Henry “Carl” Musso, the patriarch of the Pueblo County farming family and one of the pioneers of the iconic roasted Pueblo chile, was laying in a Denver hospital room 11 years ago and told he was dying. It was prostate cancer — they caught it late and it metastasized into his femur — and his doctors told him he probably wouldn’t leave that room alive.  

He opened a photo from his son on his cell phone, showing the progress of the onion transplant back at the farm 100 miles south."He said ‘Hey, we’re half done with the onions.’ So, I told the doctor ‘You send me home. I gotta go,’” Musso said. He went back for the onions and continued treatment in Pueblo.