Corby Kummer on the Space-grown, ISS New Mexican Hatch Chiles

The galaxy’s first space-grown New Mexican hatch chile peppers have been harvested from the International Space Station (ISS).

Award-winning food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio in studio Wednesday to discuss the space-grown chiles, and what these chiles could mean for the future of indoor farming.

NASA employees brought 48 chile seeds aboard a spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for growth on the ISS. This past October —- the end of New Mexico’s hatch chile season — the ISS crew harvested 7 mature hatch chiles. ISS crewmembers celebrated the growth of the peppers by throwing a taco party.

“It's been very good for the mental health and psychology of the people in the space station, no doubt, to tender these plants and smell the leaves and smell the green,” Kummer said.

The hatch chile seeds used in the ISS gardens were NuMex Española Improved, a hatch chile variety known for its early-maturity and medium-heat profile. The seeds were planted in an “oven-sized growth chamber” on the ISS, with NASA and ISS crew controlling lighting, temperature, trimming, and irrigation.

The contained growth of these hatch chiles is big news for the future of indoor farming as well, Kummer notes.

“There are billions of venture capital dollars being put into these indoor farms,” Kummer said. “This is like a very high profile, highly publicized example of growing things [indoors] if you control the humidity and the ultraviolet light.”

Kummer is the executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.