The Farm
Circle h Farm is a family-operated organic farm located on Lost Creek, near Dexter, in the Southern
Willamette Valley. Run by a brother and sister team, the Circle h name comes from our great-grandparents who
owned the land the farm is on today. They used a circle h brand on their cattle. We are privileged to be one of the
passing generations to work this beautiful land. Our philosophy is to treat the land well, and it will continue
providing for the generations to come.
We are certified organic because we want to give the land the respect it deserves. Synthesized additives don't
have a place in the natural beauty of vibrant life. We sell our products locally. We drive to Eugene, Oregon for
weekly markets, but love selling to community members that live even closer than Eugene.
Willamette Valley. Run by a brother and sister team, the Circle h name comes from our great-grandparents who
owned the land the farm is on today. They used a circle h brand on their cattle. We are privileged to be one of the
passing generations to work this beautiful land. Our philosophy is to treat the land well, and it will continue
providing for the generations to come.
We are certified organic because we want to give the land the respect it deserves. Synthesized additives don't
have a place in the natural beauty of vibrant life. We sell our products locally. We drive to Eugene, Oregon for
weekly markets, but love selling to community members that live even closer than Eugene.
 |  |  |  |  |
Our Carbon Footprint
 | Circle h Farm operates off the | |
| electric grid! (With the exception of the "office.") Our irrigation system uses solar panels to pump water to a tank at the high point of the farm. From there it is distributed by gravity to the fields. |
| We use an earthen root cellar to | |
| keep produce cool after it is harvested - no electricity needed! |
| Most of our CSA customers live | |
| within 3 miles of the farm. Many even bike or walk to pick up their produce. |
| We use a thermsyphon to heat the | |
| bench under our germinating seeds and young seedlings. This means no electricity needed to circulate the warm water that keeps our starts safe from spring frosts. |
We must not use the world as though we created it ourselves.
Wendell Berry, "The Gift of Good Land"
Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.
commonly attributed to Chief Seattle
Our Strategies for Organic Production
Organic certification ensures a healthy growing process - one
that considers the whole growing system. An organic fruit or
vegetable could be raised in a lab if certification only ensured
the product tissue passes certain tests of what it does or does
not contain. Instead, organic farms have more of an ecosystem
approach, utilizing healthy soil, water and air, plus native
plants and animals to maximize their edible plant production.
Being certified organic means rotating crops to ensure healthy
soil and help keep pests in balance. It also means using well
composted manures to ensure harmful bacteria are not
contaminating the fields. Organic farms are also required to
buy organic seed, which supports other organic farms. (Read
more at Oregon Tilth's website.) Small farms especially utilize
these practices and have very diverse crops. Local farm
practices are inspected by you, the consumer, ensuring the
quality you want.
Nutrient management and soil building are the most
important tasks on an organic farm. We grow good dirt first, so
we can grow good vegetables. Good soil has organic material,
microbes, air space and balanced nutrition. Adding compost
and manure is important, and we do as much of this as we can
in the winter months. But most important is growing a healthy
cover crop that creates organic material on site (we don't have
to haul it from the neighborhood barns). Deep roots bring up
micronutrients, break up heavy soils, and add organic material
to feed the microbes. The microbes in turn play an important
role in feeding the next season's plants.
Organic pest control often involves trying to focus on the good
side of damaging creatures. Voles do some of the farm's worst
damage, along with cucumber beetles and flea beetles. The
best protection from vole destruction is to plant more than we
need and offer the critters their share for helping turn the soil,
mix nutrients, and decompose organic material. We manage
native plants around our fields to encourage native beneficial
insects and birds that prey on the insects that damage our
crops. This buffer space is also habitat for native pollinators.
Most hungry flying insects and larvae can be deterred with
floating row covers. If this lightweight cloth is carefully sealed
by burying it all around the edge of the row, young plants are
safe from the bugs until they are growing vigorously enough to
be uncovered and fend for themselves.
Organic certification ensures a healthy growing process - one
that considers the whole growing system. An organic fruit or
vegetable could be raised in a lab if certification only ensured
the product tissue passes certain tests of what it does or does
not contain. Instead, organic farms have more of an ecosystem
approach, utilizing healthy soil, water and air, plus native
plants and animals to maximize their edible plant production.
Being certified organic means rotating crops to ensure healthy
soil and help keep pests in balance. It also means using well
composted manures to ensure harmful bacteria are not
contaminating the fields. Organic farms are also required to
buy organic seed, which supports other organic farms. (Read
more at Oregon Tilth's website.) Small farms especially utilize
these practices and have very diverse crops. Local farm
practices are inspected by you, the consumer, ensuring the
quality you want.
Nutrient management and soil building are the most
important tasks on an organic farm. We grow good dirt first, so
we can grow good vegetables. Good soil has organic material,
microbes, air space and balanced nutrition. Adding compost
and manure is important, and we do as much of this as we can
in the winter months. But most important is growing a healthy
cover crop that creates organic material on site (we don't have
to haul it from the neighborhood barns). Deep roots bring up
micronutrients, break up heavy soils, and add organic material
to feed the microbes. The microbes in turn play an important
role in feeding the next season's plants.
Organic pest control often involves trying to focus on the good
side of damaging creatures. Voles do some of the farm's worst
damage, along with cucumber beetles and flea beetles. The
best protection from vole destruction is to plant more than we
need and offer the critters their share for helping turn the soil,
mix nutrients, and decompose organic material. We manage
native plants around our fields to encourage native beneficial
insects and birds that prey on the insects that damage our
crops. This buffer space is also habitat for native pollinators.
Most hungry flying insects and larvae can be deterred with
floating row covers. If this lightweight cloth is carefully sealed
by burying it all around the edge of the row, young plants are
safe from the bugs until they are growing vigorously enough to
be uncovered and fend for themselves.
| love the earth and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and the crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god....go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families.....re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem - Walt Whitman |