Traditional chili ristras

Every year around the end of summer, little stands pop up on local roadsides selling fresh roasted chili peppers. I never indulge, mostly because I have been suffering from severe GERD and was forbidden to eat spicy foods until I had surgery last month! But the smell of roasting chilis is very tempting indeed. If freshly roasted peppers is not your cup of tea, you can always buy them unroasted in these traditional ristras -- that is, strung up in bunches like you see in the photo above. It's a very southwestern thing. (By the way, these are hatch chilis, in case you were curious.) You can find ristras like this all over the American southwest, especially New Mexico, where hatch chilis originated.  Where to buy ristras in Colorado Springs:  at Camino Real in Old Colorado City on the corner of 27th and Colorado, where I took this picture last week.