Preston Mitchell

It’s July 2003. Twelve-year-old Preston sits in front of a blue Dell laptop on a fishing trip in Montana. He Googles “Hatch Green Chile” and finds clunky websites with overpriced chile. He thinks about his grandparents, Judy and Bob Berridge, hauling chile from their farm to loyal customers in Santa Fe. Maybe there’s a way to reach more people, he thinks.

Over the next two evenings, Preston maps out an internet sales plan requiring a $300 investment. He calls his grandfather: “Papo, I want to help you. I have an idea.” Five minutes later, he gets to work. That first year: 2,000 pounds sold. The next year: 20,000.

What started as a backyard business has grown into one of the Hatch Valley’s largest shippers of authentic green chile, reaching customers in all 50 states and beyond. Today the store ships fresh Hatch green chile straight from the family farm during harvest season.

“It’s incredible to think they had the right idea so long ago and were doing the same thing we’re doing now. Agriculture in general is making this movement toward farm-to-table and transparency, knowing where your food comes from. That movement is really bolstering the business model Joseph Franzoy had a long time ago.”

Preston Mitchell, New Mexico Magazine

Preston is a 5th-generation descendant of the Franzoy family, a lineage that runs to the very roots of the Hatch Valley chile industry. His great-great-grandfather Giuseppe Franzoy arrived from Italy in 1917 and became the first commercial chile farmer in Hatch, New Mexico, pioneering what would eventually become one of the most celebrated agricultural traditions in the American Southwest.

His grandmother, Judy Franzoy, carried that torch for decades, roasting and selling Hatch green chile at Cerrillos & Baca in Santa Fe, earning features in Sunset Magazine, Gourmet Magazine, Food Network, and BBC News. The family farm, Berridge Farms, became a beloved institution in New Mexico’s food culture.

Preston’s work with the Hatch Chile Store is the direct continuation of that legacy, taking what Judy and Bob built at the roadside and bringing it to kitchens across the country. Read the full family story →

What began with a $300 investment in 2003 has grown into one of New Mexico’s most recognized food e-commerce brands. The Hatch Chile Store ships fresh, roasted, and frozen Hatch green chile to all 50 states, fulfilling orders from families, restaurants, and chile enthusiasts who can’t get authentic Hatch Valley produce locally.

A major operational milestone came with the acquisition and integration of Amigo’s Mexican Foods, a USDA-inspected food manufacturing facility in Deming, NM, established in 1978. Amigo’s produces tamales, burritos, chimichangas, sauces, and other prepared Mexican foods under the brand name Amigo’s Mexican Foods (also known as Berridge Farms), enabling the store to offer shelf-stable and prepared products alongside its fresh and frozen chile line.

The business operates under the brand names Hatch Chile Store, Berridge Farms, and Amigo’s Mexican Foods, each representing a different facet of the family’s agricultural and culinary heritage.

Running a national e-commerce business from the Hatch Valley isn’t the only thing Preston does. He is a Professor of Accounting at the NMSU College of Business at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he teaches financial accounting and information systems.

Preston holds two professional certifications: the CPA (Certified Public Accountant, State of New Mexico) and the CITP (Certified Information Technology Professional, issued by the AICPA). He has a background working in public accounting at KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, before returning to New Mexico to teach and build the Hatch Chile Store into a national brand.

The combination of operational experience, accounting expertise, and technology credentials shapes how Preston runs the store: data-driven inventory management, rigorous financial controls, and a focus on building systems that scale.

Preston serves as a director of the Hatch Chile Association, the industry body working to establish and protect a certification mark for authentic Hatch Valley-grown chile. The goal: give consumers a reliable way to know they’re purchasing chile actually grown in the Hatch Valley, not mislabeled imposters.

The Certified Hatch program is a direct extension of what Giuseppe Franzoy started in 1917: the belief that provenance matters, that where your chile comes from shapes its flavor, and that the Hatch Valley deserves the same protected designation as Champagne, Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Vidalia onions.

Preston and the Hatch Chile Store have been featured by major publications and outlets covering food, agriculture, and New Mexico entrepreneurship.

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Read Preston’s writing on Hatch chile, New Mexico food culture, and agriculture, or start shopping the products his family has grown for five generations.