May/June 2024

Hazelnut Hill is a family orchard with a tree-to-table solution

Hazelnut Hill, a 400-acre hazelnut farm and business located in the fertile Willamette Valley north of Eugene, Oregon, has been a passion project of the husband-and-wife team of Ryan and Rachel Henderson for more than 40 years. For decades, Ryan had been working on his nearby family farm, Thistledown, while the couple started their own farm in 1980.

In 2016, the Hendersons added a commercial confectionery. The new roasting equipment took Hazelnut Hill from just trees to making tree-to-table products. This approach provides Hazelnut Hill customers with high- quality, delicious nut based products with a full chain of control that assures source, sustainability and consistency.

Varied offerings

“I love chocolate, always have, so I took a chocolate class on tempering and how to make high-quality chocolate, and I was having so much fun with it, Ryan said we should sell some of it to pay for my hobby,” Rachel said. “The original owners of Hazelnut Hill had retired, so we saw this as an opportunity to expand my chocolate business, using the hazelnuts we would grow. So, the business took off from there.”

Rachel handles things on the recipe side, constantly searching for fresh, mouth watering combinations of hazelnuts and chocolate, while Ryan is working the farming portion of operations.

“We are trying to add new products and new lines, and I keep learning new techniques for chocolate,” Rachel said. “We’re trying to hit more markets and promote the orchard- to-table process.”

Knowing where food comes from is important to many. The Hendersons are very straight forward about all aspects of their business so customers are aware of the whole process.

A challenge for the business is a lot of people say they don’t like hazelnuts, but Rachel believes that’s because they’ve only tried natural hazelnuts, instead of a fresh or roasted hazelnut. “We have some really good varieties coming out of Oregon,” she said. “It’s our state nut. They are super-healthy and I think people are just getting on the bandwagon with that fact.”

What separates Hazelnut Hill from some other hazelnut companies is not a lot of other growers do the farm-to- table approach.

“Once they harvest their hazelnuts, it’s out of sight, out of mind for most of them,” Rachel said. “They go to China or a packing company, but we are a family operation from start to finish and I think that’s what makes us unique. We use our own hazelnuts and touch everything. There’s nothing in here that we haven’t been a part of.”

Rachel’s mom and dad both volunteer at Hazelnut Hill, and six workers handle the orchards.

“Ag is a lot of work; it’s a lifestyle,” Rachel said. “We have a really good crew who  have been with us for 20 years. I feel we are really lucky in that regard.”

Growing and harvesting

On the farming side, Ryan has two sweepers (Flory) going, one to two pickers and some trackers, mowing the orchard before harvest. Aside from those, there’s not a lot of technology involved in the growing process.

“We plant by hand, so there’s not a lot of high-tech about that,” he said. “We try to automate the irrigation. Most of our newer orchards now have drip irrigation, and it’s eliminated a lot of problems. The water use is down dramatically.”

A big challenge is the stink bug is wreaking havoc on the hazelnuts. Oregon State has been trying to develop new varieties that are more resistant to the bugs. The Eastern filbert blight is another pest that causes problems.

“It’s all about spraying; it’s one of the downsides of growing filberts, there’s not a lot of organic remedies,” Ryan said. “It eats up a tremendous amount of time.”

Last year, the farm grew more than one million pounds of hazelnuts. Once hazelnuts are harvested, they are shelled and pasteurized, and the couple does all the packaging together so their hazelnuts are ready for stores.

The Hendersons also farm about 400 acres of peaches, berries, zucchini, lettuce and broccoli.

Continued growth

The Hendersons recently acquired another 100 acres that will be used for more hazelnuts, as well as increasing their reach in the chocolate business.

“We just built a new kitchen, so we have the ability to expand even more,” Rachel said.

In February of this year, the couple went on QVC to hawk its hazelnut chocolate.

“We started reaching a lot more clients and a lot more wholesalers,” Rachel said. “Our goal is to see a lot more fresh hazelnuts in the United States. The ones from Europe are very different.”

Hazelnut Hill’s growth strategy is to continue investing in the business and finding new ways to bring hazelnuts to the masses in its products.

“We’d love to do a granola, a trail mix, and that’s how we will grow on the retail side,” Rachel said. “I don’t think we will be buying any more acres to grow hazelnuts though, because it’s a lot of work.”

When it’s time to introduce new products, the Henderson family conducts a lot of market research, which starts by passing out samples to friends and family for feedback. They also send new recipes to Oregon State’s labs for testing to ensure product is shelf-stable.

“We’re always getting feedback on things we can tweak, and as soon as we get a really good response from the whole group, then we know we’re ready to launch, and take it to the website and wholesalers,” Rachel said.

While the Hendersons don’t have kids of their own, they do have a lot of nieces and nephews who are interested in the business and farming, including two who are currently in college studying agriculture.

“They are all very hands-on here and help, and eventually, they will keep this going for us with our hazelnuts,” Rachel said.

Hazelnut Hill stands as a testament to the enduring passion and dedication of the Hendersons.