We know how much New Mexicans love their green chile, so it really wasn’t a surprise to see that a New Mexico woman put her money where her mouth was and decided to turn the state food into paper.
“I think for people to wrap around, oh my God, Hatch green chile paper? I mean that’s weird,” Bridget Odien told KRQE.
After moving from California to New Mexico three years ago, Odien joined the rest of the New Mexico residents in becoming obsessed with green chile. No judgment. Even living on the border of New Mexico, it’s hard not to be sucked in as well.
Odien began observing the roasting process and noticed during the process that the chile would begin to shed its skin.
“I would see all the stuff coming off the chile, the skin, and I’m like I wonder what they do with that? And I started asking questions,” Odien told KRQE.
The roasters offered her the chile skin, and what else do you do with such an ingredient but make paper?
The New Mexico resident has since started a small business off the idea called Hatch Green Chile Paper, where she sells her wares – from notebooks to sheets of paper with beautiful prints. Turns out though, it’s not easy to make green chile into paper. It took Orien two years to perfect the process because of the chile’s jelly consistency.
“I kept on, kept on, kept on, and I’m so happy. I’m so excited because it finally worked.”
Amanda Push
