Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival

I wish that I somehow could share the heavenly aromas of these fire roasted chiles with everyone through this GIF. This weekend was the Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival so a few friends and I made the drive to check it out.

It was my first time going even though I’ve lived in Southern Colorado for a few years now, so I thought I’d put up a little post about it.

I’m all about festivals involving food and this one was right up my alley. Green chile everything. I’m talking dips, I’m talking soups, I’m talking quesadillas, I’m talking burgers, I’m talking smothered french fries. So many samples, so little time. This locally made sriracha with Pueblo green chiles was so incredibly good. My friend and I both got a jar and I’m shocked it isn’t already empty.

Musso Farm was hooking it up with freshly roasted chiles and even though they were doing so many large batches at once, there were still super long lines at their stands. Some people bought enough bags to fill up a wagon before finally heading out.

If you’re not familiar, Pueblo Chiles are pretty famous. They have a long history in the region and they can be eaten with literally anything. According to the City of Pueblo, the chiles should be accompanied with “a beer or a shot of tequila, as this is a known method to disperse some of the burn from your taste buds.” Sounds very scientific. The batch the man in this picture is roasting is one of the “Hot Pueblo Chiles” variety. After having some of those in a quesadilla, I stuck with buying “Mild” ones because they were more my level of heat. I still loved standing nearby and smelling the chiles and the garlic he was throwing into the drum before lighting them up.

Those metal tubes shoot out fire while the drum rolls the chiles over and over. When you’re walking nearby “Chile Ash” falls on you; it’s all part of the experience.

Once they’re all done, the drums open and drop the chiles onto a metal tray where they’re dived up for the, literally, hundreds of people waiting to buy them by the bushel.

It was right after this picture that we all stocked up on bags of chiles. Some people in line were getting feisty over them. We didn’t have any issues with anyone, but it was kinda like watching an episode of Storage Wars… very competitive.

There were a ton of other peppers to chose from too at the farm stand. I literally just remembered after posting this picture that I was wanting to go back and stock up on some fresh garlic here, whoops.

Out of all the things we snacked on all day, the weirdest by far was: grape ice cream. My friend bought one for us to all split and as soon as she introduced it as “a little bit medicine-y” after her first bite … I think there was no hope for it after that. The ice cream itself was actually amazing, but poor grapes … I feel like unless they’re in wine or grape juice, anything flavored like them is just going to taste like cough syrup. Is that just me?

Like other street festivals there were tons of art and shopping booths too like this one that had every variation of chile home decor you could think of. It was so fun wandering around, checking out local products, trying new food and all before the storms rolled in.

This was as we were walking back to the car, moments before it started down pouring. Great timing and good times in Pueblo.