Behind the Beans at Bush Brothers & Company
A small farming community in East Tennessee, Chestnut Hill, is home to one of the state’s most iconic businesses – Bush’s Baked Beans. It all started in 1897, when local farmer A.J. Bush founded a general store and, later, a tomato cannery. Bush Brothers & Company grew from one generation of the family to the next, developing its signature baked beans along the way. Eventually, Bush’s Best Baked Beans became a nationally known brand with a popular canine spokesman, Duke the dog.
More than a century later, the Bush family still oversees the company. “We’re in our third, fourth and fifth generations of ownership,” says Max Fultz, manager of Bush’s Visitor Center.
While Bush Brothers used to can tomatoes and other vegetables, their focus has narrowed to beans and hominy, consistent top sellers. “The beans come in from North Dakota and Michigan,” Fultz says. They are cooked, seasoned and packed on-site at Chestnut Hill and in Bush’s second manufacturing plant in Augusta, Wisconsin. “The Augusta facility does the same operations as Chestnut Hill,” Fultz says. “It’s smaller in size and scope, but they produce everything up there except Bush’s Grillin’ Beans.”
If You Go...
Location: 3901 U.S. 411, Dandridge, TN 37725
Store Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday Museum Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday Café Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday
Phone: (865) 509-3077
bushbeans.com/en_US/visitors-center
While Bush Brothers is best known for its baked beans, the company also runs a successful side hustle – a beef cattle farm. Using wastewater from the bean plant to water the pastures, Bush Brothers raises a herd of grass-fed cattle on about 2,000 acres in Chestnut Hill and 1,000 acres in neighboring Cocke County. Making use of bean waste and processed water from the manufacturing plant, the cattle farm creates an environmentally sustainable and profitable arm of the business.
In 2010, Bush’s Visitor Center opened in Chestnut Hill, partially in response to customer demand. “We’re located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, so we were having people stop in every day asking if we did plant tours, or if they could buy products on-site,” Fultz says. “The Visitor Center is an opportunity to meet our consumers face to face and thank them for choosing our products, but also get their feedback.”
Located inside a remodeled version of the original A.J. Bush & Company General Store, the center features a museum, café and gift shop. Inside the Bush’s Story Museum, guests can trace the history of the company, learn how the beans are manufactured and shipped today, get a peek inside Duke’s doghouse, and enjoy a number of interactive exhibits. “We can’t take the public inside the plant since we are a food processing facility,” Fultz explains, “but inside the museum, we have a film that shows the process.”
The gift shop offers a variety of Southern-themed gifts, old-fashioned candy, Duke and Bush’s souvenirs and, of course, a wide selection of Bush’s Best Beans.
Outside the center, visitors can pose with a vintage A.J. Bush & Company truck and cutouts of ad spokesman Jay Bush and Duke.
The Bush’s Family Café, next door to the museum, specializes in home-cooked Southern fare. “We have a lot of made-from-scratch food and homemade pies,” Fultz says. “We make as much fresh as we can.” The café’s most popular dishes include daily entrée specials, traditional side dishes like fried okra, turnip greens and baked beans, deli sandwiches, homemade chicken and tuna salads, and a signature dessert – pinto bean pie. “It’s a really old recipe dating back to the 1800s,” Fultz says.
While visiting a couple years ago, I purchased the braided placemats. Would love to have more. Anyway you could send a selection and I could order some?
My son is a big fan of your vegetarian beans, but I am appalled to learn that you have a cattle farm to go along with your bean operation. It is sad to me that so many humans feel the need to exploit non human animals for what we don’t need just so they can make still more profit. Clever humans are so very cruel. Beans are enough to keep us healthy. We don’t need to raise non human animals to die at our convenience.
Where does your Steak And Hamburger come from Lady. Just because you don’t eat it doesn’t mean others don’t. Pure nonsense!!
Please stop with the Vegetarian ” Holier Than Thou” rhetoric. ( I have been in the Medical field for 40 years and Vegetarians often have certain health iss ues, meat eaters do not. Science has proven, vegetarinism does not prolong the human life.)( Eating more fresh raw vegetables and fruits adds increased ensymes, Vit.C, other Vitamins and minerals, but some meat definately does not hurt.)( Our Creator GOD was good to us in our bodies can digest and do well with most foods!)( My family raised Beef, other animals for Market, we loved them and treated them well.)( Yes, animals definitely should not be abused, factory farms are inspected, etc., to make sure of this and other needs!)
Say it ain’t so, Bush Brothers! Cattle “farming” is cruel, unhealthy and definitely not environmentally sustainable. Knowing of your involvement in animal agriculture makes it hard to continue to consume your vegetarian baked beans product.
Please reconsider and “don’t have a cow, man!”
– Scott
Good Grief!!!
Amen
We visited there yesterday and loved it!! It’s right in our on backyard and we definitely plan on going back!! Everyone was so friendly and helpful!! For those complaining about the cattle they do not have that anymore.
I really like your beans, but, there is only one thing wrong with any of them as far as I’m concerned…PACKAGING.
I think the public has become spoiled with most packaging and I, for one, DO NOT HAVE A CAN OPENER.
What planet do you live on???
Keep up the great work Bush Beans. We love you. Just because a “few”. have to post such negative comments doesn’t mean the “majority “ agrees. If you weren’t doing a great job , you wouldn’t be the success you are.
Don’t pay any attention to them. “ Haters gonna Hate Regardless”
We stopped in on our way back to Florida. The museum was wonderful and great knowledge. The store was awesome! Love all there farmhouse items, old time candies, dog items and Sooooo many beans of all sort. The service in all places tbroughout was SO grateful and kind.
Thank you Bush family for sharing your story????????
Thank you fir being USA grown and processed!!!!!
I am from Muskogee, Ok
At on point there was a Bush’s cannery here. My brother worked for them.
That was the only vegetables and beans we used.
Your beans(all) are the best.
Thank you
Hello Bush’s Beans. Love and enjoy your products. Tastes great but isn’t it time to upgrade the packaging into a safer non BPA cans to protect your consumers?
Also have beans in Bush’s beans genetically modified? The label does not say GMO or non GMO.
Hi Jay, you’ll have to contact Bush’s Beans directly for information on their cans. As far as GMOs, the only USDA-approved GMO bean is the soybean, so it’s safe to say these are non GMO, unless they contain any corn product (like corn syrup) that might be. https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be/bioengineered-foods-list
Hope this helps!
We arrived at 3:30pm and 2 of the workers informed me and my party of 5 that we could only get a picture because the museum closes at 4:00. We were on the way back home after visiting Dollywood. I was a little disappointed because I was interested in viewing the museum. Needless to say, we got our picture of the kids and left. Maybe the hours should be adjusted if they are going to turn people away before the designated sign of business hours posted outside.
Side note: There were other people that came in behind us, so the store could have potentially lost money on people buying products.
Good for the Busch family for being environmental sustainable and using products from your plant. Its very difficult to make a living in agriculture these days. We need to farm smarter every day to continue to be a good food source for the world. Really enjoy your products. Keep up the good work.
I know that this comment will not be answered or published – but I’ve got to ask anyway. When your facility kicks into gear, our water pressure in lower Jefferson County Tennessee drops.
We have the same rights to decent well water pressure as you do BEFORE you kick in your system pumps.
Dp you report accurate water usage reports to the county and state?
Hi Timothy,
We’re Tennessee Home & Farm, a quarterly magazine published for Farm Bureau members across the state. You’d have to reach out to Bush’s Beans directly about this question.
Thanks!
Rachel Graf
Associate Editor, TN Home & Farm