Red or Green? A question that needs no further context if you live anywhere in New Mexico, but especially if you reside in Southern New Mexico.
For over 400 years, the chile pepper has played an integral role in the state’s identity. First brought over by the Spanish, chile peppers have been in the Americas since the 16th century and became the predecessors to the modern New Mexico chile pepper.
Fabian Garcia bred the first one in 1913, while a student in the first class of New Mexico School of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts now known as New Mexico State University. The pepper, now referred to as New Mexico No. 9, became the foundation of the New Mexico chile industry.
Stephanie Walker, professor and extension vegetable specialist of NMSU’s Chile Pepper Institute, explained how Garcia sought to create a pepper that had widespread appeal. His research led to the creation of New Mexico No. 9.
“We already had various land-raised chile peppers growing in the area, but Fabian Garcia realized through selective breeding he could standardize it,” Walker said. “Make it larger, smoother, a little bit milder to appeal to a wider variety of consumers, that maybe [chile peppers] would be more widely embraced than they already were.”
But that is not where New Mexico chile pepper breeding ended.
From that one pepper, the modern chile pepper industry was born.
Over the years, there has been a split in the green and red chile pepper industry. Despite there being no difference between the two, farmers tend to specialize in one color.
“That’s something also people often don’t know, is usually when you have a green chile, if you let it mature, it turns red,” Walker said.
New Mexico chile peppers are not only used as a food source, but their pigments are also commonly used for their dying properties.
Walker described two pigments found in chile peppers that make them ideal for dying.
“Chile peppers contain two very unique red pigments: capsanthin and capsorubin,” Walker said. “Capsanthin is a deep brown, red pigment. Capsorubin is a very bright, brick red, and these pigments are great natural food coloring.”
Walker said capsorubin has been used beyond conventional food dying. Zoos have used chile peppers as a way to keep flamingos in captivity pink.
The capsorubin in red chile peppers belongs to the carotenoid family, which is a group of natural pigments that create vibrant colors. The similarity of green chiles to flamingos’ natural habitat make the New Mexico fruit an ideal candidate for a natural supplement.
Green peppers are typically desired for their thickness and meatiness which hold a lot of flavors and provide more sustenance, and red peppers are usually thinner, making it easier for them to dry.
Depending on the desired characteristics, chile pepper can be bred to fit the wants of farmers and consumers alike.
Constant droughts in Southwest New Mexico have created a demand for chile pepper that is more water efficient. While the more stress a chile pepper experiences, the more spice it will have. But unfavorable growing conditions can also result in smaller yields.
Researchers at the New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute are constantly working to create chile pepper breeds that minimize water loss and maximize water absorption.
Peppers which are water efficient, combined with new watering techniques, allow for maximum crop yield. According to Walker, almost all green chile peppers are now watered using drip irrigation. This is a technique that slowly sends water to the root of the plant, minimizing the water lost to the soil.
Years of breeding for unfavorable living conditions have made the New Mexico chile pepper an extremely resilient fruit. This trait was acknowledged by NASA, who was looking for fruit to grow in space that had high nutritional value.
The ability to grow food in space has piqued NASA interest since the 1950s. While NASA saw positive results with multiple vegetables, fruits proved to be more of a challenge.
University of New Mexico Mechanical Engineering PhD student, Jacob “Pepperseed” Torres, recalled working as an intern for NASA for Plant Habitat-04 project. He explained that while testing multiple peppers under LED lights in a high carbon monoxide environment, many of them did not flower or grew poorly due to lack of light, except one kind.
“There were these groups of pepper that were growing in the back of the chamber,” Torres said. “They were huge, they were growing around the lights. They didn’t care. And they were the ones from New Mexico.
“So, in the end, I am a New Mexican. I graduated from NMSU in Las Cruces, and I just happened to be there when the New Mexican peppers went to space. But the bottom line is that they grew exactly how we needed them to,” Torres said.
During his time working on the project, Torres said he ensured NASA followed New Mexican chile traditions.
This included spelling chile the New Mexican way, with an “e.” And rather than only growing red chile peppers, the astronauts also grew green ones.
One green chile pepper has the same amount of Vitamin C as six oranges and the nutrients are essential for those in space. The spicy kick of the chile pepper is a bonus for astronauts who experience a loss of taste during their time away from Earth. The green chile provides a burst of flavor.
The NuMex Española Improved pepper became the first fruit to be grown outside of Earth. In 2021, astronauts at the International Space Station enjoyed a bite of New Mexico.
