Add a new crop to the Willamette Valley's already diverse market basket: chestnuts.

Many Oregonians no doubt, remember a chestnut tree somewhere in their past.

But only recently have they been grown here in the state on a commercial scale.

So why is this shiny nut with the sweet taste and prickly skin catching on? Because prices are good compared to with other crops, especially for the grower who markets his crop directly. And the trees don't suffer the same disease and pest problems that plague hazelnuts.

It's estimated Oregon has there are about 250 commercial chestnut trees, in Oregon, most of them in the Willamette Valley.

Chestnuts are unique in the nut family in that they are not dried before being marketed.

"You've got to keep them refrigerated like you would an apple," said grower Randy Coleman of McMinnville said. Let a chestnut dry out, and it becomes very firm, hard enough to break your teeth.

Nor are chestnuts an easy nut to harvest. The spiny burrs that sometimes hold onto the nuts after they've fallen can puncture work gloves and the soles of tennis shoes.

Back In 1985, Coleman and his wife, Irene, were the first growers to plant a commercial crop in the valley. They now have 14 acres in production close to their home on Oregon 99W.

As with many other tree crops in the valley, this was not a good year because of spring frost and cold, wet weather during pollination. The Colemans also lost some trees to a fungus.

Bad weather is always a possibility, but the fungus was unexpected.

The biggest customers for chestnuts are people brought up with the nut, such as those living in the eastern U.S. United States and of Asian ancestry, said Irene Coleman said.

The marketing key is "hitting the areas where people have some background and some history on how to store the nut and use it," Randy Coleman said. "If you go into an area where you have native Oregonians who have never seen a chestnut, then it's an educational process."

Unlike other nuts, chestnuts are picked several times, about every three days.

"You have to let them fall naturally so they'll come out of the burr," Coleman said.

The Colemans sell chestnuts out of their home and at farmers' markets. They also have a wholesale customer in California.

Another grower sold on chestnuts is Dan Keeley of St. Paul. He and his wife, JoAnne, own a young, 12-acre orchard and plan to convert a 40-acre ryegrass field to chestnuts next year.

In addition to other peculiarities, Keeley said, chestnut trees must be irrigated during the summer. Both the Keeleys and Colemans run thin strips of irrigation tubing along the base of their trees.