RUPERT, Idaho — Magic Valley farmers and food producers are always innovating, making the region a “Mecca” for food production. Bare Beans in Rupert is one company that is bringing a fresh approach to a classic food staple

• Bare Beans produces cooked, ready-to-eat beans farmed in the Magic Valley.
• Unlike canned beans, Bare Beans have no liquid, preservatives, or additives.

(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

Business is booming at Bare Beans in Rupert

“We go through about five of these a day,” Huff said.

Beans have been grown in Idaho as long as there’s been agriculture. And Huff’s husband has farmed them most of his life.

Huff founded Bare Beans in 2018, after looking for a product she could produce using her family’s agricultural commodities

“We simulate the whole scratch homemade process. We do a batch-made kettle-cooked bean that has a great quality, great taste, great smell, but we don’t have all the icky stuff that’s in a can,” Huff said.

The project was no overnight matter.

“Michelle has been in the food industry for like 20 years or so, and we keep seeing this term ‘value-added,’” said Bare Beans marketing director Beth Cofer. “And so when she knew there was something that her husband was already growing that she could revalue back to she thought of this and started talking about it and worked on it until she was able to perfect it into what it is today.”

After the research and development had been sorted out, they started product testing.

“We kind of did a little grassroots marketing and brought to school districts in the area and we just gave the beans away,” Huff said. “And we got some great feedback and we were like ‘Okay, we’re onto something here.’”

The process is just like you’d make beans from scratch at home — they soak beans in batches to rehydrate them, then cook them.

“After they’re done getting cooked, they get all the way out up here to the shakers up there,” Huff said. “They get pumped up there onto our shaker, and then they come down here and get packaged into our packaging.”

The beans are an ingredient in many products, and they distribute nationwide. And they’re revamping their retail product, so you should be seeing Bare Beans in your grocer’s aisles by late 2025.

“We’re just trying to get back to our the original way of rehydrating them all night, open batch kettle cooking, and getting back to the quality of good food,” Huff said.

The Idaho Transportation Department closed State Highway 21 from Idaho City to Lowman on Thursday afternoon due to high avalanche risk.

ITD says that the current weather pattern is likely to trigger avalanches in this section of the highway. Motorists needing to use the roadway after Thursday afternoon will have to use an alternate route, such as State Highway 75.

There are nearly 70 avalanche paths in this 11-mile stretch of SH-21, according to ITD, and avalanches are often triggered without warning, so there is no parking or stopping within this section of the road throughout the winter.

REXBURG — Madison County is now home to a lacrosse club that’s preparing to start its inaugural season in 2025.

The Rexburg Crusaders Lacrosse Club was founded in November 2024. Head coach and club president Nick Browneller said the club was created after his son, a freshman at Madison High School, wrote a paper for his speech and debate class about why lacrosse should be a sanctioned sport in southeast Idaho schools.

“He presented it before some teachers and I think the athletic department, then came home and asked if he found a bunch of kids who would be willing to play if I would come out of retirement and coach and I said, ‘Sure,’” Browneller recalled.

Browneller said starting this club is something they’ve tried to do in Rexburg before, but there wasn’t enough people interested until now. He said the sport is growing and noted there are already teams across southeast Idaho in places such as Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Ammon, the Teton Valley and Twin Falls.

“(My son) wound up finding a bunch of kids and within a couple weeks, we had 23 kids sign-up and register to play,” Browneller said.

The team is a junior varsity team made up of students from seventh to 10 grade. Only four kids on Browneller’s team have ever played lacrosse before.

He recognizes there’s a learning curve for his team, especially as they get ready for a season where they’ll face teams that have been around for a while.

“I tell the kids whether you know the sport or not, you’re making history by putting a team in Rexburg, so all I ever ask of them is they show up ready to have fun, work hard and know we’re not judging against what other teams have done,” Browneller stated. “We’re judging on where Rexburg wants to go with this team, and make a mark on the map for this part of southeast Idaho when it comes to lacrosse.”

Browneller has more than 30 years of experience playing and coaching lacrosse. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, which he said was one of the first states to have lacrosse.

“It’s an indigenous sport,” he said. “I grew up as if it was Texas football — you play it. For us, it was the main sport.”

Browneller played all through school growing up and when he was a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho, he started a lacrosse club and travel team. Browneller went on to coach Idaho Falls Lacrosse (2012-2017) and was a coach at Washington State University (2017-2020).

He then moved back to Idaho and worked with Idaho Falls Lacrosse for about a year before coaching Pocatello Lacrosse, where he helped that team get to the championship game.

“I was going to take some time off until my son put all this together, so here I am back in the fray with a community that’s really been nothing but supportive (and) parents who have been looking for years to have a lacrosse club and someone to spearhead it,” he said.

The season runs from March through May. Although it’s a community club, Browneller said the team works with Madison High School. The school has given the team time in the fieldhouse and is going to give them a field to use for their home games.

The Rexburg Crusaders will play against Pocatello, Ammon, Teton Valley, Idaho Falls and Jackson during its upcoming season.

Browneller said they are wanting to roll out youth programs in the summer. For more information on the club and what it has to offer, visit its Facebook page.