One of the cool things that happens in our neighborhood every spring is the annual plant sale at the New Mexico State University’s Fabian Garcia botanical garden and research center. It’s just a short walk from our house through a nearby pecan orchard.
Garcia was a visionary horticulturist at NMSU in the 1900s, noted especially for his research on chile plants. Here’s a link to the NMSU website which gives you more information about Garcia and his work.
https://libexhibits.nmsu.edu/onlinexhibits/fabian-garcia/index.html
The center contains several acres of research gardens, an exhibition of native plants and even a landscaped outdoor space where many weddings are held during the year.
The New Mexico Chile Pepper Institute at NMSU, of which I am proud to say I am a member, organizes and conducts the plant sale. There is a wide variety of plants, which have recently sprouted from seeds and are placed in four-inch square pots for transplanting in your garden. It’s a two-day event, but you’d best get there early to get what you want.
In my case, it was some chile plants — Big Jim and New Mexico Heritage varieties that I manage to squeeze in a row in our raised garden in between my wife’s corn and cucumbers. I forked over $47 for the plants — money well spent, I hope. The chiles seem to go first during the sale. I stopped by the second day of the event last year and they were completely out of all chile varieties.
Other plants on sale include a wide variety of tomatoes, squash, bell peppers of all colors. and other varieties of peppers, including jalapenos. You can also buy seeds for various varieties of chile, just in case you didn’t find what you wanted. And this year, as an added bonus, we all received a free package of seeds for a “Mystery Pepper.”
I’ll try to plant a couple of these and see what they taste like. I’m betting that they’re going to be really hot.
Anyway, if you’re in my neighborhood next year around the middle of April, stop by for the plant sale at the Fabian Garcia Center. It will be a hot date.
aero-cordero.com 