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CapitalPress.com
Friday, April 9, 2021
Melcher family: Hazelnut business expands
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
ST. PAUL, Ore. — Ken and
June Melcher came to Oregon from
Nebraska in 1957 with the express
aim of farming hazelnuts.
They found a 100-acre farm in St.
Paul, Ore., that included an estab-
lished 40-acre hazelnut orchard.
They also grew several types of ber-
ries and raised livestock.
By 1971, Ken had built his own
nut-cleaning and -drying facility
and increased his hazelnut footprint
to 180 acres. At Ken’s sudden death
in 1984, his son, Dennis, took over
the operation, continuing his father’s
work, and hazelnuts now grow on
500 acres.
In 2000, Dennis and his wife, Syl-
via, ventured into producing pack-
aged, ready-to-eat hazelnuts, naming
the business Ken & June’s Hazelnuts
after his parents.
“I still farm hazelnuts as well as
three acres of peaches for the sum-
mer season,” Dennis Melcher said.
Ken & June’s Hazelnuts
Ken & June’s Hazelnuts is run by the Melcher family of St. Paul, Ore.
Dennis Melcher is in front and, left to right, are Jamie, Julie, Sylvia
and Jennifer. The third-generation farm adds value to their hazel-
nut crop with packaged treats and other products.
“Over time I have downsized the
farming acreage while growing the
Ken & June’s Hazelnuts brand.”
Today a third generation is at the
helm: Dennis and Sylvia’s daugh-
ters Jennifer, Julie and Jamie, each
contributing her own talents to the
enterprise.
Operating out of their licensed
kitchen in St. Paul, they roast 150-
pound batches of hazelnuts every
week. They also package them
roasted, raw or in the shell.
Other nuts are sent to a local choc-
olate factory, where they are coated
in chocolate, marionberry, mint or
sea salt.
“As a small, family-run business,
we are continually looking for ways
to expand our product line,” Julie
Melcher, the sales manager, said.
“In the past 21 years we have added
a variety of other products including
hazelnut butter, trail mix, chopped
and sliced hazelnuts and several gift
packs.”
They now sell local honey and
fruit jams under their label and will
soon add hazelnut oil and hazelnut
meal to their off erings.
Last year, the family brought
fresh espresso and pastries to their
newly remodeled farm store.
“We are actively looking for
opportunities to grow our business,
whether through retail distribution or
direct sales,” Julie said. “We recently
updated our website, which has con-
tributed to a large increase in online
traffi c and sales and we are seeing an
increase in traffi c fl ow at our farm
store with our recent additions and
longer open hours.
“We have made an initiative to
have a more active presence online
via social media and our Google
business account,” she said.
While some worry that the boom
in U.S. hazelnut planting — upwards
of 80,000 acres in the past 10 years
— will hurt pricing for the farmer,
Dennis says the opposite is true.
“We will have more of a supply to
off er on a world level,” he said. “Ten
years ago, the U.S. grew 2% to 3% of
the world supply of hazelnuts. With
the additional acreage coming into
production, our market share could
grow to 5% to 7%.
“With the increased marketing of
hazelnuts and health benefi t infor-
mation getting to the general public,
more Americans than ever are learn-
ing about and using them in their
diets,” he said. “The future of hazel-
nuts looks very bright.”
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