A legacy post from 2011: A Postcard from Yucatan Still in Merida with my friends and business partners, Yunuen and Gabriel of Xoxoc, we took a side trip with our friends Delfina and Elidae from Semilla de Dioses. They took us to the small village of Chaksikin. It was small but charming with all kinds of housing from wood huts to McMansions, of a sort. The main chiles of the growers here are the lucrative habaneros and a chile called Chile Verde, which is mostly used dried. This co-op has about 11 members. Among themselves they spoke Mayan. We met with the men for quite a long time. They are very slow to warm up to strangers and I think having Elidae and Delfina with us helped. In fact, I know it did. I'm not sure where all this will lead but it does seem like chiles will really be our next big project. With increasing production in China and decreasing farmers in Mexico, unable to compete, it seems like we need to start importing more of the dried chiles that make Mexican food so great. The problem is that the U.S. government has really strict rules on importing chiles and it's not going to be easy. And yet here I stand with two of my best friends in the world, in a chile field, and I feel completely at home. It makes too much sense not to pursue this!