Circle's Pecans & Country Store

From planting trees to inspecting harvested pecans, the Circle family proves patience and perseverance matter. The trees at Circle’s Pecans in McCune have been lovingly tended by the Circle family for nearly three decades. With attention to detail, creative ideas and special care, what started as a simple pecan orchard has grown into a full-fledged family business. In the early 1990s, Thomas E. Circle bought an existing pecan orchard. The previous owners had allowed the orchard to become overgrown with brush, so Thomas cleaned it up. He noticed the trees were producing well, so he harvested a season’s worth of pecans. Thomas opened his first pecan store on Kansas Highway 400 East in 1994 and named it Circle’s Pecans & Country Store. The Circle family continued to harvest pecans in the fall. Eventually, Thomas asked his wife, Linda, to make pecan pies to sell. Linda began baking them in her kitchen and that part of the business grew and grew, even outside of the standard pecan pie season of November and December. A GOOD KIND OF OVERGROWTHThe Circle’s son, Tom, says it didn’t take long to outgrow the original building as the family added a kitchen, sales room and retail store to the pecan store. Thanks to the growth of the business, the family built another building, double the size of the original. Today’s store features a bakery and fudgery with fruit and cream pies, cookies, brownies and a deli. The business name grew too, to Circle’s Pecan & Country Store, and can be found at 2499 U.S. Highway 400 in McCune. The deli has grown more popular, with Tom’s family creating their own special line of sandwiches, as well as other recipes for special occasions. Thomas and Tom have even smoked ribs and chicken for their patrons. “Everything we make to sell is homemade and old-fashioned,” Tom says. “We always make our fudge by hand on the stove, not from a machine. A year ago, I started making homemade ice cream, too.” When the pecan operation took more time than he had in the day, Thomas made a business decision to rent out his farm ground and go into the pecan business full time. The goal was to work toward retirement, he told his family. “Mom always shook her head at Dad, thinking this was supposed to be an easy retirement program,” Tom says. “She always worked outside the home; he was a farmer. The pecan operation was supposed to be an easy retirement gig, but it wasn’t. Both Mom and Dad still came in to work once a week and Mom worked in the kitchen on Thursdays.” Thomas and Linda finally retired two years ago, and Tom now owns and manages the business, working with five part-time employees. Most of the trees at Circle’s Pecan Farm were grafted and planted in the 1960s. A pecan tree grows from a nut or seed, and once it sprouts, takes 15 years to produce nuts for harvest. When Thomas bought the orchard, Tom says he and his father planted additional trees in rows using a tree spade. They also focused on improved varieties to ensure good yield and a high-quality nut. The Circles used their farming genius to improve the pecan industry. Edmund Circle, Tom’s grandfather, changed the industry in the early 1990s when he invented the Circle Pecan Weevil Trap. The invention catches the disastrous weevil and Tom says it’s the only trap recommended to be used in the pecan industry. Orchard upkeep is the biggest task on the farm and Tom says they mow the grass beginning in June until late October. To harvest, a shaker is mounted on the back of a large tractor. The shaker vibrates the tree to shake the pecans out and onto the ground. The harvest crew picks up any limbs and debris that fall and a harvester comes behind the shaker to pick up nuts. An air pressure cracker is used to crack the shell in preparation for sale or to continue the process of completely shelling the pecan from the shell. The Circles supervise and inspect every process along the way from start to finish. “Everything is brought in by the trailer load from the