Capital press., April 13, 2018, Page 16, Image 44

16 CapitalPress.com
April 13, 2018
Hazelnuts become a family tradition
ROSEBURG, Ore. — Ha-
zelnuts have become a family
tradition for the Lehnes.
In 1989, Norm and Cinda
Lehne planted 5 acres of ha-
zelnut trees, adding that crop
to their Norm Lehne Garden
& Orchards business in Garden
Valley a few miles northwest
of Roseburg. Since then, the
Lehnes have added 22 acres in
hazelnuts and Norm’s brother,
Ray, has planted nut trees on 35
acres across the road.
More recently, the Lehnes’
grown children have returned
with their families and planted
hazelnut trees on nearby prop-
erties. Son Glen Lehne and his
wife, Wendy, have 5 acres of
hazelnuts and daughter Colleen
Kroeker and her husband, Na-
than, have planted 8 acres in the
past couple of years with plans
to expand their orchard by 10
acres in the near future.
Both Glen and Colleen
served in the U.S. Air Force.
Glen retired in May 2014 after
a 6-month deployment in Af-
ghanistan and a 20-year career.
Colleen served 8 years of active
duty and has been in the Air
Force Reserves since 2004.
Working in the respective
hazelnut orchards has become a
family activity with the young-
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Roseburg, Ore., area hazelnut
grower Norm Lehne shows
off a bag full of Ennis nuts at
his farm. Lehne, his son and
daughter and their spouses
and children all participate in
working in hazelnut orchards
owned by the families.
er third generation — Glen and
Wendy’s teenage daughters,
Ashlynn and Kylie, and Col-
leen and Nathan’s grade school
son Timothy and daughter No-
elle — helping out.
Labor, equipment and ex-
pertise are all shared through-
out the different orchards.
“When we bought proper-
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ty next to the family farm, we
were not intending to reinvent
the wheel,” Colleen said of
planting hazelnuts. “We want-
ed to benefit from the decades
of knowledge my father and my
uncle had gained from having
their own orchards.”
“It’s important for opera-
tions to have more than one
endeavor so you can spread out
the risk if there is a problem
with something,” Glen said of
hazelnuts being added to the
family’s overall farming ap-
proach.
Colleen and Nathan are
working to make their hazel-
nut orchard organic. Nathan is
a founding member of the Or-
ganic Hazelnut Growers Asso-
ciation.
While family members have
planted hazelnut trees, they
have continued to work with
fruits and vegetables, the com-
modities that Norm and Cinda
started their farm with back in
the mid-1970s. Glen explained
the farm now has three divi-
sions: U-pick, farmers’ markets
and hazelnuts.
“Because we have those di-
visions, the farm is able to sup-
port more than Mom and Dad,”
Glen said. “It also supports two
other families and our seasonal
crew.”
He said hazelnuts are a good
crop because they put land to a
productive use, but they aren’t
as maintenance-needy com-
pared to fruits and vegetables.
“If you put too many acres
into vegetables then you can
become too big to remain a fam-
ily operation,” Glen said. “Ha-
zelnuts are good for your extra
acres and is a crop that doesn’t
require a lot of extra hands.”
Norm pointed out hazelnuts
are good for the older generation
because they don’t require a lot
of back-breaking physical work.
“There is a lot of tractor
work in the orchard, and you’re
not having to bend over and hoe
weeds,” he said.
Norm, 69, doesn’t mind let-
ting the next generations tend
to the fruits and vegetables.
And when help is needed with
the hazelnuts, he said he loves
seeing his grandkids in the or-
chard. Ashlynn, 17, Kylie, 15,
Timothy, 11, and Noelle, 10,
have all been involved in dig-
ging holes when the young
trees have been planted,
they’ve painted the tree trunks
white to prevent sunburn and
they’ve helped with pruning,
with spreading fertilizer and
lime in the orchards, and with
moving pipe and irrigating.
Kylie also specializes in mak-
ing cinnamon roasted hazel-
nuts that are sold at the Lehne
fruits and vegetables booth at
farmers’ markets.
Photos by Craig Reed/For the Capital Press
Three generations of the Lehne family are involved in growing
hazelnuts on their farms in Garden Valley, several miles northwest
of Roseburg, Ore. The family members are Norm and Cinda Lehne
standing in the middle of the photo taken in their hazelnut orchard,
their daughter Colleen Kroeker, left, and her husband Nathan and their
children Timothy and Noelle (in the tree), and their son Glen Lehne,
right, with his wife Wendy and their daughters Ashlynn and Kylie.
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For the Capital Press
ONV18-4/102
By CRAIG REED