those made with agua (water) or leche (mik)—it seems that these are fairly superficial distinctions and that there is only one real species of paleta (see the literature on race as a social as opposed to genetic construct for a parallel analysis). The paleta is ubiquitous in Mexico, with even the smallest towns having a paleta vendor, stand or store on every other street . In the U.S., the likely descendent of the paleta, the popsicle, is generally confined to distribution through retail outlets such as major supermarket chains, corner stores, and gas stations, whose main focus is not popsicle sales. In addition, the popsicle has clearly been bred for storage and conformity, at the expense of the variety and general tastiness still found in the Mexican paleta. However, despite the overall importance of the paleta as a cultural, social and dietary influence in Mexico, the Americas, and many other parts of the world, where exactly the paleta originated and what the original paleta looked like are questions that remain unanswered.[1]

Given the constraints of my time in Mexico (10 days), the many other activities on the agenda (great company, eating Kraig’s cooking, surfing, etc.), the level of funding from outside sources received for the trip ($0), and the general level of discourse (see upcoming post “Dude, What Eats that Fish?,” by guest blogger Todd Rosenstock), it did not seem prudent to undertake a full scientific study of the origins of the paleta during this trip. However, a preliminary “social science” study was conducted, tentatively entitled “Which Paleta Flavor is the Best?”

For the purposes of this study, I personally sampled as many paletas as possible during the course of our travels in Mexico. I also employed the help of Heather, Kraig and Todd to add to the paleta taste test sample size. In total, over 50 paletas were sampled.

There was some debate over whether it was more appropriate to try as many different flavors as possible, or to try some paletas until a few favorites were found and focus further study on those favorites while avoiding potentially gross flavors (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1. Number of paletas sampled as compared to diversity of paleta flavors sampled per participant in the study.

To answer the original study question “Which Paleta Flavor is the Best?” a complex algorithm was developed, which assigned each paleta an Overall Paleta Score (OPS)[2]. The best paleta flavors were those that consistently received the highest OPS scores. As can be seen in the figure below, a clear pattern with regard to the best flavors emerged.

Figure 2. Paleta flavors that received the highest Overall Paleta Score (OPS)

In conclusion: Happy paleta tasting for those of you visiting Kraig and Heather in the coming months! Provecho…

[1] As a side note, the paleta retail space is an archetype that has persisted in the Pan-American psyche for generations, giving rise to the expression popularly utilized among disaffected hipsters throughout the U.S. today—“let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
[2] While it is not crucial for the lay paleta consumer to understand the details of the algorithm in order to appreciate the results of this study, in the interest of promoting future study on the subject, the algorithm is as follows: Overall Paleta Score (OPS) = 15 (source of flavor) + 8 (seasonality of flavor) + 6 (consistency) + 200 (Cathy’s favorite flavors)

Birria for breakfast?

2007-12-14T17:17:00.000-08:00

While the chile chase is in transition mode (and currently compiling a retrospective), I wanted to take this time to share with you some of the more interesting and tasty regional fare that can be found here in Aguascalientes. While the cuisine here (and more broadly speaking in Northern Mexico) pales in comparison to the more tropical flavors found in the South, there are some dishes that merit attention. Given the region's history as the pastures of Mexico most of these prominent foods focus on meat, often with little to no vegetables as an accompaniment.

One of my favorites is birria - a slowly roasted meat (goat, rabbit, cow, sheep) that is then shredded and served with a slightly piquant sauce. This is served with more salsas and tons of freshly made corn tortillas.

In Aguascalientes, birria is a breakfast (!) item. You can find it on the weekends at many comedores, or in birria specific locales, called Birrierias. The one that I have been frequenting - it is on the way to the School of Agriculture - is only open from 8 to 3, or when they run out, whichever comes first. It is usually the latter.

The birria at this joint is made from sheep (borrego in Spanish) which has been roasted for over 5 hours in a brick oven. In the last picture, this is a medium size plate, served with (from L to R), a red salsa, dried chile de arbol, fresh jalapeños, dried oregano and limes. Just out of sight is the pile of freshly made corn tortillas. All of this for just 37 pesos, or about $3.41.

the chile chase at “home”

2007-12-09T13:32:00.001-08:00

After 11 weeks on the road - through 25 states, 4 in the US and 21 in Mexico - the chile chase has landed in its’ temporary headquarters of Aguascalientes. Here Kraig will be working with faculty and students at the Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes (UAA) on the next phase of his dissertation research. This involves 1) analyzing genetic data obtained from chile samples from last year’s chile chase...

K hard at work, analyzing data from home

...and, switching gears, 2) working with chile pepper producers from the region to understand seed selection and maintenance of commercial pepper varieties (more on this in an upcoming post). I am aprovechando the opportunity to check out the departments of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health at the UAA and see about collaborating on a zoonotic disease “literacy” project with both ag and health extension agents (more on that soon too!).

As temporary “Hidrocalidos,” we’ve found a small apartment in the Primo Verdad neighborhood in a conveniently located area of the city. The apartment is part of a complex of buildings that were originally constructed as housing for federal government workers in the 1980's following a move to decentralize government agencies after a disastrous earthquake in Mexico City. They've since been sold and rented at VERY reasonable prices to non-government employees.

Here's a quick photo-tour of our semi-furnished home:

El saloncito: 2 folding beach chairs, a few pareos, our "library" and a Yucatecan hammoc to decorate the wall...

...cocina, complete with minifridge, stove, sink and the basics of cookware...

...comedor AND oficina: our first homemade meal in a long while: vegetable soup, dark bread and Mexican wine (from Baja)...

...our new water heater...

...and laundry facilities.

We've made a few modifications over this last week as well...

the apartment came with the bare minimum! A wire hanger, scotch tape and some crape paper later...

...the best we could do for a menorah on short notice...

...a PVC+scarf shelving system...

...an ironic touch (from Chiapas)...

Of course, friends and family is what makes “home” home for us, so we’ve been lucky enough to have been adopted by several wonderful families that we’ve met through the university. We’ve been invited to share meals...

pozole with all the fixins

...watch the finals of the Mexican national fútbol league, partake in the Christmas tradition of posada...

Singing during La Posada: Here's the reenactment of José and Maria looking for a place to have their baby. Half of those gathered stay inside and half outside, asking for entrance (the song is a call and response). Sparklers are lit and toasts and hugs all around when the pilgrims are finally let in!

Posada piñatas: H taking aim at Santa.

...and head out on the town with our friends, and their extended families, almost every day since we’ve been here.

We watched the Cancun team Atlante play the local favorite, Guadalajara's Chivas in a semi-final game at the bar/restaurant Merenderos San Marcos (all lit up for Christmas...taco stands out front).

Templo San Marcos in Aguascalientes' Jardin de San Marcos neighborhood.

A tale of 2 Bajas

2007-11-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

Heather and I traveled to Baja to find wild chile peppers in collaboration with CIBNOR (a biological research station) and to celebrate thanksgiving with the rest of the Kraft clan. We traveled to the same majestic peninsula that entranced Alexander von Humboldt, John Steinbeck, Edward Abbey and other lesser luminaries.

Unfortunately, the peninsula is no longer as these gentlemen found it. Rather, the southern tip of the peninsula is no longer recognizable as “México” – as it is awash in luxury condominium developments, private golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and row after row of kiosks selling T-shirts that have brilliant witticisms like “save water, drink beer” and “Baja – I came, I saw, I got drunk”. Unlike other parts of Mexico that receive international visitors, Cabo is characterized by a huge gulf between the two worlds – one can live there for years and not meet a Mexican or speak Spanish. The Mexican part of the cape has been subverted and moved further inland, replaced by a more tropical version of Orange County.

It is truly a tale of 2 Bajas, never to meet in the middle.

One Baja has…

• Folks up early on a weekend morning fishing from the beach with a handline for their breakfast

• …and who are happy to show a gringo how to do it and will leave you with a lure and line.

• Simple, earnest fare of machaca (dried shredded beef), tacos of carne asada, camarones o pescado.

• Cardón cactus and mesquite trees dotting rugged mountains that crown the peninsula and descend into an azure sea.

• Empty beaches to camp on with the echoing sound of the surf.

• Cowboys and ranchers rounding up cattle through the brush and thicket astride their horses.

The other baja has… (sorry no pictures -you can look these up on the web)

• Chartered boats starting at $500 a day to hook marlin and sailfish.
• Sales pitches like this – “For $100 a person, we’ll go and kill it!”
• Surf and Turf that starts at 80 dollars, or cheaper fare such as McDonalds, Burger King or Applebee’s
• Impeccably landscaped guarded gated entrances with names like “Rancho del Mar”, “Villa del Mar”, “Vista del Mar” and the surreal glimpses of clover green golf fairways ringed by the brown, dry desert.
• $400 dollar a night resorts with balcony views of the beach.
• Real estate salesmen rounding up the cruise ship tourists through the hawkers and vendors rolling in their Hummers.

Which one would you like to visit?

The high road or the low road, but never the middle

2007-11-14T08:12:00.000-08:00

Mexico, more than anywhere else in Latin America, is known for it's amazing culinary diversity, both in the range of ingredients used and the regional identities associated with different dishes.

On the chile chase, we are very in tune with these variations in local and regional cuisine as we move between states, even more so if a peppers are somewhat featured in the preparation. Our ganas to eat authentic, local cuisine is balanced with the need to keep disastrous gastrointestinal distress at bay, and is also dictated by our budget. While the Fulbright is generous in their branding, they are a bit tighter with the actual funds allocated to their grantees. Given these constraints, Heather and I tend towards unpretentious mom and pop restaurants and comedores that keep it simple.

However, in our travels, we are finding that there is a distinct lack of quality "middle of the road" restaurants. What I mean is that there are plenty of places to eat in any given city, but few sit-down restaurants that actually serve authentic comida regional, or local specialties (or they do so really poorly). There is a plethora of tacos, sopas, and chilaquiles (standard fare throughout the country), but in our experience, it's rare that traditional regional dishes and beverages are offered at these places. You can always find Coca Cola, for example, but rarely can you find atole or unsweetened agua de jamaica. The homogenization of "Mexican" fare outside of the home means that salsas come in a bottle and tortillas from a bag - both often produced in a different time zone and both often lacking in taste.

For a couple of hungry folks on a budget however, this leaves us with the daily challenge of finding healthy, authentic regional food on the cheap - made in someone's home kitchen and sold on the street or prepared in front of you on a portable grill or comal. By far, we've had the most interesting dishes this way.

Here are a few photos from some of the best.
YUCATÁN

In Mérida, we found a delicious sweet dessert that is essentially a crispy crepe filled with cheese and your choice of nutella (!), cajeta (scalded milk+sugar paste), or jams in a variety of flavors.

CHIAPAS
Taco stand outside of the city cementary on Dia de Los Muertos, San Cristobal de Las Casas - a display of the cuts of pork available for taco fillings. From left, lengua (tongue), buche (stomach), nana (?), oreja (ear), pierna (flank), corazon (heart) and intestine (on the chef's fork). I went with pierna, lengua and corazon (my favorite).

OAXACA

Here we found taco stands in the plaza of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca (in the Isthmus) that all served tacos de cabeza (head meat) off of the steamed cow head. The meat was cut off of the bone (to order), sauteed with oil and onions and served on handmade tortillas.

In Juchitan, Oaxaca this atole was served by several ladies in the main plaza on a Sunday night. There are two layers to this delicious beverage - first, steaming hot water with diluted corn masa is poured into a ceramic bowl, then a sweet foam of frothed water and piloncillo (crystallized sugar cane molasses) is added to the top. As you drink it, you swirl the bowl so that with each sip you get a bit of the simple, hot corn base along with the sweet cold foam. This is one of Heather's new favorites!

In Oaxaca, Oaxaca, we found a weekly street market that featured organic products and local, regional cuisine - El Pochóte. Here we tried 5 varieties of aguas (passionfruit juice, horchata with fruit, a stewed sweet squash juice with cinammon, gunabana juice, and unsweetened jamaica juice), blue corn tortilla tacos with grilled rabbit meat, tamales with beans and anise leaves, and locally grown and roasted coffee.

Pepper Panacea

2007-11-07T16:20:00.001-08:00

As my interests on the chile chase lie more towards the medicinal/preventative health end of things, AND there seems to be an endless list of ailments that chiles will help to prevent and/or cure, I wanted to offer the following as an introduction to the amazing power of the pepper!

To begin with, all peppers are high in vitamins A, C and K, are a great source of fiber, and red peppers are well endowed with lycopene. Most of the beneficial medicinal properties in chile peppers come from the capsaicinoids found in all species in the genus Capsicum.

It is, as you loyal readers will of course know by now, the capsaicinoids that give chile peppers their heat. The hotter the chile pepper the more capsaicinoids and the greater the potential benefit (or harm!) of a given pepper. It is always possible to overdose of course, so it's no surprise that pepper power must not be over-used or abused when doing a body good.

To understand the amazing versatility of the chile pepper as a remedy or ingredient in a remedy, one must distinguish between the health benefits of eating (ingesting) peppers and the use of peppers in various forms as a topically applied curo - pultices, creams, gels, shampoos, powders, etc.

PEPPERS ON THE INSIDE
Research indicates a diet regularly including hot chile peppers may:
- help to reduce the negative effects of LDL cholesterol (Woo Hoo! Heather can eat butter again!!!)
- help to increase the efficiency of insulin production and use by the body
- help to protect AGAINST stomach ulcers caused by the bacteria H. pylori (by affecting the chemicals the stomach secretes in response to infection)
- help to reduce the risk of food-borne diseases caused by microbial contamination in foods that go unrefrigerated (another "Woo Hoo!" for Heather's endless cause to keep street tacos from wreaking havoc!)
- cause cancer cells to grow more slowly and even die
- increase the capacity to lose weight and therefore reduce obesity
and
- promote the production and efficient use of insulin, helping to prevent and maybe even combat diabetes

PEPPERS ON THE OUTSIDE
Capsaicin in various topical forms can provide relief from chronic joint pain and arthritis, increase blood flow and promote localized pain reduction at the site of a cut or wound, and help to ease the pain of cluster headaches (a type of migraine) when applied to the head as a cream.

As an ingredient in shampoos, Capsaicin is thought to help promote hair growth. We've consistently found chile shampoos all over Mexico anywhere that hair products/shampoos/soaps are sold, specifically targeted at those who want to have fuller, thicker hair and prevent hair from falling out!

When ground-up, hot chile powder is used to promote localized blood clotting (when applied to the site of a cut) and when applied to the gums on a cotton ball, can reduce the pain associated with some kinds of tooth aches.

As a frostbite preventative, sprinkling hot pepper powder into shoes and gloves can help to increase (and maintain) blood flow to the digits in cold weather.

To induce sneezing and help advance labor during childbirth, some midwives in Northern Mexico suggest inhaling chiltepin powder. In the same region, indigenous women of several tribes will rub chile powder on their nipples to help wean their little ones when the time is right.

PEPPERS ON THE SPIRIT
Hot chile peppers, when eaten, are well known to be a pick me up. The pain response to eating/ingesting the phytochemicals (capcasianoids) that make chiles "hot" causes the body to release endorphins, having a similar effect as a "runner's high." This might explain Kraig's joie de vive!

In some parts of the Americas, pepper tinctures are drunk to keep the memory sharp and to maintain the proper balance of "hot" and "cold winds" in one's constitution. And gents, in Mexico in particular, it is well known that the more chile you eat and the hotter the pepper you can handle, the more macho and, eh hem, "fiery" you'll be with the ladies. We had an 80+ year old sesame farmer from Southern Oaxaca tell us about a "pepper shot" of chile del monte, garlic and lime juice that he drinks every single morning to "maintainer un hombre muy hombre" (to keep a man very manly)!

FOR MORE INFORMATION...

"The Healing Powers of Peppers: With Chile Pepper Recipes and Folk Remedies for Better Health and Living" (1998) by Dave Dewitt, Melissa T. Stock and Kellye Hunter. Three Rivers Press, pp224.
"Bush Medicine: Fold Cures with Chile Peppers" by Dave DeWitt (http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/bushmedicine.html) with some great "recipes" for various kinds of pepper remedies
Billing J, Sherman PW (1998). "Antimicrobial functions of spices: why some like it hot". The Quarterly review of biology 73 (1): 3–49

**DISCLAIMER: Try all remedies/preventative uses at your own risk! ...and careful not to touch your eyes or other sensitive skin areas (!) after handling hot peppers, unless of course you're looking for a rush of pepper pain!!!

From the web...

2007-11-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

I came across this video during some procrastination. This unsuspecting sideline reporter tries to eat a Bhut Jolokia, the world's hottest pepper, for a special interest piece to play during a telecast of a New Mexico State football game. His reaction when he asks how low long the hellacious burn in his mouth will last is priceless.

The Chile Chase Nearly Stumbles Into Guatemala!

2007-11-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

Its funny how things work out...

Last Sunday, we left the Yucatán peninsula for Oaxaca, where we had arranged a meeting with a chile researcher form the area. As we headed South and West from Tulum (on the Caribbean coast), the driving conditions rapidly deteriorated as rain fell steadily throughout the state of Tabasco. When we reached Villahermosa, streets were flooded, farms were under water, and the storm was in full force. This was to be the beginning of the worst floods in the region in 50 years( over half a million people are homeless and all the crops are lost). But back to the chase… once in Villahermosa and back in cell phone range, I get a call that our meeting had been canceled and that we would be on our own for tracking down wild peppers in Oaxaca. Rather than push through the bad weather, we decided to taka a small detour and head to San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas. Because of the rain, we made it to Tuxla Gutierrez, Chiapas, that night. After dinner and checking email, I found that my collaborators in Aguascalientes had tracked town some potential contacts in Chiapas after all. What great timing! Following this lead, the next day we walked into the state botanical and ecology museum and to the herbarium, where dried plant samples from all over the state are kept and catalogued. After a look at their Capsicum specimens and taking note where the plants had been found, the director of the herbarium volunteered to take us around Chiapas on a wild chile hunt, leaving the next morning. We spent the rest of Monday in the public market, learning about some of the local cultivated chile varieties and how chiles are used (and stored) locally. Here is a brief photo interlude…

Chile blanco in the market

Chile mira para arriba - literally looks up - a description of how the fruit grows on the plant.

In Chiapas, the pickled chiles are made with pure lime juice rather than vinegar.

The ladies of the market love the chino loco who asks about chiles.

Tuesday morning, we were off “on the chase” again. The director of the herbarium wanted to aprovechar (take advantage of, but in a benign way) this trip to run some papers to various offices around the state! Off we go to Comitán, near the border, and using the local name for wild chile, tempenchile, we ask about whearabouts. Down that road another 40 minutes – and we’re redirected again, further on.... another 40 minutes and we are 5 km from the border of Guatemala! Here we finally find what we’re looking for in the ejido of San Caralompia. A friendly older farmer takes us to his milpa (across a river on a great suspension bridge!) and offers us as many of his tempenchile as we can fill sample envelopes with.

Heather tests out the suspension bridge with apprehension!

These are the chiles we are looking for... after a long chase to the border.

Over the next day and a half, we made a few more collections in Chiapas, seeing much of the state’s central valley in the process! And to think, none of this would have happened had the weather and a cancelled appointment not forced us to detour. Its hard to plan these things…

Guatemala is to your left, just off the picture.

The chile chase is in ruins!!

2007-10-29T22:43:00.001-07:00

The chile chase was literally in ruins... the ruins of great Mayan and Toltec cities. A recent chile addition to the collection came from Palenque itself, where "managed" wild chiles grow in the shadows of temples constructed over 1500 years ago.

Here is a photo of the largest plant we found - just along the edge of the forest in moderate shade. This one was clearly saved from "weeding" by the grounds crew. When we asked about this, it was clear that the useful plants were maintained - there were avocado trees, orange trees and several pepper plants that the vendors (selling souvenirs, etc) knew about and would harvest from.

Here, Kraig is kneeling at the site of a small chile plant at the base of a small temple.

...and here's a close up of the plant itself. While it is the same species found in other places in Mexico (see previous post on chile pequins) it has a different local name, tepenchil.

Of course, chile hunting at Palenque was a bonus. We were there to learn about the amazing history of the region and take in the sights! Here is the famous temple of the inscriptions in Palenque. When we arrived in the morning, howler monkeys provided a loud and very boisterous soundtrack for our wanderings.
While on the chase in Mexico, we are often obligated to stop by at some of Mexico's famous roadside attractions. In comparison to those found in the United States, those in Mexico are invariably more historic, more grandiose in construction and more photogenic! I will share a few of the best photos from these paradas:

This was the first one - El Tajín en Veracruz - a Totonac (Tutunakú) word that means thunder, this is a major ruins site on the central East Coast. Pictured is the temple of the niches - which has 365 niches around its facade.

Here is the El Castillo temple in Chichén Itzá - where on the spring and fall equinox, the light casts a shadow along the staircase that forms the shape of a serpent.

Here is the Toltec/Mayan port town of Tulum, on the Caribbean coast.

We'll leave you with a shot of one of the most impressive temples - the top of the largest pyramid in Uxmal - 12 Mini Chaac-Mul faces line the staircase on its way up to the central Chaac face at the top of the temple. The structure at the top is meant to mimic the face of Chaak Mool (the all important the rain god) - you can see the two eyes, the nose (broken off) and the gaping mouth, in which sacrafices were practiced...

A Taste of the Yucatán

2007-10-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of the habanero salsas that we’ve encountered - I wanted to share these with you. I really only got the ingredients – the amounts of each ingredient weren’t given – you’ll have to experiment to find the right balance for each of you.

Salsa habanera de Hopelchen
We were served this simple salsa in a small food stall just on the outskirts of the plaza. Aside from the local Mennonites coming into town for provisions, we were the only outsiders in this town. We finished the entire bowl of this salsa.

Ingredients
Habanero chiles
Red onion
Vinegar (I think sugar cane vinegar was used – white vinegar may be a bit acidic for this – if you are using white vinegar, you may want to dilute it with water and toss in a pinch of sugar)
Cilantro
Salt
Roast the chiles over a flame, or you can roast them in a hot pan. Put the roasted habanero(s) into a blender with some red onion, cilantro and salt.

Salsa habanera con naranja agria
There is a type of sour orange that was introduced to the Yucatan peninsula and has become a main part of Yucatecan cuisine. It is used in a number of main dishes, and in many of the habanero salsas, the acidity and orange flavors turn the heat down a bit and round out the flavor. Obviously this ingredient is not in your local market – you can probably substitute a combination of orange juice and lime juice to get close to it.

To make this salsa, roast the habaneros over flame or in a hot skillet. Toss them into a blender with the fresh squeezed juice of the sour orange and some white onion and salt. Blend. You could also add cilantro if you are so inclined.

The simplest salsa is to slice the habanero very thinly and to soak these in the juice of the sour oranges. Leave these to marinate together for a couple of hours before serving.

Let me know if you give these a whirl.

Oro del Yucatán

2007-10-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Before I go into the wild pepper and some great local varieties that belong to the C. annuum species, I feel compelled to say something about the iconic pepper of the Yucatan peninsula, the habanero.

The habanero belongs to a different species, Capsicum chinense, and when you bite into one, you can tell it is miles apart from the comparatively milder C. annuum varieties. Comparing their relative pungency, the habanero is approximately 50x more pungent than your average jalapeño (Habaneros have been measured at 300-500,000 Scoville Units, compared to 5-10,000 for jalapeños). I "sample" all the peppers we encounter in the field and this time I was a bit timid when it came to biting into the pepper. I think I got lucky and didn't hit a real firecracker here, but it was still hot.

A relative newcomer to the peninsula, the habanero was introduced in post-conquest. Of the important peppers cultivated here, it is the only not to have a Mayan moniker. The others (which I will discuss later on) have names such as maax (pronounced mä sh), x’catic (shkätek) etc. However, the popularity of the habanero has increased and surpassed these local varieties, with a huge international market and following. Whereas these other local varieties have certain dishes and specific culinary uses, the habanero is solely used in salsas.

The demand internationally for habanero products has increased and the Yucatan ships thousands of tons of habanero paste and powder for culinary use all over the world. The following photos are from a habanero processing plant that I was able to visit. This one plant exports over 500 tons of habanero paste and powder every year.

In this photo, these ladies are sorting the habaneros by color and destemming them as well.
The immature habaneros are green, then turn a red or orange color depending on the variety.

Papantla: El Tajin and Vanilla

2007-10-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

After picking Heather up at the Monterrey airport on Monday morning, the chile chase continues…with my favorite co-pilot!

Monday night we crashed in Tamulipas and Tuesday we got the good news that we will be able to meet up with another chile researcher in Merida, in the Yucatan. This region has a very distinct environment and represents an area from which we do not have any samples. There will also be the possibility of seeing wild habaneros, which belong to a different species than that of the chile pequin.

But first we have to get through Veracruz. While I did some collecting from Veracruz last year, I did not get to explore the region as much as I wanted to. I especially wanted to stop in Papantla, which is not only located near some famous Totonac (Tutunaku in the native language) ruins, El Tajín, but is also the unofficial center or home of vanilla production in Mexico. Of the two attractions, we were really excited to learn about vanilla.
We made a cursory visit to the ruins of El Tajín, of which the following temple is the most famous, the temple of the niches – there were 365 niches around this temple, which obviously had some relationship with the solar calendar – but nearly half of the grounds were closed due to repairs of damage caused by Hurricane Felix which passed through a few weeks ago.

The vanilla bean is the fermented and dried seed pod from the vanilla orchid, the only orchid that is used and cultivated for human consumption. Vanilla is a crop that originates in this region – the Tutunako people and their ancestors began harvesting the pods thousands of years ago, when it was for the exclusive use of emperors, priests and for offerings to the gods. This has not changed much – most of the vanilla sold in town was purely synthetic and we did not see bottles of real vanilla for sale in town. Much of the production is sent overseas. Here is a picture of the orchid with pods that are not quite ripe.

The orchid is grown under shade (provided by a tree or provided by a shade cloth), and is pollinated by hand. Once the fruit ripens, they are often sold to a middleman, which then ferments and dries the beans, a process which may take up to 3 months. The next picture is a shade house where solely vanilla is cultivated.

We observed a number of production systems - the most integrated was this intercrop with citrus, which occupies the most acreage in the area. The producer plants up to four vanilla orchids under each citrus tree and the tree provides shade and serves as a scaffold for the vanilla orchid.

The production chain of vanilla mirrors that of coffee – where the producers hand off their raw product to middlemen, who then process the fresh vanilla pod into the dried vanilla bean. This vanilla bean can then be utilized in a number of added value final products, such as extracts, oils, pharmaceutical and beauty product ingredients. The producers are trying to find ways to keep more of the added value dollar, but as far as they’ve gotten is reviving the traditional craft of creating figurines from the vanilla pods. We have one on our rearview mirror – its so pungent it over powers the chile scent in the cab! And to answer your final question, yes we did buy some vanilla. One Kilogram of “A” quality pods – about 7 inches long. Expect some for Xmas if you write.

Here is Kraig, with his kilo of booty in front of the office of CoVer Vainilla. From right, Luis (extensionist), Kraig, Javier holding a vanilla orchid (president of a producer organization), and another CoVer Vainilla employee.

Generous gestures...

2007-10-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

What motivates a person to offer a traveler a meal, a drink, or a room?

From my family and friends to people I have just met and conversed with - both American and Mexican - I have had the honor and privilege to be the recipient of many generous gestures.

Last Monday, I met half of an expatriate Texan couple. Mrs. Smith was traveling with some friends to the El Cielo biosphere reserve, where I was conducting a marginally successful search for chiles. We happened to be staying at the same hotel. After a conversation with their group over dinner, I was invited to the Smith's Ranch - Ranch El Rayo (they have a web page - http://ranchoelrayo.home.att.net/)- in eastern Tamulipas to search for wild peppers. Without hesitation I accepted and headed for their ranch a few days later. There was a catch. Due to the head high grass and weeds (and the high number of ticks and snakes) that are a result of a heavy rain season, we would go by horse. I'm not much of a horseman. In fact, I would choose most modes of transport before choosing horseback. But there wasn't any other option.

They saddled a beautiful horse for me, named Aquarius (which happens to be my astrological sign). As you can see by the photo below - the growth and underbrush was incredibly thick. The previous afternoon, we ventured through a small portion to find a chile plant - In about 10 minutes of exposure (and with substantial repellent applied) I returned to find 5 ticks in various parts of my clothing.

Here are a couple of shots with me going through the process of collecting the data and the ripe fruits upon finding a plant.

Here is a close-up of the flower and immature fruits.

And since this post has turned into a little photo show, here's one from the El Cielo biosphere reserve. I took the day off and did some hiking. The clarity of the water was absolutely striking.

A Saturday in Monterrey

2007-10-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, after a successful day in Linares - the local professor here shared with us the seed from 72 different populations of wild chile from Nuevo Leon and Tamulipas - Jose and I took the day off to see what Monterrey had to offer.

We ate the local speciality, cabrito. It is a young goat, taken at 40 days or younger. It is then slowly roasted over indirect heat on angled spits for up to 6 hours. When you order, you specify which part of the kid you would like - shoulder, leg, rib/chest, or the lower back, which has all the kidney fat attached to it. We tried the shoulder and the lower back. Here is a gratuitous close up of our platter. The fatty back piece is closest to you here, with the kidney hidden in the bulge of fat.

While the meat was really quite tasty and tender, there was a definite lack of vegetables available. We walked off the meal and headed to another cultural event, un partido de futbol. Los Tigres de Monterrey v. Los Jaguares de Chiapas. The game ended 1 - 1 with the tying goal for the Jaguares coming in the last minutes of the second half.

Chile pequin vs. Chiltepin

2007-10-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

For the past year, I have been anticipating this year's collection trip, as it took me through areas that are known as important habitats for wild chiles. In Mexico, the chiles are distributed along the coastal plains and along the foothills of the 2 major mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental (west) and the Sierra Madre Oriental (east). In the interior of the country, there are no wild chiles, except for a few found in lower elevation basins (such as in the state of Queretaro - http://chasingchiles.blogspot.com/2006/11/back-on-chase.html). Last year, the collection path followed the western coast of the country and veered into the highlands. This year, I'm starting in the east. In Texas, actually, and will work my way along the eastern seaboard before veering back into the middle.

Over the last 6 days, I have been wandering south Texas and the state of Nuevo Leon in Mexico, which are home to the chile pequin (or chile de monte). I have anticipated your first question - "Chile pequin? I thought you were searching for chiltepin?"
True. This is a great example of the problems that "common" names create for biologists. Botanically, the Sonoran chiltepin that I have been ranting and raving about and this Tex-Mex chile pequin, are the same (at first glance anyways) - C. annuum var. glabriusculum. Due to the different climatic conditions that occurs in different geographic locations, with slightly different modifications to adapt to each. For our purposes, we'll say that chile pequin has slightly elongated fruits and its environs are slightly more humid than that of chiltepin. There also exist quite a few cultural and gastronomic differences between the two. While the indigenous groups in Sonora and Arizona survived the Spanish conquest and today still maintain their own ethnic identities, here in Nuevo Leon, the predominant indigenous group was quickly subdued and their blood and ethnicity melded into the dominant mestizo ethnicity. For the chile pepper, this is manifested in appearances in certain spiritual rituals, as part of religious icons and as part of myths and oral histories in Sonora and Arizona, while there is a distinct absence of this in Southern Texas and in Northeastern Mexico. The culinary differences are also quite great. While the chiltepin is best consumed and commercialized in its dried state, the chile pequin is preferred immature and green, where it is added to salsas or pickled. The myriad of differences are encapsulated in the commercial price for each and in the way it is produced or harvested.

Chiltepin: Harvested from the wild by hand, each ripe chile picked individually as to not damage the plant. Dry wholesale price in the US - $50 per lb. Wholesale price in Mexico - $300-$500 pesos per kilo, or roughly $13 - $22 US per lb. No (or very little) commercial production.
Chile pequin: Green fruit is harvested by cutting down the entire plant/branch and then fruit is separated from other plant material at a later time. Mexican wholesale price is $90 pesos per kilo (price in Linares 10/7). Increasingly commercially produced.

I'm currently working with a professor here in Nuevo Leon, who is bent on commercializing the chile pequin. He has been growing and selecting lines of chile pequin (and actually shared with me his entire seed collection) that are collected in the wild from all around the state and has done trials to determine the best management practices (irrigation, how much shade, harvesting regimes, etc.). Its a pretty incredible project, with a real potential for economic gain for the farmers. With potential yields of one kilo of chile per plant, potential planting densities of 10 to 18 thousand plants per hectare and prices at 40 to 50 pesos per kilo, you are talking about enormous sums of money for a farmer. If you really want to know how the math breaks down - email me and we can discuss it.

Since I've told the story of the chiltepin a few times - let me show some pictures from the chile pequin from Texas and Nuevo Leon to help tell you this story. If you haven't seen this photo widget before, just click on the small version of the picture to have it appear in the frame.

Photo 1. Here is Bill M. aka Texas Chef Bill. He was my guide to Texan chile pequins in San Diego, TX. I've put a link to his blog in the sidebar if you would like to see some authentic Southern Texan cooking.
Photo 2. Chile pequins tend to be found along fences (where birds perch) and under mesquites - this chile is right at the base of the fence post.
Photo 3. That's the one.
Photo 4. This is a close-up of the flower. The long stigma extends away from the immature anthers, in an attempt to minimize self-fertilization. The flower is ready to receive pollen much sooner than it is to disperse pollen from the anthers.
Photo 5. At the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, there is a large project underway to promote chile pequin production. The sign reads that this is the technology transfer headquarters.
Photo 6. Dr. Horacio Villalón and Ingieniero Soto show us some plants that are ready for sale. Each plant is sold for 5 pesos, of which is re-invested into the project. The infrastructure (irrigation, shade) and the plants represent a buy-in on the producers part.
Photo 7. Here is one of the greenhouses with thousands of seedlings in various stages of development. They hope to have 500,000 plants sold per year as of next January.
Photo 8. Yours truly, tasting the wild product right off the bush. Dr. Villalón shared all of his collection with us, so this trip to the field was just to sightsee.
Photo 9. Here is a less technified commercial operation. Don Jaime simply cleared the land, found all of these chile pequin seedlings and then transplanted them to an area by his house. He has over 600 plants and likes it so much, he's wondering why he even bothered to plant half of his plot to maize.

I think I'll end this one here. More soon, with a Saturday off in Monterrey.

The Best Mexican Beer You've Never Tried...

2007-10-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

Also has the name that would offend most of the overly sensitive gringos!

Brewed in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, this amber lager has aspirations to be a more serious beer but doesn't forget any of its Mexican playfulness! Its become my go-to beer, over such popular choices such as Victoria, Bohemia, Carta Blanca and Sol.

La proxima vez que estés in México, pida por un Indio!

Green or Red?

2007-10-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Walk into any New Mexican restaurant and you will be faced with this query. If you aren't clued in already, the question posed refers to what type of chile would you like on your plate. While a number of varieties actually comprise "New Mexican " chile (with many varieties for both red and green chiles), each variety is characterized by an elongated pod shape, which turn red in the fall. The green chile , seen below, is harvested before the color changes and is subsequently roasted and peeled before it is consumed (Photo courtesy of www.fiery-foods.com).This roasted chile is then transformed into sauces or served as a topping/condiment in its roasted state. Wander into any major fast food purveyor in New Mexico (Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Subway, Einstein's Bagels, Starbucks) and they all have green chile as a topping. Here is a more "traditional" preparation of green chile - as a sauce on my green chile chicken enchiladas.

Here is a more extreme example. Below is a green chile sushi roll (green chile maki) that I shared with my brother and sister-in-law. Just green chile, rolled in nori, rice and sesame seeds. The picture quality isn't as good since I took that one with my cell phone. It wasn't that hot and was a really great combination.

Let's not forget about the red chile. This chile is often dried and hung in ristras, which have become the de facto icon of New Mexico. Once dried, it is ground or reconstituted to make a red chile sauce that is used as liberally as that made with the green chile.

New Mexicans take their chile seriously - especially when you misspell it or confuse it with Tex-Mex chili. In 1983, New Mexican Senator Pete Domenici made note in the United States Congressional Record that “…’chili' is that inedible mixture of watery tomato soup, dried gristle, half-cooked kidney beans, and a myriad of silly ingredients that is passed off as food in Texas and Oklahoma.”

Remember this next time you add chile to your chili.

Sonora revisited

2007-09-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

When I first planned my trip, I wasn't necessarily going to revisit the Sonora River Valley. However my colleague, Kimberlee, was looking for a new research project as she starts up her research/teaching position at Willamett Univesrity and she presented me with a great opportunity to collaborate. Beyond the attraction of the chiltepin as a spice and as the "mother of all peppers" (remember that this wild pepper is thought to be the pre-domesticated pepper, or proto-pepper), Kimberlee was interested in how the local community manages this important resource.

Kimberlee flew to Tuscon from Oregon and I picked her up on the way to Sonora to explore the social and economic aspects of the chiltepin world.

I knew that we needed to begin with the veritable local chiltepin expert, Luis C. Louis was Heather and my first guide last year. I had no way to get in touch with him, so we crossed into Sonora and drove directly to his house, crossing my fingers the entire time that he would be there. As you can tell by the above picture - he was there and more than happy to receive us. His fame as a prominent "chiltepinero" extends beyond just US academics. He told us (a number of times) about the recent interviews he gave to TV stations based in Hermosillo. He was happy to tell Kimberlee all he knew about the chiltepin and took us to some scenic canyons to find the plants and tell us about how the community managed them as a resource.

As you can see by the above photo, we were a bit early for chiltepin harvest. Not a single red, ripe fruit was to be had. However, we could feel the anticipation of harvest in the air. There were freshly painted signs "chiltepines for sale", yet no product to sell. When Luis broke down the economics of harvest to us, it was obvious why this sensation was palpable. According to Luis, a normal day laborer who was working as a cowboy, in a maquiladora, farming, etc., would make an average salary of 1,000 - 1,500 pesos a week, or approximately $100-$150. They could earn this amount in a single day harvesting ripe chiltepines for 10 hours. Groups of men and women will gather and camp in the hills harvesting for 4 to 6 days at a time. They would then sell their harvest to middle men, earning a month's wages in one week of harvesting. This cycle would repeat at various other locations, from mid-October until the end of November or December. We were told multiple times that it was the most important economic activity for the valley.

Where did all these chiltepines go? We left Luis in search of the few middlemen that lived in town - the majority come from larger towns, or the Sonoran capital of Hermosillo. We found the Andrade family in La Aurora, a tiny village of about 50 families that lived across the river from Mazocahui. Biding their time before harvest, they were pickling the green chiltepin for resale. While the red and ripe form of the chiltepin fetches a premium, the green are often harvested by people in real economic need and sold pickled. It is more laborious to harvest the fruits from the plant (often using scissors to cut off each individual fruit) and the price is often a third or a fourth of what could be fetched when the fruit is ripe. In the picture above, the Andrade family are adding vinegar, garlic and carrots to the green chiltepines, which will sell for about 30 pesos, or $3. During the thick of harvest, the middlemen drive through the valley, collecting a kilo here, a couple of kilos there, and then resell the chiltepines to commercial spice companies in Mexico who retail the dried chiles as a spice or use it in their salsas and hot sacues or through smaller retailers who package the dried chiles themselves, often in "recycled" plastic jars or in empty Coca-cola bottles.

We found a small commercial operation in the valley that sold dried chiltepin and made a hot sauce as well - but to find a larger operation, we had to go to Hermosillo. Here the trail washed away. We were caught in a major flash flood that deluged the streets, overwhelmed the storm sewer system and cut power to some of the neighborhoods which caused us to abandon our search. But before the rains came, we were fortunate enough to have a real authentic Sonoran lunch, with local liquor, bacanora, made from an endemic agave species and served with giant flour tortillas made by hand.

Delicious.

its baaaaack.....

2007-09-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus away from the blog – a period of time that included a great trip to Argentina, the untimely passing of our best and most loyal friend - our dog Koji, Heather’s completion of her Master’s degree in International Agricultural Development, and tons of great food and times in Davis…we’re chasing chiles for one last time.

Let’s get up to speed:

I received a Fulbright grant this year to continue (and hopefully finish) my dissertation research. I will be starting a new project in Mexico this winter – conducting farmer surveys in Northern Mexico in order to understand seed selection in dry chile pepper production. If that last sentence left you scratching your head, further clarification and explanation will soon follow. However, in the meanwhile, I am taking advantage of my travel time to continue to expand my collection of wild chile peppers, Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum. Last year was a tremendous start, with a wide collection that ranged from Arizona on south to Jalisco and over to Veracruz. This year I will be attempting to follow a complementary route – south from Texas and into the northeastern states of Mexico – Nuevo Leon, Tamulipas and San Luis Potosi.

Here is an image to jog your memory and provide some color to the return of chasing chiles.

More to come soon - a return to Sonora and a treatise on New Mexican chiles.

November in Guanajuato

2006-11-28T10:40:00.000-08:00

Although we’ve been here almost a month now, we’ve (I've!) been taking time to get to know Guanajuato, the intellectual ignition site for the fires that stoked the 1810 Mexican war for independence from Spain. Home to what was once “the” university of the arts (now UNAM in Mexico City has largely taken over as the more prestigious learning hub), music and paintings and street theater still can be found the city’s central streets at most hours of the day – many of which are pedestrian-only and packed with students doing their student things. The callejones (street-lets) climb their way up from the semi-central plaza Jardin Union (bright green triangle in front of the Cathedral and the Teatro Juarez in the photo above) to the edges of the ravine that the whole city is essentially nestled into. The whole place has this incredible quality to it whereby just a few square miles seems to have an infinite amount of surface area – buildings stacked on top of one another as they cover the steep sides of the canyon, with seemingly a billion churches and plazuelas and plenty of dead-end alleys to get lost in...

This is a walking city to put it mildly – that’s not to say that there aren’t a million cabs jockeying with the bazillion motorcycles/scooters for pavement space, just that it’s much more convenient and safe and sane to walk. There hasn’t been room for traffic infrastructure above ground for hundreds of years, so many of the larger “roads” are actually tunnels that cross under the city in a system of insanely narrow and incredibly dark catacombs that were built on top of what used to be a dry river bed. Secondary tunnels jut off with little warning at sharp angles here and there – without much rhyme or reason to the novice…when we first arrived, we ended up having to pay a cab driver to follow him to our apartment/plazuela after getting hopelessly lost SEVERAL TIMES in the underground tunnels that loop back out and around to the city’s outskirts…

As for our lovely little apartment on el Callejon del Infierno (Hell’s Street-let)… Our landlords/hosts have decorated it with finds from the antique markets not too far from here (but the coffee maker is brand new - We’re the first tenants!). The ceilings are high and covered with the original wooden beams, the apartment faces a giant old tree that fills with little parrots of some kind at around 4 every evening…it’s been a great space to work on my thesis and Spanish grammar from, despite the few little scorpions that have also decided to take up reidence - there's nothing like the sound sof two scorpions calling to each other inthe middle of the night to give you goosebumps! so far though, no real run ins of any significance. They don't replace koji though - just not the same to come home to a house without a dog :(

Let's see...well, for those of you wondering (Glen!), having the truck here has been...absurd! When Kraig is not on the chile hunt and he's in town (only a few days of the last three weeks) we park it and leave it and don't even think about moving it. Although wrangling a parking spot is another matter entirely - sometimes a several hour endeavor...we wait... and wait... and prowl the street, hoping that someone will leave (or two cars since most vehicles here are tiNy - with good reason, the streets are tiny too!). Then, one of us races to the spot and tries to look fierce enough to not let the other parking prowlers take it...usually that works, but not always! In any case, we’ve had no vehicle problems at all (knocking on wood) , except for a parking ticket once and the mysterious “laveme” messages that keep getting scrawled in the dirt on the back windows…hmmm…

So, here you have our version of Guanajuato so far. As the magic thesis fairies have just made my thesis go away until i return to Davis to go over drafts, I’ll allow myself to venture out for more than my daily Spanish tutoring session to explore more of the city and surrounding towns – just in time! ...we leave for Mexico City at the end of the week and then on to Argentina for more culinary adventuring and southern chile hunting and penguin gawking!

(…I just had to include this photo of the local meat source. Can’t say it isn’t farm fresh!)

I love tacos...

2006-11-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

Oyster tacos!

Steak tacos!

One of my favorite things about Mexico is the prevalance of great street food – it´s cheap, tasty, extremely diverse, very “authentic” and (…the croupier spins the roulette wheel and releases the ball... ) there is always the chance of contracting Montezumas revenge! But as the recent E. Coli epedemic linked to bagged spinach showed us – there is an inherent risk in eating anything, even something that is “triple washed.” But I´m getting into another topic entirely.

Anyways, the undisputed king of the Mexican street scene is the taco. There are a number of tasty treats that fall under the umbrella term “taco”- basically a tortilla wrap (various incarnations of maize or wheat flour) around a filling. Over the course of this trip, I have lost track of the number of tacos I have eaten – around the second week I was at 40+ (these are much, much smaller than your Taco Bell taco), not including all the times I used tortillas as the vehicle to transport food from my plate to my greedy mouth.

Along our drive, we have seen (and tasted) a great number of fillings for tacos: carne asada (grilled beef steak), bistec (another steak cut), chorizo (spicy pork sausage), cabeza (“head” from the cow – I think it is neck and cheeks that are stewed), tripa (tripe), adobada (marinated pork), carnitas (pieces of pork fried in fat, then cooked again), camarones (shrimp), ositones (oysters), marlin (smoked gamefish), machaca (dried shredded beef), birria (stewed goat meat), costilla (pork ribs), al pastor (rotisserie pork).

This doesn't need a caption.

Beto and his taco stand - he starts serving at 7AM, in time for breakfast.

Some of the fancier rigs even have little stools or tables for you to sit at, and a whole smorgasbord of salsas, pickled chile peppers, chopped vegetables and limes to choose from. However, the process is more or less the same. The cook asks you what you want (say... 4 tacos with carne asada), and if you want it with “greens” aka, onion and cilantro. You then take your piping hot tacos to where there is a great variety of salsas and lime wedges to add the right touch of heat. You can always go for seconds or thirds. Don´t be shy. At about 60 cents each taco, Heather and I walk away satiated and happy for under 5 bucks every time. I absolutely love these little stands and wanted to share some of that with all of you and to encourage you to patron one of these little stands the next time you are here. Just make sure you go to one where the cook is not the same person handling money!

Tacos de Birria

My favorite so far: Tacos de Birria – this is a filling of stewed goat - a really spicy, tender, rich flavoured meat that is a speciality of Jalisco and Guadalarajara. Or... maybe the Gorditas I just had at Bernal are really my favorite..
These gorditas, made fresh with blue corn masa are then opened and filled with a number of great combinations.

Back on the Chase!

2006-11-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

After working all last week with my Mexican collaborator, Jose (aka Pepe) on various aspects of the collecting, he and I took up the chase again, this time in the neighboring state of Queretaro. While Queretaro is not thought of as a prime wild chile habitat - much of the state is at higher altitudes and is heavily farmed, Pepe had an inside source - a former Master´s student - who knew of some areas where the wild chile roamed.

I´m happy to report to all of you that we collected from 4 populations and took samples from various local markets, some of which are pictured above. In contrast to previous chile hunts, in Queretaro the local wild chile is called "chile piquin" or "chil kipquin".

Note the elongated, pointed fruit!

While the plant is quite similar in form to the chiltepines that we were collecting in Sonora, the fruit is elongated rather than round, and there is not quite the demand for these peppers as there is for Sonoran chiltepines.

Rather than recount the entire trip in all its grueling details (traveling 140 km in 3.5 hrs, through the 860 twisting turns of the Sierra Gorda, then making the return trip in the dusk), I will share some brief vignettes and some photos.

* Our first collection site was really significant. We were up in the folds of a mountain that rose up to 3500 m and were lost in tierras ejitidales (communal lands that are farmed), asking 4 or 5 folks for directions - follow that road (what road?) along the canal, take a left at the tree (which tree?) and just towards the mountain are the peppers, don´t worry, you´ll find them. After circling the same fields a few times, we contracted a 14 year old to take us to the plants - we went up a small embankment in the truck, followed the irrigation canal to the small lake where the road ended.

Just a few hoof prints to follow

We drove around the lake to the other side to find the peppers in a high-altitude chapparral environment. What surprised us was the altitude - over 2000 meters in altitude, about 6700ft+. No one would think that wild peppers exist at this altitude. We continued to find the chile peppers under the same types of "nurse" plants - hackberry, mesquite and sometimes, cacti.

Pepe picks a peck of pointed peppers

* We ended the first day in the small town of Bernal - at the base of a huge monolith that is thought channel spiritural energy. We ate the most amazing gorditas there - blue corn meal that is patted into the form of a tortilla, filled with shredded cheese and a chile sauce, heated on a hot comal, then filled with savory combinations - peppers with nopal and cheese, steak, more cheese and chile. One of the best street food stops so far. Pictures in the street food post to come.

*On the start of the following day, on our way to the far reaches of the state, Pepe says - this looks like a spot where peppers would grow, why wouldn´t they be here? So we stop and find a healthy population in the arroyo along the highway. Filled with self-confidence, we continue on. After reaching our destination, the municipio of Jalpan which is located on the fringes of the Huasteca forest that heads down to the Gulf of Mexico, we walk down an arroyo where we have been told there are plants. It is hot, humid, getting late and we do not see a single plant. We stumble across a machete wielding - grandmother (Margarita) and her grandaughter (Alicia) who are out looking for their lost goats. We ask them about the chile piquin plants and if they could help us. Margarita thinks its late to find plants in the far forest and most of the fruits are still green and they have to find their goats, and... I think then she took pity on us, 3 glasses-wearing, hot and sweaty city folk who were obviously lost in the forest. "But what about the ones you passed on your way here?" We didn´t see any the whole way and we were obviously looking for plants. She and Alicia proceed to walk with us back up the trail towards the road where we left the truck and point out about 10 plants - some of which were about an arm´s length from where we just walked! We had been looking for the bright red ripe fruit, which are easy to spot - these plants had no ripe fruits on them and were difficult to spot in the dense humid forest, a very different environment in which we had found the other populations. They had been picked over by birds and by people looking to add a bit of spice to their diets. We were extremely grateful and a bit sheepish as we accepted her help and catalogued the plants on the way up and tried to find the remaining ripe fruits for our study.

These ladies knew where to look! Notice how different the vegetation is - the peppers were no longer associated with any "nurse" trees.

The sight of Doña Margarita wielding the machete and picking the plants out of the forest made me instantly smile, as I thought how generations of people must have harvested these fruits and how easily she recalled the locations of these plants. I was shaken out of this day-dream by the sandal-clad Margarita and her grandaughter Alicia, who had gathered a handful of green fruits and insisted that we take the immature green fruits for our salsa. And so we did and took our leave as we returned to the city of Queretaro.

driving the devil's spine: from Mazatlan to Durango

2006-11-08T16:53:00.000-08:00

After our chile harvesting trips in the Alamos area, we headed SW to the coast of Sinaloa - the land of big ag, and, not surprisingly for Mexico, big ag schools. We spent a wet very few days in the Capital city of Culiacan weathering Hurricane Paul (downgraded to a "tropical depression" while we were there) while Kraig exchanged information and wild chile population site specifics with reserchers at the U. Autonoma de Sinoloa. In addition to increasing his seed collection by almost 1/3, it was a successful stop on the great Mexican road trip for other reasons. We both found it really interesting to see for ourselves some of the effects of NAFTA - i.e. that "big" ag here looks like it's gringo twin - huge ares of land are being consolidated under large growers/companies and, instead of growing corn, are now being made to produce zillions and zillions of tomatoes and peppers for both national and international markets. Here is the Global Horticulture market at it's finest (eh hem GHA...!). The licence plates here have also been recently changed to reflect this...a giant (no micro- or heirloom varieties here!) tomato replaces the "o" in SinalOa.

Bueno, after Culiacan and the wet, we decided to head for the drier coast of Mazatlan before shooting inland to our awaiting apartment in Guanajuato. We found Mazatlan to be a janus of sorts.

Our hotel room in the old part of town

We streched H´s "wings" for an afternoon

One side of the coastal tourist mecca (the "zona dorada" or "gold zone") is home to zillions of

high-end jewelry and kitch stores selling "authentic" mexican goods to the thousands of cruise ship visitors that come through here each year.

From the malecon, or boardwalk

The other side is the old colonial downtown quarter that's full of bookstores, sidewalk cafes, plazeulas, bohemian art studios and stores, and even an Egyptian hooka shop/cafe. We saw very few tourists in the centro and loved the tasty street food and the icy Micheladas at a bar dedicated to the art of bullfighting.

After a good night's sleep in a room not 50 feet from the ocean, we headed inland on something of a blitz colonial city tour - Durango, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes - before finally making it to Guanajuato. The first part of this drive inland crossed "El Espinazo del Diablo" (the Devil's Spine), which is supposed to be a 2 lane highway that crosses the Sierra Madre del Occidente mountain range. Spectacular. Terrifying. Memorable. Suffice to say that we made it, the truck made it, and i only screamed outloud twice!

Don´t look down!

Views from the spine

Once across the spine, we descended to about 7500' as we entered Durango. Here we ate our first gorditas (think hybrid between pita sandwhich and a doublesided taco!), had some tasty elote loco from the vendors in the Plaza (young corn boiled and served hot with sour cream, farmer's cheese, chile flakes and lime). We also ran into our first street theatre performances celebrating the Dia de los Muertos...stay tuned for the next posting with more on that.

Lingering images of Sonora

2006-10-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

We've moved on from the state of Sonora - but the incredible landscapes and the warm people that we met during our time there over the last two weeks have left a lasting impression. Here's a few of our favorite pix that weren't included in previous posts.

...Cara-cara bird (in the raptor family) sitting atop an elhecho cactus early in the morning

daughter of a chiltepin farmer (the irony here is that chiltepin are nearly imppossible to cultivate in any kind of density) - rolling out the day's flour tortillas with a beer bottle. This is just about the southern limit to finding flour tortillas made at home in any sort of significant quantity. Corn rules outside of Sonora and the other border states.

the feet and sandals (made from tires) of Luis Reynaldo, a Guarijillo anciano who served as our a chiltepin plant-finding guide for part of a day

Alejandro selling green chiltepin at the toll booth

One of the bays in San Carlos - we wanted to see what happens when the desert meets the sea

"Los pillares" - a rock formation 2 hrs north of Alamos

A wildlife sighting - this taratunla was so big it left tracks in the dirt

An iron cross in the Alamos cemetary from early 1700s

Semi-Squatting in Alamos: Chiltepin, Scorpions and Vaqueros

2006-10-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

After a short respite in San Carlos by the sea, we went in search of more chiltepin in the areas around Alamos - a small town in the hills of Sonora. This colonial pueblo was a prominent mining center during the 1800s, and shortly after the revolution, the town was the capital of the Western Province of Mexico, a huge state that includes most of present day Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua. The colonial buildings have been mostly preserved (largely by the zillions of gringo retirees that have moved here since the 1950s) and the city is one of Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos – 20 towns that are considered important for their historical value and representation of the era. This was the setting in which we began the next stage of the wild chile quest…

Not 15 minutes into town, we tracked down the home/store of a family who buys and sells chiltepin (referred to us by another conctact who had worked in the area previously). Cold calling in a way, we showed up, were invited to have a chat on the porch, and it turned out that la familia Hurtado was indeed willing and able to help us to get oriented and refer us to someone who could guide us into the hills around the city to hunt for the wild chiltepin plants themselves. In addition, rather than paying for a luxury gringo hotel, Don Oracio Hurtado and his wife Lupe suggested that we could stay, for a minimal price, in the vacant apartment next door (owned by extended family of theirs). At the time, this seemed like a great idea. We “camped” on the bare concrete floors, tried to ignore the various six and eight legged residents and joked that this must be what it is like to be a squatter.

Over the next few days we headed north each morning on dusty roads into the lands of the Guaijiro, one of the smallest of the 7 indigenous tribes of Sonora. The Guaijiro pick and harvest chiltepin during this time of year to supplement their cattle-based/small farm incomes. At each little town that we came to we were told that , oh yes, there are chiltepin in these mountains, but they’re not near here, they’re “mas alla” - with emphatic gestures to the mountains further to the north. Poco a poco, with various guides on different days, we managed to collect samples from nearly 30 plants – some of which were 4 hours from Alamos, accessed by a one-lane-rock-strewn-goat-trail.

During our last days in Alamos, the doctor working in one of the small towns that we passed got wind of our presence and insisted that we stop to share lunch with him and his family at his house on our way out. We had a great meal – the main course was a mutton stew, with potatoes and ancho chiles. Unfortunately, macaroni and mayonnaise (somehow now a part of cuisine “tipico” here) raised their ugly heads and soured H’s gut. However, the conversation regarding rural health and development was quite fascinating. To end our successful Alamos visit, we were greeted with a number of wild animal sightings at dusk as we returned to town.

The Cult of Chiltepine - in AZ and Sonora

2006-10-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I went to the Tumacacori Mountains in Arizona , with T., a postdoc at the University of Washington, to visit his field site - the Wild Chile Botanical Reserve. In this extreme landscape, filled with cacti, brambles, mesquite and hackberry, we hiked into arroyos and found chiltepin plants in the shade of trees and rocks. The plants were totally laden with fruit, as the area had been subject to an unsually strong summer monsoon season and since this was a "reserve" and relatively unknown, there was no one harvesting the fruits. On the high plateaus, where there was little drainage, we didn't encounter many chiles - but this was a different story in the small drainages, where we would often find 5 or 6 individuals within a short distance of each other. I sampled about 20 plants overall and left with the promise of more seeds from T., should I need them...

A couple of days later, in the Valle de Rio Sonora, where the local baseball team is called "The Chiltepineros" and no meal complete without some of the red, round BB sized fruit at the table, Heather and I followed the hand drawn map to the small town of Mazocahui, where we found the infamous Luis selling chiltepin on the curve depicted on the yellow piece of legal pad. Luis was thrilled that someone sent us his way and that we were here to learn about chiltepin in the area. Chiltepin is sold by the side of the road, sold by volume, at about 10 dollars a liter. This is a real bargain compared to the 5 dollars for an ounce I paid in Tuscon! This time of year, folks are out the in the hills, collecting the fruit, drying them and selling them. For many people, this is a significant portion of their yearly income and a good harvest can bring some disposable income to the family. The following day, Luis led us through the landscape of Mazocahui as we collected the fruit of 25+ plants from the river bottom of the Rio Sonora to the slopes of the range that line the valley below. These plants were fairly similar compared to the population in Arizona - except for one plant, which had orange fruit. We're heading to Alamos to continue our quest...

...more on Tucson

2006-10-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of Tucson so far! seems like a pretty cool city with funky bars and restaurants and galleries all around. the older section of town is incredible with it's adobe houses and small farms that have now swallowed up by the city's sprawl but grandfathered into the planning. Saguaro cacti are everywhere (some more 150+ years old).

Yesterday evening after the desert museum we went to the home of this incredible couple... Also chiltepin enthusiasts, they had brought Kraig a few samples from their farm. They own a working ranch in Sonora, Mexico with a few hundred head of cattle and they buy chiltepin from locals there to sell to Native Seed Exchange here in the US (at fairly tradeed priced but not certified "fair trade"). These two gentle and adventure-loving souls are contributing to community and ag development in the area where their ranch is - following thier guts and their hearts in terms of their involvement. Amongst other things, this means working on expanding the market access for the chiltepin up here while trying to maintain the balance of gringo-introduced ideas to the area there... it will be interesting to watch how the projects they've been heling to support there work out.

Their house here in Tucson is really a 5 acre compound of 100+ year old adobe buildings with all kinds of add-ons, a huge sprawling garden with all local and native plants (including mostly edible and medicinal plants, cacti, etc.), a pig, laying hens, beas, fish (in a pond fed by recycled grey water), and millions of treasures collected from their travels to mexico and beyond over their many years. Quite amazing people who welcomed us yesterday as if we'd known them for years ... we feel very lucky to have crossed paths with them, and i'm sure we'll keep up and perhaps visit their ranch in Sonora during their round-up in Novemeber.

Right, enough for now. We're off to a harvest festival in Patagonia (!), AZ tomorrow to see more chiltepin uses and check out the local ag/food markets here. Then, on to Mexico on Monday am, crossing at Naco instead of the more hectic Nogales border town (nogales=walnut in span).

Tucson and the Desert Museum

2006-10-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

We made it into Tucson early in the am (from Phoenix) and met with a former chiltepin importer who gave us great info and contacts in the Sonora region. He also drew us a map - with "rio" and "cerro" and "la casa de Luis" carefully situated so that we just might be able to find Senor Luis outside of the Moctezuma area next week!

We'll keep you posted on how this turns out... (click on the image to enlarge it)

We then went off in search of our first chiltepines, grown in the Sonora Desert Museum collection. Several have been planted in their "Mountain Highland Habitat" exhibit and others have sprouted up outside of admin buildings, like this one here... (I'm collecting sample "1"!).

Also in the Mountain Highland exhibit (closely resembling where we'll be hunting for chiles in N. Mexico) were mule deer, mountain lions (tail at left), mexican grey wolves and black bears, and of course, plenty of tarantulas and snakes - we'll be keeping our eyes open for them on the chilequest for sure!

The museum itself was spectacular - really well done - with exhibits outside for the most part. Tons of animals and plants from all over the Southwest desert regions. We only had a few hours there, but it's certainly worth another visit! Highly recommend it.

We're off...

2006-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

We've been making our way to Mexico... via Vegas (heather's family reunion), Albuquerque (visiting kraig's family), Phoenix and Tuscon (meeting up with several other Chiltepin enthusiasts/researchers).

In Albuquerque we had the chance to check out the International Balloon Fiesta...It was a chilly morning and we made it there before sunrise to see the "glowing" dawn patrol (several balloons that launch earlier than the mass ascention to give other ballooners an idea of the wind, etc.). This particular day of the week long festival was the "ascent of nations" where most ballons fly a flag of a different country. Israel and Brasil were first up after the US!

The object of pursuit

2006-09-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is what the "quest" is all about. These red berries belong to the wild chile pepper, the chitepin. It is thought that these small berries are the progenitor of domesticated chile peppers - anchos, poblanos, serranos, jalapeños, New Mexican green and red, bell peppers. My Ph.D. research seeks to look at both the genetic changes that occur in the shift from wild to domestic AND to understand how farmers' practices shape and foment these changes.

I am beginning to look at this first question but there are little examples of wild chile peppers that are available to use for research purposes. So that leaves me to go and collect my own...

The following weeks are going to chronicle our pursuit of these chile peppers as we go and seek them in the wild and some of the stories and events that happen along the way.

Introductions...

2006-09-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

Heather and I will be using this space in lieu of sending out mass emails to all of you. We hope to be updating a couple times a week - so you can can check back as often as you want. This web log, or "blog" format allows us to post more pictures with our text and allows us to present issues and stories in a way that a mass mail cannot. You can keep track of updates by adding our feed to your RSS feed reader/blog reader. If that last sentence did not make any sense to you, just bookmark our page and check back every now and then for updates.