Chile & Frijoles Festival: Family chile business spans 80 years

Saturday is the biggest night for the Chile & Frijoles festival in Pueblo. An estimated 100,000 people attend the festival every year.

Farmers prepare all year long for the three-day festival. But for the Cordo family, growing peppers has been an eight-decade endeavor.

“My grandpa started it about 80 years ago. My dad and brothers worked with him and we all help,” said Shelley Cordo, with Cordo Produce.

Eighty years later, they’re still working as a family- teaching their kids the same lessons they, too, once learned at the festival.

“They learn so much. They learn a lot of people skills they learn how to talk to newborns to elderly and they learn math,” Cordo said.

They also learn about the variety of chile the entire festival offers.

“We have everything from really mild, to the extra hot Pueblo and dynamite,” said Kasey Hunt, manager of Di Tomaso Farms.

Farmers typically put four bushels into the roasters and it takes seven minutes to cook a batch.

“We throw it in there, wash it off. Then turn it on till they turn black and wash it and that’s it,” Hunt said.

Last year, farmers sold as much as $50,000 worth of peppers.

It’s the taste and tradition that has people coming back.

“The food is excellent and the community of people everyone is friendly and safe,” said Wynn Wright, festival-goer.

Members of the Cordo family, hope their roots in Pueblo continue to grow.

“It’s a tradition we got all our friends and family involved in it,” Cordo said.

The festival, now in its 21st year, runs through Sunday.