In the 1500s Spanish explorers found the plant being cultivated in New Mexico, which now boasts more acreage dedicated to this tasty delight than any other state in the union. Many New Mexican families cultivate their own varieties of chile, harvesting the chile and saving the seeds to plant next year because the particular flavor suits their family's tastes. New Mexico State University in Las Cruces has developed many new flavors and degrees of hotness in the pepper for commercial uses. Yes, New Mexico takes chile very seriously, and you've never tasted chile until you've had it freshly prepared. Red and green chile come from the same vegetable.
Green chile is picked when green.
Green chiles are roasted, peeled, and generally made into a tasty sauce or sprinkled fresh on almost everything for a biting, toe-tingling effect. When green chile is left on the plant to ripen it turns red. After picking, the red chiles are hung to dry in ristras. These colorful red ristras are often seen as decorations, but they are quite more than that. With the seeds and veins removed, the dried red chile pods are crushed into chile powder and made into the tasty red chile sauce.