Organic Whole Roasted Hazelnuts - Oregon

1 pound bag - Oregon

These roasted hazelnuts from Oregon are special!

Hazelnuts are among the oldest cultivated nuts in the world, with archaeological evidence showing that humans were eating wild hazelnuts more than 9,000 years ago. Remains have been found in ancient fire pits across Europe and Asia. 

The common hazel (Corylus avellana), native to Europe and western Asia, produces the larger, thinner-shelled nuts favored for cultivation, while the American hazel (Corylus americana) grows wild across much of the eastern United States. 

By the Roman era, hazelnuts were prized for their rich oils and valued both as food and medicine, believed to bring good fortune. Over centuries, they became a staple crop in Europe, particularly in Turkey, Italy, and Spain — regions that still lead global production today.

Hazelnuts arrived in Oregon in the mid-1800s, with the first recorded planting by David Gernot, a Frenchman who settled in Scottsburg around 1858. The commercial industry began with George Dorris, who established the first orchard near Springfield in 1905. 

Oregon’s mild, wet winters and dry summers proved remarkably similar to the climate of northern Italy’s Piedmont region, a historic hazelnut heartland. 

The trees thrived in the Willamette Valley’s volcanic soils, gentle slopes, and excellent drainage, and by the 1920s, orchards spread widely throughout the region. 

Oregon growers developed their own traditions, even preferring the name “filbert,” thought to derive from St. Philibert’s Day (August 22), when the nuts ripened in France.

In recent decades, disease-resistant hybrids — notably the ‘Jefferson’ and ‘Yamhill’ varieties developed at Oregon State University — have helped the industry recover from Eastern filbert blight, a fungal disease that once devastated older orchards. 

Today, over 99% of U.S. hazelnuts are grown in Oregon, mostly in the Willamette Valley. The state has become a respected global producer, exporting to Europe and Asia and supplying confectioners such as Ferrero, the maker of Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.