We moved to West Virginia from NM about three years ago. We can buy "fresh" chile in the grocery stores, but they taste like bell peppers, bland and never spicy-hot at all unless you buy jalepenos. After a trip back this summer where we ate wonderful NM chile in Raton, Taos and Albuquerque, when I got home I decided it was time to order some on line. We ordered a 50 lb box right before Labor Day weekend. Your office waited and sent it out after Labor Day and we received it a few days later. The bottom of the box was smashed a bit, and some of the pods were crushed, but the huge majority were fresh and firm. We roasted them on the grill and froze them immediately, and have been enjoying the rich, robust, picante-but-not-scorching flavor since then. Thank you SO MUCH! We will do it again next year, but we will pay just a few dollars more for the fastest delivery... Not because the chile will be fresher but because we believe it will be handled more carefully and arrive in better condition with no crushed pods. We don't want to waste a single one. YAY, Hatch, New Mexico!