Ken & June’s Hazelnuts

Ken and June Melcher came to Oregon from Nebraska in 1957 specifically to farm hazelnuts. They bought 100 acres in St. Paul with a 40-acre orchard already on it, which at the time made it one of the biggest filbert operations in the valley. Ken built his own nut-cleaning and drying facility by 1971 and got the orchard up to 180 acres.

He died suddenly in the fall of 1984. His son Dennis took over.

In 2000 Dennis and his wife Sylvia bought a small roasting company and named it after his parents. That’s the store you’re walking into. Their daughters Julie and Jennifer run it now, third generation.

They roast Barcelona hazelnuts in 150-pound batches every week, year round, which is why they taste the way they do. Raw, dry roasted, roasted and salted, in the shell. Chocolate-coated in milk, dark, dark with sea salt, white, and mint. There’s a marionberry candy coating that’s worth trying because nobody else makes it.

Beyond nuts: hazelnut butter, chopped and sliced hazelnuts, trail mix, local honey, fruit jams, gift boxes. Espresso and pastries since the store was remodeled. Smoothies and sherbet in summer.

They grow three acres of peaches too, ready late July into August. No u-pick, but you can smell the orchard from the parking lot.

The store is small and staff hand out samples. Kids who’ve never had a hazelnut generally leave having had several.