Passion for Quality
More than just nice words
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It takes a tremendous amount of time and care to produce a great product, farming is no different. In fact, we like to say dedication and hard work started on the farm.
Our Passion for Quality comes from our parents, who taught us what it takes to produce a great product. For Chile, it takes: 1) good soil, 2) good land management, 3) good farm location, 4) good seed, 5) good climate, 6) good farming skills, and 7) grace from God.
Seco Spice has grown successfully over the years because it respects the time and care our farmers put into their land that produces the quality Seco Spice is known for. The result, a better product year after year for your family and ours.
Quality Foundation
Our chile just tastes better
As a century old farming family, we like to think we know why our New Mexico Chile tastes better than any other chile grown in the USA or across the world. We firmly believe that chile grown in New Mexico tastes better in much the same way that the French wine regions believe they make the finest wines, as does California's Napa Valley. We all agree. Our products are the best because of our heritage, our water, our air, and our local soil.
New Mexico, and specifically the Hatch Valley area, has the perfect climate for growing chile. Our Rio Grande River provides us with quality water, and our soil is enriched by the minerals that travel with the river. When you combine these elements with great quality air, a chile product is produced with a flavor that can't be found anywhere else in the world.
You can find chile in lots of different states and countries, but there is only one place you can find the finest chile in the world. New Mexico and the Hatch Valley region.
The Science of Taste
"The sense of taste is a sensory system like the eye," says Ilene Bernstein, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington. "The tongue is sensitive to different tastes -- sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. Taste as a signals on the tongue."
While it sounds simple, taste involves so much more than these four simple categories that we learned about in grade school. From genes, to environment, to a fifth taste referred to as umami, experts explain to WebMD the science behind taste.
Nature and Nurture
Taste is a product of more than just buds on your tongue. It's a combination of how a food smells, looks, and sounds. When we eat celery, it has to crunch. When we drink coffee, we expect a certain aroma. And of course, how a person perceives taste also has to do with nature and nurture.
"Taste is a product of our genes and our environment," says Leslie J. Stein, PhD, from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.
Quality Ingredients
What goes in, must come out
Quality products of any kind share one thing in common: Quality ingredients.
At Seco Spice and Ogaz Farms, we carefully select the best seeds from which to plant, we select the best farm fields to plant into and we carefully select the farmers who will manage the fields and harvest our crops.
Being a successful farmer requires careful attention in every area of farming and processing. Our family and company depends on our strict attention to every step in the farming experience in order to earn our customers business and your trust in our products.
Quality of Care
Farming with Care
Seco Spice has high standards of care for farming and processing our products.
We maintain the highest standards that enable our products to earn certificates for our Organic and Kosher products. Our facility is certified to international industry standards for food safety (SQF Level 2).
Click Here to Learn More about our SQF Level 2 Certification
Each planting season and many unannounced times throughout the year, we routinely are inspected by agencies ranging from the government to religious orders to insure that our products meet their standards. And, each season we do the same for our farmers, routinely visiting the fields and tasting the product to insure our products meet your standards in the grocery store and restaurants where you purchase and use our products.
Farms and their Farmers
Seco Spice is blessed by having decades long relationships with some of the very best farmers in New Mexico and the Hatch Valley region.
The selection of our farmers and their fields is at the core of our business. Our farmers are the ones who provide the management of the field and crop through to harvesting. Without their commitment to our standards, it would be very difficult to maintain this high level of quality which your family and our customers demand.
Quality farmers and the long standing relationship we have with them are vital to our success. Our respect for them and their fields contributes to the success of Seco Spice.
