Central Market’s Hatch Chile Festival kicks off August 5 this year, and if you’ve never planned a grocery run around a pepper before, this is the week to start.
The chain’s 31st annual celebration runs at every Central Market location in Texas, including the two DFW stores at 5750 East Lovers Lane in Dallas and 4651 West Freeway in Fort Worth. The premise hasn’t changed in three decades. Hatch chiles only grow in the Hatch Valley of southern New Mexico, a stretch of the Rio Grande where blazing days and cold nights push the peppers toward a flavor nobody has managed to replicate anywhere else. Green chile peaks in August. By September the pods start turning red and sweeter. The whole window closes with the first frost, usually by early October.
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