Farmer Says He Grows World’s Longest Green Chile

Sweet and mild or hot and spicy, New Mexico chile farmers grow peppers for all taste buds.

But one man in Hatch says the size of his peppers are breaking world records.

“See this one here’s 13, 14 inches,” said Jim Lytle, as he picked fresh peppers from his 100-acre chile field. “I had one 17 inches.”

Lytle said he knew he grew the world’s longest chile the moment he laid eyes on the enormously long peppers.

“Yippee! I was really happy we had a new record to do it with. And then I got to looking in the field and found out that we had a lot more,” Lytle said.

The unusually large length does not affect the taste or quality of the product, he said. Instead, it simply adds eye appeal for customers, Lytle said.

“That’s one big chile,” said a man purchasing the peppers at a nearby store.

One measures about 15.5 inches from top of the stem to the bottom, breaking the current record of 13 inches set by Lytle’s mother in 1988.

“I was in the world book of records and I still am until he gets in there,” June Rutherford said, with a friendly laugh. “He’s gotta work a little harder to beat me.”

And Lytle said he already is working harder; his goal is to grow a 20-inch chile pepper within five years.

“We’re developing seed that’s more productive, produces more chile for the grower and we’re doing better quality chile for the consumer,” Lytle said.

As Lytle took a big, juicy bite out of a green chile fresh from the field, he had only one thing to say about the taste.

“Most wonderful chile in the world.”

And now, also the longest chile, found nowhere else but in Hatch, N.M.