Why I Launched My Business in Southern Idaho

For this innovative entrepreneur, it was all about tapping into the region’s vast resources.

By Amy Antonation on January 12, 2024

Courtesy of Michelle Huff

Michelle Huff landed in Idaho 20 years ago when she married her husband, a fourth-generation farmer from Minidoka County. After years working in the produce industry, she took advantage of resources in what she calls the “food processing mecca” of Southern Idaho to launch Bare Beans Co. 

The business in Southern Idaho cooks up black, navy, red, pinto and garbanzo beans and packages them in refrigerated pouches. The result, says the Bare Beans website, is a product that’s ready to use without the mushiness of canned beans, and a package that yields more product by foregoing aquafaba (aka the starchy bean liquid home cooks often drain off). 

Here’s how Huff got started in Rupert and what she has to say about doing business in Southern Idaho. 

How did you come to start Bare Beans? 
When I first got to Idaho, I started working for a produce broker … I was at these fresh produce shows, and I kept hearing the term “value-added.” I thought, “What could I add value to?” and the main thing was beans. If you don’t have the time to make them – they’re time consuming – you’re stuck with canned beans, which I hate. 

I went to Tom Gillette at Streamline Precision in Burley with this idea. He’d been working on something a little similar on fresh beans, and it got shelved. (It was more for the fresh fava beans, but I came to him with the dried bean concept.) We worked on the concept to get it from what I imagined to the shelf. He became a partner in Bare Beans; he’s the brains behind the science. 

Did you take advantage of any city or county incentives or development programs when you were launching? 
We worked with the City of Rupert to obtain a grant from the State of Idaho to get infrastructure (water and sewer) to a building we built. … It was brand new for me; I followed the lead of the city. They did a phenomenal job. I highly recommend starting a business in Rupert. They saw what I was doing, went to bat for us and helped us every step of the way. 

How has Bare Beans grown? 
The first three years were totally research and development. We started selling a little bit of product in 2020, but COVID happened. We were back up in 2021 and have been gaining traction ever since. Our biggest customer is Sysco; we ship nationwide and are starting in Canada. For retail, we are with Associated Food Stores in Ogden, Utah, Ridley’s, Swensen’s and Stokes. We recently got picked up by Albertsons and are in the Boise market. … We’re also in Fresh Thyme in the Midwest. 

How would you describe the small-business scene in Southern Idaho? 
There’s a lot of small businesses and growth, especially if entrepreneurs can service the ag and food businesses that are the heartbeat of the region. There’s monster food processing in the area, and all these farmers grow for those facilities. It’s a really innovative place to be.