Busch’s Fresh Food Market will kick off its annual Hatch chile celebration Aug. 10, with live roasting events rolling through 12 southeast Michigan stores over four weekends.
Roasting runs 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on the following dates and store locations:
- Aug. 14: Ann Arbor Main Street, Ann Arbor Green Road, Canton
- Aug. 21: Livonia, Plymouth, Brighton
- Aug. 28: Saline, South Lyon, Dexter
- Sept. 4: Farmington, West Bloomfield, Novi
The Ann Arbor-based grocer also will carry the peppers in made-in-house items through the season, including Hatch chile mac and cheese, artisan sourdough bread, Hatch chile and Swiss burgers, cornbread, salsa and coleslaw.
Why the season is short
Hatch chiles are grown in the Hatch Valley of southern New Mexico, where roughly 4,000-foot elevation, intense desert sun, cold nights and volcanic soil push the plants to develop more sugars and capsaicin than they would in a warmer, flatter climate. Anaheim is the pepper; Hatch is the origin, and growers outside the region have consistently fallen short trying to replicate it.
Harvest runs from late July into early October, with green chiles picked first in August and red following in September and October. Peak availability lands in the last two weeks of August, which is why retailer roasting programs cluster in a tight window and why shoppers tend to buy in volume and freeze.
One factor worth watching this year: Water availability in southern New Mexico has been described as dire, with surface water nearly nonexistent and some growers fallowing land to cover what they are planting. There also has been a push among suppliers to stretch shipments into late September rather than compressing everything into a six-to-eight-week window, which would improve quality and supply consistency.
Fire-roasting blackens the skin and concentrates the flavor before the charred layer is peeled away.