The Little German Town that Made This Chile Famous

The vintage photo of the day has an interesting cultural background and circuitous road to fame. The vintage photo of the day is a vintage postcard from 1910 of some beautiful ristras of red dried Anaheim chiles. Anaheim was founded by German immigrants in 1857. The name Anaheim was formed by taking the word Ana from the Santa Ana river which flowed nearby with the German word "heim" for home- Anaheim. Anaheim before the arrival of Disneyland was all about oranges, but lima beans, strawberries, and a few other crops were grown as well. As is often the case in California, cultures, languages, ethnicities, and foods become blended together. So how did German Anaheim become so associated with its eponymous chile pepper? New Mexican chiles of which the famous Hatch, Pasilla, Colorado, Negro, and Anaheim have a common heritage derived from breeding ancient chiles of the Pueblo Indian peoples of northern New Mexico and the southern Colorado plateau. They were developed by pioneering horticulturist Dr. Fabian Garcia at New Mexico State University in 1894. The Anaheim pepper is a mild variety of the cultivar 'New Mexico No. 9'. The name 'Anaheim' derives from Emilio Ortega, a farmer who brought the seeds from New Mexico to the Anaheim, California, area in 1894, shortly after the first breeding done by Garcia. This is also the reason Anaheim chiles are often called Ortega chiles. They are also called 'California chile' or 'Magdalena', and dried as chile seco del norte. The chile "heat" of 'Anaheim' varies from 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale; however, typical cultivars grown in New Mexico can selectively and uniformly range from 500 to 10,000 Scoville units. So, when you are making those delicious chiles rellenos, think about the history of these interesting peppers with a great deal of history and migration as a part of their story.