Young Guns Produce marks 25 years of Hatch Valley Chile
LAS CRUCES – Since starting Young Guns Produce 25 years ago, Chris Franzoy has seen some changes in the way the state’s most beloved product makes it’s way from the Hatch Valley chile fields to our plates.
But the last quarter-century of change is small, when he looks back to how his great-grandparents, Joseph and Celestina Franzoy, labored when they first arrived from Austria in 1917. Among the first to farm what has become the region’s signature crop and a staple in the kitchen of New Mexcians everywhere, great-grandfather Joseph was uncertain about the pods that have become our culinary passion.
“It is said, the first time my great-grandfather tasted green chile he thought he was poisoned because of the burn,” Chris said.