Cleda and Jim Hawman began The Truck Farm in 1996 with a small farm West of Las Cruces, in the fertile Mesilla Valley of Southern New Mexico, a little ways down the Rio Grande from the famous Hatch Chile fields. Jim experimented with numerous specialty crops, finally settling on blackberries. This distinguished the farm from others in the area, and resulted in success, which led to the purchase of a local gift shop in 1998 selling fruit based products, including pies, cobblers, jams and jellies.
In May of 1999, The Truck Farm acquired the Tia Rita line of chile-based, easily prepared dishes and gourmet spices. Later that year, we purchased the Desert Farms line of gourmet jellies, marmalades, condiments, and honey.This brought us closer to our burgeoning goal of becoming a full time food processor.
In 2000, a surplus of blackberries led Cleda to demand Jim to “Do something with these $#$#&^ blackberries”. This led to the development of our award-winning Besito Caliente sauce, now our most popular product. Besito Caliente has won awards at Wine Festivals and in 2006 took a second place out of over 900 entries at the America’s Best Food Show in Anaheim, California.
2002 brought about further change for us, as we finally consolidated our production under one roof, with an adjoining retail store. The move saved us from the constant cross town traveling from farm to facility to facility, and possibly our sanity as well.
Six years later, in the fall of 2008, we added Cannon’s Sweet Hots to our family of products. A successful business for over 20 years, beginning on John Cannon’s kitchen stove in 1977. Cannon’s Sweet Hots began winning awards in 1994 when Sweet Hots was voted the “Most Unusual Product” at the National Fiery Foods Show. In 1995, Sweet Hots Hot and Sweet Hots Jalapeno took two firsts in Food Distribution Magazine’s Salsa Shootout and Red Hots took First Place Pepper Relishes in Fancy Food Magazine’s Hot & Spicy contest.
We are committed to the production of quality specialty food products. Our prize-winning green chile products are made from New Mexico green chile with our famous Flame Roasted flavor. All products have a 24 month shelf life and will keep 8-12 weeks when refrigerated after opening.
Since our humble beginning, we have expanded to sell over 60 different products and gift baskets for all occasions. Our products are carried in specialty stores throughout the United States, and we have shipped everywhere, from Australia to Germany. Our customers are our best promoters, carrying our products across the country and around the world.
WELCOME to the WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE TRUCK FARM!
