Note: In telling the stories, I'm using anonymous names to protect the privacy of the families interviewed.

Lesly has already talked facts about hazelnuts in Oregon. Just to recap, 99 percent of America's commercial hazelnuts grow right here on 30,000 acres of rich Willamette Valley farmland. (The other one percent grows in Washington State and British Columbia).

There's something extraordinary about our rich soil and cool climate and about the eight hundred men and women who farm those 30,000 acres.

So, what about these folks ---- who are they? Where'd they come from? What's it like to farm hazelnuts? Are they regular folks, like you and me? What kind of people are they? Are they rich? Are they poor? What kind of relationships do they have with their spouses, their children? Do they hope their children will be farmers or move to the city?

I'm going to share three stories with you today, about three families, three of the mighty eight hundred who raise hazelnuts in the Northwest.

FAMILY #1: VAN & PAM & SIX CHILDREN

Van is of German descent and grew up on his father's farm in Wilsonville. At that time the family's land covered about a hundred acres. Van, his younger brother and sister went to school and worked on the farm. There was a lot of work to do, more than Van's parents could do by themselves. Since there was not enough money to hire help, the whole family, Mom, Dad and three children, worked every day. It was hard work, unlike the typical taking out of trash and cleaning bedrooms. It meant checking every tree for insects or fungus, keeping weeds down and keeping the orchard floor clean throughout the year. This was before the harvest -- which required dawn to dusk physically-demanding work until all the hazelnuts were loaded into totes and delivered to the processing plant, preferably before a rainfall made a muddy mess of the orchard floor.

When Van was a small child and wanted to play with other kids or later go the mall with his teenage friends, there was always a tree row in the orchard that needed care, pruning, or sucker removal or insecticides or fertilizers applied or a myriad other demanding chores. Van's sister and brother worked too, his sister helping their mother with house chores as well. Van's mother drove the tractor and worked along with the rest of the family, ridding the orchard of insects, fungus and weeds - in preparation for fall harvest.

Van's mother hadn't planned to be a farmer. Her dream when she finished high school was to attend cosmetology school and become a beautician. Then she met her future husband and stared a new life with him in Portland. At first he worked as a carpenter but what she didn't initially realize was that his farming background and his love of working the land had a claim on him.

Van's father, too, had a dream-he wanted a career in baseball. He was a good baseball player in high school and thought he could go on, possibly to pro ball, but other things got in the way: marriage, full-time job, then children.

The farm always beckoned. He tried to leave the farm, doing some carpentry jobs, but eventually returned to farming even though he couldn't afford to buy farmland. Instead, he hired out as an orchard caretaker for nearly 15 years before he could buy an orchard of his own. His enterprising nature was evident as he started a hazelnut nursery, offering young trees for sale to other growers.

In the meantime, Van and his siblings grew up with an innate love for farming in spite of the hard work. Though Van left the farm for several years, graduated from Oregon State University (OSU) in Agricultural Economics, and worked five years as a corporate buyer, he seemed to have the same farming destiny as his father and grandfather.

Before Van left Corvallis and OSU, he met Pam. They were married and moved away where he began his non-farming career. Ironically, he ended up as a produce buyer which required him to go into the fields and bargain with farmers to get the cheapest price for their crops. Having been raised on a farm by farming parents, he had a problem crunching prices on the farmers' products because he knew first hand the taste of the sweat and color of the blood from fighting Mother Nature to grow hazelnuts.

He stayed with the corporation only five years before taking his wife and family back to the farm. Van's wife, Pam, brought three toddlers to their union from a former marriage. When they moved back to his father's land they brought five children, and soon a sixth.

With Van's education and corporate experience he had ideas about generating farm profits by expanding the nursery project, installing new processing equipment and establishing some marketing concepts. Today, they are extremely proud of their family's progress on the cropland that began as their grandfather's 160-acre farm in the early 1900s.

Today, when Van is asked whether he has accomplished his goal on the farm, he says, "ask me in ten years-if we are still here we must have made it." The farm's profits vary significantly from season to season. There are so many variables: weather, disease, and family crises; however when asked whether he will remain on the farm with his family, he responds with an unequivocal "yes."

Relationships

Demanding time commitments present ongoing challenges to Van and Pam's relationship. Over the years Pam and Van worked out a good balance between her strong commitment to family and his equally strong drive to make the farm profitable. These days they manage time for school activities with their children and occasionally get away for a week's vacation or a trip to Las Vegas.

A question often posed is whether farm families want their children to take over the farm and make farming their life or if they recommend the children move to the city and get 9-5 jobs?

Van puts it this way: Farming is hard, constant and often thankless, but it becomes easier with each generation. Like painting a house (metaphorically) the first coat is the hardest because the wood is bare. Each successive coat is easier because the generation before has made progress on the job.

What I would wish for, Van said, "we could put a roof over the orchard. We'd do so much better without Mother Nature always over our shoulder. But then, that's what farming is all about," he concluded.

Values

His wife, Pam puts it this way, "Farming teaches values that are not connected to another kind of life, like responsibility from the daily chores required, like little free time due to those job commitments. For the children, there is less temptation to get into trouble, and the outdoor activities like fishing, camping, hiking replace hanging out at 7-11 or the mall, and the parents are home to oversee their children."

FAMILY #2: KEITH & KATHY & FIVE CHILDREN

Keith & Kathy are descendants of German and Swedish parents. His German-born parents came to the United States around 1914. At that time Keith's grandfather bought some farmland in Vancouver, Washington, and planted hazelnuts, prunes and apples, plus raised a few head of cattle.

Keith's father was born on the farm in Washington but as an adult, he held a full-time job off the farm, as did his mother, while raising five children on the farm. Keith had to work every day on the farm while growing up. Because of his chores he wasn't able to participate in after-school activities.

He remembers seeing the other kids playing ball on his way home from school and wishing he didn't have to go home so he could join the game. This was typical of his school years and after he graduated from high school he left the farm to get a job in construction, as did his two brothers. But, they too, carried the mark of the farmer. Growing up, Keith and his father talked a lot about the workings of the farm while they worked side by side and he believes his father expected him to take over but it was never actually stated.

While working in construction, Keith continued to pitch in after work and on weekends to help his father on the farm. Eventually he returned to the farm full time and was very happy there. One brother, too, returned to the farm to work with their parents.

Keith managed a nearby hazelnut orchard since he was 13 and continued to do so until five years ago when the owner died. It was his secret desire to buy that orchard but the cost was prohibitive and the heirs sold it to a developer. Today, a subdivision replaces those hazelnut trees Keith tended for nearly 20 years. As I said, Keith's parents did hold full-time jobs in addition to the farm work, making them very dependent upon on the children's help evenings and week-ends. It continued that way until the early 90s when Keith bought his own orchard in Oregon and moved his wife and five children into temporary quarters in a shop while building a large home for them on the property.

Now their income is solely dependent upon the hazelnuts they raise and those they process in the old processing plant at the Washington farm where his parents still live and work. Keith's five children help out on the new farm in Oregon but he believes he is easier on his children that his father was with him and his siblings."I wouldn't ask them to do anything I wouldn't do myself," Keith explained. "It's a family commitment to do all we can to ensure the farm survives."

Relationships

In their relationship they both have strong commitments to their family life. Keith married a non-farm girl from Washington. Kathy does the office work and bookkeeping for the farm plus caring for the five children. The work of the farm requires Keith to put in long, long hours, sometimes working in both Washington and Oregon in one day. They are a more demonstrative family than the former generation, with hugs and open discussions a common occurrence.

Keith expects that one or two of his children will stay on their farm Two of them show a greater affinity for farm life than the rest.

Values

They plan to send all five children to college with the realization that the children may not return afterwards. There seems to be a strong dedication to family tradition and the romance of farming in this family, as evidenced by the answer to a question: Would you sell the farm? Keith gave a resounding "no, not for any price." Kathy quickly added, "This is our home and we expect to live here all our lives; at least one of the children will inherit the farm."

FAMILY #3: MARVIN & SANDY & THREE CHILDREN

Marvin and Sandy and three children live on their farm in Newberg. In Champoeg State Park south of Portland, Oregon, the name Francis Fletcher and 51 others are inscribed on a marble monument marking the site of the first American Government on the Pacific Coast. The date is May 2, 1843, also the time when the earliest member of our third farm family arrive in Oregon.

Fletcher was the great-great-great grandfather of Marvin. Marvin's German grandparents were a very large part of his childhood. After the divorce of his parents, Marvin's mother took his brother and him to the grandparents farm where he lived his entire life until he got married. While his mother worked full-time in town, Marvin spent most of his time working alongside his grandfather who bought the 30-acre farm at the time he retired. His grandmother, who had been a teacher, cared for Marvin and his brother and did most of the cooking which mirrored her German roots.

Marvin's parents met at the University of Oregon, married and had two sons before being divorced. Marvin's mother had been raised on a smaller eight-acre farm, while her parents worked full-time elsewhere. They still managed to raise hazelnuts, prunes, berries and chickens while she was growing up, so she, too, had been irrevocably imprinted with a farming heritage. Farming left its mark on Marvin's mother, just as it did on the other three families visited today.

The larger farm now supported the grandparents, Marvin, his mother and brother. They had one hired hand; the family members did the rest of the work, preparing for and carrying out the harvest of their crops. Marvin learned a great deal working with his grandparents. At harvest time, when the hazelnuts ripened and fell to the ground, the women and school friends were enlisted to help sweep the nuts into piles where they were picked up with an old harvester. The nuts were dropped into large sacks and hand tied before delivery to the processing plant.

In spite of his great love for his grandparents, Marvin had other plans for his future. Interestingly, he, like Van's father, dreamed of pursuing professional baseball. After high school, Marvin went to a nearby university, living at home, and balancing a demanding schedule. Some days he would have to spray chemicals on the orchard before school, practice baseball after school, then return home for additional farm chores in the evening. After graduation he worked a very early morning shift at a local post office so he could work on the farm the rest of the day. When his grandmother grew ill, Marvin quit the post office to care for her full time. After her death, he returned to his early morning post office and afternoon farm schedule.

He met Sandy during his second employment at the post office. After they were married, Marvin took Sandy and her two children to live in a nearby house, his first time to live off the farm. Two years after their own son was born it was decided that the family would sell the 30 acres where his grandparents had lived and buy a larger parcel with a larger house where they could grow more hazelnuts. This is the land where Marvin and Sandy and their three boys live and farm hazelnuts today.

Relationships

Marvin's relationship with his grandparents was the model upon which he raised his own sons. Even though the grandparents cared deeply about the farm, his grandmother at one time told Marvin he shouldn't be a farmer because there was not enough money in it.

He and Sandy agree that farming is a good, healthy life but struggle with the serious crop cycles that hazelnuts farmers face. They find it a constant dilemma, whether or not to stay on the farm. Two of their sons enjoy working on the farm and could make a life of it, but the third is anxious to leave.

Marvin and Sandy want the boys to stay on the farm only if they truly want to. Even the most likely, the youngest boy, may go away from the farm at some point in his life but will probably return. They believe it is very hard to stay away from farming once it is in your blood.

Values:

Sandy believes farming provides different perspectives on life, different values. It teaches patience, hard work and growing things in cycles, a holistic view of the world and especially what it means to "wait until next year." She believes these are good lessons that a city kid might not understand.

Sandy and Marvin agreed that city life does not afford the benefits of farm life: such as space, freedom, nature, aesthetics. A child growing up in the city has no concept of these things. Marvin added, "when you have your own farming business, you learn that there are many variables over which you have no control."

COOKING CULTURE

In the homes of the three families, cooking is not impacted by the farming of hazelnuts. Just coincidentally, all three families are of German heritage-and that meat and potatoes culture dominates the presence of hazelnuts on their dinner tables. The women use them in baking cookies and cakes mainly, evidently reluctant to break the cooking habits of their parents and grandparents.

This is a pattern the Hazelnut Marketing Board is working to overcome in foodservice today. Baked goods are the primary application for hazelnuts, with candy and ice cream second and third respectively.

The Board's major goal over the next three years is to expand hazelnut usage out of the bakery and onto the center of the plate. Currently changes are occurring, at least in our local restaurant culture, especially among those taking advantage of locally-grown crops where hazelnut-encrusted fish, chicken and pork are appearing on their menus.

In addition, the Board urges culinary professionals and consumers to add texture and extra nutrition to foods by sprinkling hazelnuts on soups, salads and pasta-this is the immediate challenge.

CONCLUSION

I hope I have given you a little insight into the lives of the people who produce hazelnuts for the world-their values, their heartaches and their passion for growing food. However, it is important to remember they represent only a small part of the population. Their urban counterparts also have their values, their share of heartaches and their enthusiasm for their work. Together, they make up America- diverse in many qualities. However, do you think their goals of preserving farmland for future generations are very much the same?

By the way, next time you see hazelnuts at your grocery store, or on your local restaurant menu or in a home recipe, remember that you may just be using the hazelnuts raised with love and care by one of these families or one of the other eight hundred who are very much like them.

Updated and copyrighted Oregon State University 2000. Send mail to Food Resource Nutrition and Food Management, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. OSU Disclaimer URL Home: http://food.orst.edu/