Tortillas save family's livelihood: 'We had no money, we didn't know what to do'

NYSSA, Ore., (KBOI) — A couple miles from downtown Nyssa, Oregon, you'll witness plenty of onion and potato farms. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a glimpse of a little red building, which Rodriguez Bakery calls home. Started in 1955, Francisco Rodriguez started the bakery, making and selling Mexican pastries.

"My dad didn't speak a word of English, he had my oldest sister doing the ordering of the ingredients," said Marco Rodriguez, Francisco's son. "I thought, 'how in the world did he do it, through all these obstacles?'"

In 1955, the hardworking head of the business passed away, and his youngest son Marco, and Marco's wife Becky, took over. But around 2008, Marco and his wife found themselves facing an obstacle of their own. Their baked goods became a luxury, after the recession hit.

"The economy was bad... we had no money," Becky Rodriguez said. "Our house was in foreclosure, we didn't know what we were going to do."

Closing shop seemed like the only answer back then, but thinking about how much work their father had put into the bakery, that was not an easy decision to make.

But then came some hope.

Someone called the bakery, and asked to buy tortillas. It wasn't an item the Rodriguez's had ever made, but the couple wasn't going to say no.

"What my dad taught me definitely drove me to just keep moving forward I guess," Marco said. "Did I know it was going to turn out like this? 'No. I had no clue.'"

Today, tortillas are thanked for saving the little, red bakery.

The Rodriguez family thanks tortillas for saving their livelihood.

"I know he'd be happy," Becky said, thinking about her father-in-law. "He'd be really, really happy."

Today, if you walk into almost any grocery store in all of Southern Idaho, you'll find the simple tortillas, with a picture of Francisco Rodriguez on it, and another stamp that says, 'made local.'

"We are now in all the Wincos in Southern Idaho, all the Walmarts, almost all the Albertsons, almost all the independent grocers... we're in all the Ridleys, M&W's, Red Apple, some smaller stores also," Becky said. "And we have distributors helping us... one in Boise, one in Eastern Idaho, and he takes our tortillas all the way into Jackson Hole, Wyoming."

On any given day, Rodriguez Bakery will produce 10,000 to 15,000 tortillas a day.

But what makes their tortillas so special?

Marco and Becky will tell you, it's their from-scratch recipe people love, and the much lower amount of preservatives.

"The smell," Becky said. "If you smell our tortillas, you'll smell a tortilla. If you taste our tortillas, you taste a tortilla. The other tortillas don't have the same smell and taste."

So next time you're in the grocery store, the Rodriguez's urge you to pick up a bag of their tortillas and smell it.

Let that smell take you to Nyssa, Oregon, and the little red building that could, and never gave up.

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