What’s merely warm to local chile grower Jane Wyatt may scorch the mouth of those that don’t eat the hot peppers every day as she does.  Jane was born and raised in Safford and spent her career teaching and doing research in food science and nutrition, including ten years at a university in Hermosillo, Sonora.

In 2000 she started raising chile with her farmer brother for direct sale to customers at farmers markets and other events and on her web site, www.sansimonchile.com, in the small community of San Simon east of Willcox.  Wyatt claims that the meaty and flavorful green chiles she raises are better than those from Hatch, New Mexico where they’ve worn out their soil by raising chile every year. She alternates with cover crops like oats which are plowed in for green manure. “We also don’t spray the chile,” she said.  Wyatt has also perfected the art of roasting chiles and designed several roasters.

Jane will bring two large roasters and a trailer loaded with burlap sacks full of green chiles, jalapenos and sun dried red chile pods to the Bisbee Farmers Market this Saturday for the annual Chile Festival.  The featured grower and roaster at the festival for the past few years, Jane will also be at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market this Thursday.

A few years ago she commissioned a young man from Mexico to build a special pit for smoking the red jalapenos for chipotle chile.  “We smoke the plump red chiles over mesquite wood using the same method used by the Aztecs long ago.”  Her company is one of the few that still does this the authentic way with no liquid smoke or dehydrated jalapenos.  Jane makes a chipotle sauce from these chiles.

She developed a line of products with the help of her sister, Maxine Bean of Hereford using the hot peppers grown on the farm.  These include jalapeno relish, red and green jalapeno jelly and a mixed hot pepper jelly. Her hot peppers are also used to create “Senor Salsa” that was chosen the official salsa for its Arizona Salsa Trail by Graham County Chamber of Commerce.  All these products will be for sale.  

Wyatt grows a lot of varieties developed by the New Mexico’s Chile Institute such as “Sandia”, “Joe Parker”, “Big Jim”, and “New Mexico” as well as “Arizona 8” developed by Cochise County’s own chile breeder Ed Curry. Advance orders for either market can be placed by email or phone, jwyatt@zekes.com or (928)-428-1490. Please specify hot or mild and she has a number of sacks set aside for those that want extra hot.

“We grow high quality, good tasting chile peppers so although it’s an awful lot of hard and hot work, it’s satisfying to be able to offer them directly to customers and see them enjoying them,” said Jane.

Other hot stuff at the Chile Festival (when the market stays open for another hour until 1 p.m.) will include home-style Mexican food from Elvia’s Kitchen and lively old-fashioned music by The Jones Gang with state champion fiddle players.  Bring entries for the Salsa Contest (with name, phone number and recipe attached) to the special events tree by 10:30 for judging.  Stay there for a Salsa Demo by gourmet chef and grower Keith Parker followed by Salsa Sampling.

Sierra Vista’s Organic Garden Tour This Sunday

 Lots of enthusiastic organic gardeners toured backyard gardens in Warren last Sunday at the first Organic Garden Tour by the new Bisbee Community Gardens group sponsored by Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture.  For another chance to find out about growing fruits and vegetables in the high desert come to Sierra Vista’s the annual Summer Organic Garden Tour this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

 Two backyard growers who supply their families and friends and sell at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market will open their gardens to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.   Find out about rain water collection and see a 5,000 gallon system in place at Jim Woodruff’s home at 4603 S. Sauk (off Choctaw.) Talk with WaterWise who will have handouts on how to grow food in a water-frugal way with drip irrigation, water harvesting, mulching, composting (building up organic matter in the soil so it acts like a sponge and holds more water) and using drought tolerant plants.

Elly and Bill Stavarek who have generously opened their 13-year-old garden at 3741 E. Choctaw to the public annually since 2005 will be on hand to take groups through their intensely managed raised bed garden where tall plants climb trellises and cages. Grower Cheri Melton and I will staff a BASA info booth, answer questions, give out free seed catalogs from Native Seeds/SEARCH and handouts on solar cooking, desert foods and agriculture and weather permitting, even bake something in a solar oven. Call 378-2973 for more information.

This Week at the Farmers Markets

Sierra  Vista Farmers Market

San Simon Chile Company will be at the market again with a roaster for roasted green chiles (mild or hot) and jalapenos.  Grower Jane Wyatt raises these plump and easily peeled chiles without spraying them.  She also sells dried red chile pods, jalapeno relishes, pepper jellies, chipotle sauce and salsa made from her hot peppers.

Grammy’s Garden will offer its new potatoes (Mountain Rose, Purple Peruvian, Banana Fingerling & Russian Fingerling) all dug fresh this week as well as arugula, chard, lettuce and sweet basil from the greenhouse, as well as sweet corn and watermelons and certified organic local Gala apples and peaches.

Beattys Apple Orchard will bring organically raised McIntosh, Earligold, Red Delicious, Bert's Special and Jonathan apples as well as Pear apples, rhubarb, cucumbers and squash. It will not be in Bisbee this Saturday.

San Ysidro Farms has lots of red and green chorizo made with hot peppers to heat and seasoning to your next pizza, breakfast burrito with eggs or tomato pie. At both markets with grass-fed and pastured meats and poultry (whole chickens and turkey, lamb, beef, pork as well as bacon, sausage and ground.)

School is back in session and RPMS has unusual syrups for breakfast pancakes and waffles. Try Blueberry, Mango-Coconut, Raspberry or Prickly Pear. And for pb&j sandwiches it offers jellies made with organic fruits and berries as well as no-sugar fruit-sweetened versions.  Stop by for free samples or pick up a cold Prickly Pear Lemonade to quench your thirst at the market.   

Adventure Coffee Roasting, a certified organic and fair-trade coffee roaster, offers fresh roasted coffee from around the world.  This week a Brazilian coffee is featured. Sample the nutty, sweet flavor of this low acidic coffee with a smooth clean finish.  Mention this ad and get $1.00 off each pound of this Brazilian coffee.

Bisbee Farmers Market

Fresh brewed hot coffee made from locally roasted, fair-trade Just Coffee that supports a cooperative of coffee farms in Mexico is available along with whole wheat donuts and other baked goodies at the music tree.  Take home a bag of Just Coffee beans from vendor Roy  Goodman to further support small Mexican farmers so they can stay at home.  Sales of hot coffee help the farmers market pay its expenses.

Heirloom new potatoes will be available from Burda Farm including Bintje, Mountain Rose, Red Thumb, French Fingerling, La Ratte, Rose Finn and German Butterball varieties.  It will also have sweet Walla Walla and Cioppini Italian Flat onions, pickling and slicing cucumbers, eggplant, heirloom cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs.  Look for organic Gala apples, Lady Zee and Elberta peaches, sweet corn, sweet red and yellow onions and English cucumbers and tomatoes on the vine as well as pecans and walnuts, pinto beans and soup mix from Willcox. Spring lettuce mix, gourmet vinegars and oils and European-style breads, pies and pastries.

Grower James Gillham of St. David will bring zucchini (green, gray, golden), summer squash (yellow crookneck, yellow straight neck, and vegetable marrow), winter squash (butternut, Lakota, delicata, pink banana, and Turk’s cap), beans (green, wax, and purple), melons (cantaloupes, honeydew, and fastbreak), cucumbers (pickling, Japanese, and Middle Eastern), okra, new potatoes and tomatoes.    

Many small local growers come to the market each week: Bobby Gowins (sweet onions), Susie Culp (hot peppers, green beans, eggplants, tomatoes and squash), Keith Johnson (hot pepper plants and fresh produce), the Vaughn family (sweet onions, chile tepin plants), Bob Berry (garlic, cherry and slicing tomatoes, honey, squash), the Montoyas (shallots, onions, garlic, nopalitos and mesquite cutting boards) and Elfrida Community Garden (fresh produce & herbs.)

La Buena Vida Farm will bring fresh veggies.  It will offer a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program starting this fall with a 10 week subscription running from September 13 through November 22. Pick up a box of fresh produce from them every week at the market. For information and to subscribe contact  labuenavidaCSA@gmail.com.

Spadefoot Nursery will bring its collection of home-grown regional native trees and shrubs, from local oaks trees and shrubby evergreen buckthorns to "the desert smells like rain" plant, creosote bush.

 In support of the Chile Fiesta it will offer an American heirloom pepper in 1 gallon pots. The “Fish” pepper has 3" long hot edible fruit hanging in variegated foliage and makes an attractive ornamental pepper in a pot.

Traditionally used in oyster and crab houses in Chesapeake  Bay. Perfect for salsa. Hot (from Seed Saver's Exchange).

With allergies peaking due to a very wet summer that has spurred grass growth try raw local bee pollen from Simmons Honey for relief. The pollen granules are trapped from the legs of worker bees returning to the hive after visiting flowering plants, then dried and hand cleaned.

Royal honey (royal jelly and honey mixed), honey comb and desert wildflower honey can all contain minute amounts of pollen and may also be beneficial.

Gallon orders called in ahead are appreciated (364-2745).

A full line of home-style pickles, preserves, butters and jellies made with local produce by the Simmons Family are also for sale as well as honey stix, honey mustard and honey granola. (At both markets.)