Well, we did it. We finally finished the 2025 chile harvest last week.
After Thanksgiving, we did a final pass through the fields to harvest the remaining Espelette, Cascabel, Sugar Rush, Guajillo, Gochu, and Calabrian chiles. Since it has been such a mild fall, the plants were still flowering and producing new chiles. It was pretty wild.
Somehow beyond our expectations (and despite the challenges of the season), we managed to harvest 37 tons of fresh chiles and dried all of them. 37 tons equals 74,000 pounds of chiles equals 160 macro bins harvested. It also means that on average, everyone on our team harvested about 2.5 tons of chiles. These numbers make our exhaustion justified.
The fields are fully seeded in cover crop and get to take a break for the winter while we pack up your holiday orders, get to the things we put off till after harvest, and start the planning process for 2026.
And in the midst of harvest, we still managed to get the new crops of chiles ready for you! Last week we packed up the new Calabrian Chile Flakes and Sugar Rush Peach Chile powder and will be packing more bags of whole dried chiles in 3 days. The only chile we are missing right now are Yahualica chile flakes which will be available in January.
A little help with your Holiday Gifting
In a time where we don't really need more stuff, I believe the best gifts are things that are consumable. That might be an experience like a cooking class or something delicious that can be enjoyed and then disappear from your counter.
We put together fewer curated gift bundles this year, but that doesn't mean you can't choose different items to be wrapped and shipped in our branded boxes to your friends. And if you need help trying to put together the right mix of things, reply to this email and we can help you choose. As always, if you add a note to your order, we will handwrite the gift note to the recipient.
Pantry
I’m convinced that one of the best presents is a unique bag of heirloom beans. We have 6 varieties of beans available right now as well as the Collective Bean Bundle that holds 2 bags each of the 3 varieties of beans we grew with other farms this year. Find a recipe that you think your friend will enjoy and include it with the beans for a great gift.
It goes without saying, but chiles are a great addition to beans. Adding whole dried chiles to a pot of beans makes them so much more flavorful. There’s also a few Chile Mole Bundles left and there will be more available on Wednesday after we pack up more bags.
You also can’t go wrong with a few jars of our California grown chile powders that you can’t get anywhere else. Need some advice for where to start? Just reply to this email and we’re happy to help.
Made with Our Chiles
The Cali Mole Chocolate Bar is made by J. Street Chocolate in San Francisco. It was inspired by separate trips that owner Julia and I both took to Oaxaca last year. The chocolate bar uses FIVE (!) of our chiles and is a really fun and very flavorful bar. Julia is totally sold out of the Cali Mole bar so you can only get it from us!
Our new Whole Grain Mustard with Piment d’Ville is also a really nice option. I used the mustard to season a pork tenderloin last night and it came out delicious!
Olive Oil
We’re out of our 2024 harvest of olive oil, but luckily our friends produce some of the finest olive oil in California. Kathryn and Robin at Fat Gold source some of California’s most interesting olives and mill them into exquisite oils in the San Joaquin Valley. We’ve had a subscription to their 4x a year olive oil club for years now and don’t have any plans to cancel it. You can also purchase single tins of their Fat Gold Standard, a favorite oil of Samin Nosrat.
If you want more of an olive oil plus other items gift bundle, head over to Enzo’s Table. There you can pull together delicious things like their Clementine Crush olive oil, absolutely incredible almond butter, and a classic white wine vinegar.
And if you are an Anderson Valley die-hard, our friends down the road at Filigreen Farm just started selling their olive oil online, too.
Books
The only inedible gifts I give are books. Gideon and I started exchanging a book or two and a nice sweet treat for the holidays when we first got together and I really enjoy the tradition. I have a firm rule of only reading books that have nothing to do with my work and I love a good adventure.
I stan Robin Sloan and find his books to be incredibly engaging and comforting. If you want to share a SF/literary adventure, try Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. A yeasted, food themed adventure? Try Sourdough. An epic adventure 11,000 years in the future? Try Moonbound. Or go ahead and check one of these out for yourself from the library and spend some time at the end of the year getting lost in a good story.
What We're Cooking
Sopa de Milpa made with our Southwest Gold beans and Pasilla chiles: The weather has really turned here and while it may be sunny and clear during the day, the nights have been really chilly! I was also gifted a chicken to cook by one of women who harvested chiles with us this season. While Gideon isn't a huge soup fan, I'm leaning into soup season for the week ahead and excited to see how this one turns out.
Pork Tenderloin with Koginut Squash Agrodolce: I made this roasted squash recipe for the 2nd time last night and used our Calabrian chile flakes. The vinegar sauce really brightens up the sweet squash for a stunner of a dish. I also tossed the warm squash with chopped radicchio to bulk it up. For the pork tenderloin, I marinated it in olive oil, salt, fresh herbs, and a heaping tablespoon of our Whole Grain Mustard with Piment d'Ville. It was delicious.
Arabic Baked Beans made with Zolfini beans: One of our customers shared this recipe and it looks great. Bold Bean Co has a really solid recipe section on their website. I’m looking forward to trying more of what they have on there (but made with our beans!). I'll use Piment d'Ville instead of paprika for this.
