There is a time of year, maybe around Labor Day, in Santa Fe where the chile harvest is in and on backlots and streetcorners people set up big wire tumblers of chilis and roast them. Usually over propane flames it looks like.
Something like that.
Really want to go one day. Up there with cranberry bogging. Need to find some chile roasting gloves, they are probably just like pig roasting gloves... The food forums are full of arguments about who does the best chile roasting; the guy in the BigLots parking lot or the Santa Fe farmers market -awesome. Can imagine the air all smokey with chile-eye-burning goodness... getting hungry. Have had New Mexican food a few times (meaning in NM, not nouveau-mexican or anything) and it is fantastically greenchilesloppy.
Roast chiles do not equal dried chiles is my understanding, cheat sheet below... Sidenote: at Dave's Pasta in Davis Square they have a bowl of cherry peppers you can grab from on the way out. Perfect for the walk home.
