Within a year, shoppers in Baker Valley, Oregon, will likely be able to buy crispy potato chips grown, sliced, and fried entirely locally. On April 14, the Baker City Council voted 6-0 to sell Jess Blatchford and his wife, Chelsea, a lot in the Elkhorn View Industrial Park for $30,000, where they plan to build a 12,000-square-foot chip-frying plant. A separate washing facility will be built at Blatchford Farms. In early May, Jess will plant 20 acres of specialty chip potatoes — round, smaller, with white skin and flesh — for harvest in early fall. He hopes to have salted and barbecue-flavored chips in three bag sizes on store shelves by winter. “It’s a little bit hard to comprehend at this point,” Blatchford said. “But it is exciting.”
The idea took root after a June 2025 trip to Traverse City, Michigan, as part of a Potatoes USA tour. Blatchford, a six-year board member of the marketing organization, visited the Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. plant and was surprised by its simplicity. “I got to thinking that we could do this,” he said. Unlike Russet Burbanks grown for frozen fries on the farm’s other 620 acres, chip potatoes will be washed unpeeled — the 1.75 mm thin slices make the peel nearly unnoticeable, while adding nutrients. The chips will be fried in canola oil. Several local restaurants have already expressed interest, and the crop should supply about six months of production. Blatchford expects five to six employees to run the fry plant, with current farm staff helping as needed.
