Roasted Red
THIS JUST IN — Unfortunately, we did not get Roasted Red peppers from the 2020 harvest, and won’t have jars of our chopped Red Chile this year. It is out of stock until 2021.
Red chile peppers were still out in the field (perhaps a bit later than usual due to labor shortages there) when a brief patch of unseasonably cold weather came through New Mexico and the poor little peps froze to death—we’ve sourced dried red pods, but the supply of those has been impacted as well but hopefully not our supply of Red Chile Sauce.
There is the only one processor of Roasted Red. We had a PO in for several thousand pounds, however, our supplier did not provide an estimated delivery date in response — they seemingly don’t care about their customers (us) or ours (you). What’s ordered either shows up or doesn’t. And we have worked to find a solution with our supplier, however, this year it has proved impossible. Our goals are not aligned.
We still operate as a start-up, even though it’s been years. We build our own roasters and haul fresh green chile to Portland from New Mexico to roast for customers and ourselves. Despite the size of the company, our product line has grown nationally. We’ve relied on farmers and processors in New Mexico for fresh chile as well as other chile products that we haven’t been able to produce ourselves—like Roasted Red. And relying on someone else hasn’t always work out for us. We’re doing what we can.
When things like this happen — a big supplier impacting our smaller business — it’s a reminder to us that if we are going to stay in the game of selling chile outside of New Mexico, we need to grow our own. We need to own more of our processing abilities, not only to ensure we have product, but to ensure we are providing quality that we can stand behind in an industry that is making it harder to compete.
We also need to do it right at the source. So that’s what we’re working on, and we’ll share have more about our new developments, our plans for growth in New Mexico, which will improve and impact our situation in Portland and beyond. Please stay tuned in the coming months.