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CapitalPress.com
Friday, April 8, 2022
Bielemeier family: Hazelnut trees a long-term investment
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
MT. ANGEL, Ore. — In
an area where family farms
are commonplace, Aaron
Bielemeier and his family
have broken new ground
— literally.
Aaron and Abby Biele-
meier, with his parents
John and Mary Kay Biele-
meier and a cousin and his
wife, bought 84 acres along
the Pudding River near Mt.
Angel, Ore., in June 2016.
They cleared and leveled
ground and in 2018 planted
50 acres to hazelnut trees
and tall turf fescue grass
seed. The grass, planted
between the rows as a cash
crop while the trees grew,
will come out once the trees
hit their stride.
In the meantime, the fam-
ily also purchased a 31-acre
fi eld in Crabtree, Ore., in
2017, which they subse-
Brenna Wiegand/For the Capital Press
A good day’s work for Mt. Angel, Ore., hazelnut growers Aaron and Abby Bielemeier
and sons Maxon, 7, and Kelvin, 5. They’ve been busy laying out the welcome mat for
birds of prey by erecting raptor perches throughout the young orchards.
quently planted to hazelnuts.
“We look at hazelnuts as a
long-term investment; some-
thing for our kids into the
future,” Aaron Bielemeier
said. “I like being in an agri-
cultural community and we
have family ties here.
“The other part is that
it’s just fun to grow things,”
Bielemeier said. “It’s so nice
to be outside; I could be out
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with the trees all the time.”
Aaron grew up near
Hood River, Ore., where
his father worked in and
around orchards, but hazel-
nut orchards require much
less labor to maintain than
pear orchards, making them
a better fi t for a small crew.
Until several months
ago, Bielemeier had to com-
mute from the coastal city
of Astoria, Ore., to work on
the farm. There he served
as a career fi refi ghter for
16 years until being hired
by the Oregon Department
of Public Safety Standards
and Training in Salem as a
regional fi re trainer. He now
trains fi refi ghters across the
state.
“Our trees are a lit-
tle behind, but we also just
moved from the coast at
the end of August,” he said.
“With my parents, we all had
full-time jobs and owned an
RV park and convenience
store in Astoria, so there was
a lot going on at the coast
and the orchard kind of took
a back seat.”
The Bielemeiers planted
each orchard in four blocks
containing the same varietal
pattern: McDonald, Jeff er-
son, Wepster and Yamhill.
“We would like to poten-
tially harvest variety-spe-
cifi c,” Bielemeier said. “The
market pays by variety price
per pound and, wanting as
many options as possible, we
planted as many varieties as
were available at the time.
“We also fi gured that pol-
lination wouldn’t be an issue
with planting multiple variet-
ies,” he said.
They purchased many
of their trees from Canby’s
Birkemeier Nurseries, which
also planted their orchards.
“Loren
Birkemeier
planted our orchard — three
fi elds, 5,000-plus trees — in
one day,” Bielemeier said. “It
was rather amazing how fast
we had a standing orchard.”
In fact, the whole thing
almost seems like a dream
to Bielemeier who, as a kid
visiting from Hood River,
used to envy his Mt. Angel
cousins who got to grow up
on the farm running farm
machinery.
“I always wanted to get
into farming, and what kid
doesn’t want to be a fi re-
fi ghter?” Bielemeier said. “I
get to play with fi re trucks,
then go out and play with big
tractors and equipment.”
Abby and Aaron Biele-
meier and their boys Maxon,
7, and Kelvin, 5, are excited
about their latest venture
— keeping moles, gophers,
voles and fi eld mice at bay by
making their orchards more
hospitable to raptors.
Repurposing hop poles
from Riverside Hop Farms in
St. Paul, Ore., with a cross-
bar or platform at the top, the
Bielemeiers are sinking them
throughout the orchards to
provide convenient resting
and nesting places for the
local birds of prey already
keeping an eagle eye on the
farm.
“When we’re mowing in
the summer, we’ll have red
tail hawks following us,”
Birkemeier said. “When
we’re doing groundwork,
they’re constantly watching,
and it’s pretty cool when one
swoops in close for a vole.”
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