LAYTON, Utah — ”I’ll always go like this and my grandkids love it (chomp) and I said this is the best," Antonio Martinez exclaims as he takes a bite of a freshly picked green chili.
Martinez says chili picking is part of keeping alive a family tradition that's a feast for the eyes and especially the taste buds. It's that time of year when those in the know start harvesting, roasting and cooking with green chili. The Martinez family has been doing it for a quarter century.
Antonio and his wife Judy began picking chilies at the Day Farm in Layton in the late 1990's. Sadly, Judy has been gone for several years, but the tradition continues with Toño’s children and now grandchildren…and it’s something they hope to continue into the future.
So in a field full of them, how do you spot and pick the perfect chili pepper?
"This is about the right size here," Antonio says as he spots and grabs one bigger than his fist. "Got a lot of meat in it so it's easier to roast and you're not wasting your time on this because these are hard to peel."
For the 74-year-old, the chili is more than a spicy fruit, it's a lasting connection with Judy, his wife of more than four decades. "When my wife and I started, we used to pick for her mother and dad and my mom and dad, and aunts and uncles, friends cousins.
My wife used to tell me; ‘why are we picking for everybody? And I said, because I enjoy picking chilies!”
Judy passed away a decade ago at the age of 61. Yet Toño says he still hears her voice, especially when he's in the fields, picking chili. "She says: 'pick this one, not that one!' Yeah I hear that quite a bit," Antonio states.
While they might not hear it, Antonio's daughter Felicia, says they still feel Judy's presence. This tradition is something Felicia, her brother, sister, and their kids, want to keep going with Antonio as long as possible. "... when she passed, it became even more special because this was something he did with my mom and so a big part of it was we didn't want him to go alone," Felicia explains.
Picking and packing is just one part of the job. The rest happens in Antonio's kitchen back home. He says no one is allowed in for the roasting process. But after they cool down, everyone helps with the peeling. Which Felicia says can be rough on the hands. "You never really know what you were getting and sometimes, some years that chili is so hot," exclaimed Felicia.
Antonio says an adult beverage helps. "... you have a couple cerveza or a little bit of wine or some water, mostly water, but I enjoy it."
After working in the fields, the watery eyes and tingling hands, Felicia says comes the payoff. "He’ll right away start putting garlic and some tomatoes and then he’ll put it in a tortilla and some cheese, and you eat it right there and it is so good!”
"And it's really cool to be here and still do it with my dad and to see the kids do it too," Felicia states. Antonio says it's all about food and family, that the chilies are more than just part of a meal, the whole ritual helps nourish his soul. "Now I got another generation with my grandkids and they know how to pick them, they know how to stack so they’re just perfect, like their grandpa and their grandma used to do," Antonio says. "Without them I don’t think I would have anything worth living for because they are my inspiration, they are my strength.”
Antonio says his 'go to' dish when the chili is ready is pork chili verde, of course. He adds that he's got a couple secret ingredients he adds to make his version but it all comes down to those fresh roasted chilies.
