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"We had no intention of ever actually
farming," says SunRain business manager
Aron Derbidge. "But as we went farther
and farther down the road, we realized we
needed to have involvement with second-
step seed growers. We had to have our own
seed operation."
Once the realization set in that developing
a market for their varieties would require
actually being in the seed-growing business,
SunRain management set to work looking
for a suitable location for a seed farm. They
looked at farm ground everywhere from
northern Idaho to the Columbia Basin,
Montana and even southern Utah. It took
about two years, but as fortune would have
it, an affordable piece of ground became
available in Driggs, Idaho, about 75 miles
northeast of SunRain's offices, tissue
culture lab and greenhouses. The company
purchased about 1,600 acres and began
growing their own seed. About 400 acres of
SunRain lab technicians meticulously care for tissue culture in
the earliest stages of the company's seed potato production
