Chile Day in New Mexico

Every other year my family gets together to make red enchilada sauce. The big CHILE DAY was last weekend. It's a day that everyone in the family looks forward to. We had about 30 families come this year. They came from all over NM, AZ, some from Dallas, and we even had some cousins that came all the way from Minnesota. This event, CHILE DAY, has been happening as long as I can remember. It began with my grandparents, their children, and all us kids. We gathered at the farm, under Dabaw's carport, with 1 big pot, blenders, colanders, and an old Colman camp stove. It has evolved through the years, the family has grown exponentially, we've moved the whole process to the onion shed, we've incorporated high speed drills and grinders and now use more modern, heavy duty, camp stoves. CHILE DAY is great, we get to visit and laugh all day long while we work. The younger kids are in kid heaven, they run thru the orchards, play in the dry ditches, build clubhouses and forts and have a blast all day long! It's a ton of work but well worth the effort. This year we ended up with a total of 210 gallons of red enchilada sauce!






Oh yeah...did I mention that we eat a fabulous lunch of red enchiladas with fresh red sauce, and every one brings side dishes and desserts and snacks! That's reason enough to go!

And once we get home we have enough enchilada sauce to last us 2 more years! This year, our family brought 6 gallons home. This is what it looks like now...