Circle C is the specialty potato brand of Easy Growing and Balin Farms, a fifth-generation family operation in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon. We grow fingerling potatoes and small round potatoes for chefs, food service buyers, produce distributors, and specialty produce customers who need a consistent product they can build a menu around. The people who answer the phone are the same people who check the fields. Our customers have stayed with us for decades because the potato that arrives in January looks and cooks like the one that arrived in September.
Our fields sit on high organic-matter soil that is uncommon in potato country, and we farm it to keep it that way, utilizing conservation crop rotations, cover crops, nutrient management, and reduced and no-till practices. Potatoes come out of the field into modern storage and sorting facilities, so we can grade to your spec and supply fingerlings through the full storage season. Whether you're a distributor sourcing wholesale specialty potatoes for a regional program or a chef ordering direct from an Oregon grower, you're buying from the family that grew it.
Fields cycle through crops with different root depths and nutrient needs, which breaks the pest and disease cycles that build up under a single crop and lets each rotation return what the last one used. Over time that adds organic matter, improves nutrient efficiency, and produces a more reliable yield.
Crop residue stays on the surface, and the soil is disturbed only at planting. Leaving the ground intact protects it from erosion, preserves the structure that lets water move into the soil, and builds organic matter over time. It also keeps soil life undisturbed and cuts the fuel and labor of working a field multiple times.
Between cash crops, fields are planted rather than left bare so living roots stay in the soil year-round. Those roots hold the ground in place, keep nutrients from leaching away, and crowd out weeds. As the cover breaks down it adds organic matter and improves water infiltration, so the field is in better shape when potatoes go back in.
Tillage is limited to what a specialty potato crop actually requires, while protective residue is kept on the surface between passes. That controls erosion, conserves soil moisture through the growing season, and maintains the structure that high organic-matter ground depends on. It uses less fuel and labor than conventional tillage and still leaves room to work the ground when the crop calls for it.
Fertilizer decisions start with a soil test and a realistic yield goal for each field, not a standard program applied everywhere. Applications are matched to what the crop can use, at the rate and timing it can use it, which improves nutrient efficiency and holds input costs down. It also keeps unused nutrients out of the air and water, protecting water quality and long-term soil health.