So how many people in Princeton, NJ, are going to know quite how intrinsic a part of this season are Hatch green chiles? But even if the seasonal significance is recognized, these are rather startled and naked looking chiles, because one's used to coming across them being charred in large roasting drums in parking lots up and down Cerrillos Road (and between there and, indeed, Hatch, in southern NM): the smell, as much as the taste, belongs to this time of the year. (That being said, the best ones that I bought this year, at the Farmers' Market, in fact came from La Cienega, and there are just a couple left in the freezer, for omelettes, or - this year's invention - putting on cauliflower cheese. Unfortunately, these are a long way from being roasted - and if I were going to roast a chile, it would be one of my own, happily transplanted to the deck here after their forcing experience cross-country in the back of my car.
But - in choosing to write about these unfortunate chiles, I'm also displaying a photo that's an example of self-damning evidence. For in order to take it, I clearly was not managing to Boycott Whole Foods (or see the FB page). We completely deplore John Mackey's comments, and want to point out that we previously went and bought a good deal of grocery staples at McCaffrey's (and I can't find out, in a quick google search, anything about their politics, though they are to be commended for their hiring of people with disabilities as part of a conscious policy). But if one lives in Highland Park, and has (apart from the Friday farmers' market here) only what we've labelled Stop & Moan to go to, and if our weekly box of organic vegetables won't start coming till next week ... does this constitute a temporary extenuating circumstance? No. No, I know it doesn't... And we didn't even buy any chiles, though I can now see that this was a total bargain price...
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