SIX GENERATIONS OF NEW MEXICO CHILE EXCELLENCE COVER, FEATURE PHOTOS AND ARTICLE BY JULIE CARTER ~
THE SICHLER FAMILY OF SNAKE RANCH FARMS PRODUCE PERFECT PEPPERS
For the Sichler family of New Mexico there are six generations of experience built into every harvest season. For more than 100 years, the Sichlers have distinguished themselves as growers of quality green chile with a dedication to “doing it right.” Excellence is a family tradition. The Snake Ranch Farm Store in San Antonio, New Mexico is a testimony to the evolution of those traditions. Standing next to a large table of melons and another full of baskets of green chiles at her back, with a baby on her hip and a two-year-old tugging at her hand, 6th generation family member Erica Sichler Trevino expressed her passion for the farm experience, “I was raised in this life and my husband and I wanted to raise our sons in it, too. We moved back here just for this. This is what it is all about for us.” The Sichler DNA undoubtedly contains farm soil sustaining the family for 146 years of farming in the Rio Grand Valley of New Mexico. From Los Lunas to San Antonio, each branch of a very large family tree has found their niche in producing from the land. The journey from the past to present is a story of family and family traditions. Snake Ranch, LLC, is one branch of the family tree that began in the Middle Rio Grande Valley when the first Sichlers immigrated from Germany in 1868. In 1872, patriarch brothers George and John Sichler purchased farmland near Los Lentes, a small village on the west bank of the Rio Grande near today’s current town of Los Lunas. At first the farm was comprised primarily of
an apple orchard, vineyards and other fruits and vegetables similar to the family farm in Germany. In the early 1900s, Ernest Sichler
Sr. was the first to grow green chile, the product that would become the hallmark of the Sichler name. Ernest Sr. passed this skill to his son Ernie Jr. who operated under the name Ernie Sichler Farms. Urban sprawl was encroaching on the Los Lunas farmland so Ernie found land to the south in the still rich, fertile Rio Grande Valley, the less populated area of Socorro County. His son, Chris Sichler arrived three days after his 1985 high school graduation to take over management of the southern Sichler farm. In the fall of that year, Chris married his high school sweetheart Paula and together they started their own farming operation under the name of Sichler Farm Produce. They quickly gained a reputation for producing some of the best green chile in the state, building a list of faithful clientele for their chile products along with other produce. Ernie Sichler passed away in 1997 but his 4
belief:“if it’s not worth taking the time to do it right, don’t bother doing it all,” was solidly ingrained in his son Chris. The now century-old tradition continues today with Chris and Paula, along with their son Steven and daughter Erica, at the San Antonio farm and their two farm stores (San Antonio and Los Lunas). In 2008, to distinguish themselves from other family operations, Chris and Paula began operating their farm under the name Snake Ranch, LLC. Often the curious are interested in how they came up with the name. When Chris was a young man, he made some farming rows that were rather crooked. His neighbor Maurice Benavidez stopped by and asked him, “Are you starting a Snake Ranch?” The name stuck in Chris’ mind and later become the name for his farming and marketing operation. In 2011, Steven became a business partner in Sichler Farms Produce and in 2013 they rebranded the produce markets in Los Lunas and San Antonio with a new registered trade name - Snake Ranch Farm Stores™ assuring their customers of the superior quality and consistency they had come to expect without the added confusion of different names. At the same time Steven purchased a portion of the Snake Ranch LLC farming operation and began managing alongside his father Chris, qualifying the business in every way as a family-run farm. Today, Chris and Steven manage the farming operations, while Steven also handles all the business end of the Los Lunas store. Paula
