Our first morning in Santa Fe was a Saturday so we made a beeline to the Santa Fe Farmers Market. It operates all year long in the Railyard (railyardsantafe.com), an emerging redeveloped district south of the old city center. Several art galleries, cafes, and breweries have opened in the Railyard and it’s home to a weekend “world market” as well as a market of artists and artisans. It’s also the northern terminus of the New Mexico Rail Runner commuter rail service between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

But we were after food to cook in our casita kitchen. Vendors set up their tables in the large warehouse building adjoining the train tracks. In the summer, the market spills out onto the plaza around the building. But even in the off season, growers with greenhouses bring a surprising range of fresh produce: salad greens and even tomatoes. Many sell their dried products like posole and chicos.

Posole is dried corn that has been husked by soaking in lime. It’s the same process that’s used to make hominy or to prepare corn for grinding into the flour for tortillas and tamales. In New Mexico, posole is usually cooked into a stew with pork and red chile. Chicos are toasted dried sweet corn kernels that are unusually sweet and intensely corn-flavored when rehydrated. They, too, are usually cooked in a stew, but often with green chile.

Bakers abound, so there’s certainly no shortage of fresh breads and cookies. Many of them go the extra step and make ready-to-heat dishes, including green chile quiche, green chile frittata, green chile chicken pot pie, and green chile chicken casserole. That last is green chile sauce layered with stewed chicken and tortillas, i.e., a kind of deconstructed green chile chicken enchilada.

Inspired by the bakers’ offerings, we bought some frozen mixed red and green chile to use at home at our casita. Frozen chile lacked the drama of the August harvest season, when vendors roast green chile peppers at the market. But that little package preserved a taste of those glory days.