A Feast of OSU Food FactsEight ways Oregon State shows up on your plate.

You don’t need to set foot on campus to get a taste of Oregon State. It’s already in your freezer, your fruit bowl and maybe even your favorite pint glass. From maraschino cherries to marionberries, here are eight ways OSU influences what (and how) you eat.

Alumnus George F. Waldo, seen here in 1973, developed two berry varieties that helped define Oregon as berry country. Photo by Robert W. Henderson

1. One alumnus developed two legendary Oregon berries.

During his 33-year career with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, working side by side with Oregon State horticulturists, George F. Waldo (Class of 1922), released many beloved berries, but none more famous than the Hood strawberry and the marionberry.

Both fruits are prized for their exceptional flavor and, because they’re too delicate to ship fresh, are known outside Oregon mostly in processed or frozen forms. Oregon’s fleeting Hood strawberries, released by Waldo in 1965, make their way into jams, yogurts and premium ice creams like Tillamook, Salt & Straw and Häagen-Dazs. Meanwhile, the even more famous marionberry — introduced in 1956 and dubbed the “king of blackberries” — stars in jam, candies and cocktails, as well as in the official Oregon state pie.

Together, these berries epitomize the fruitful partnership (pun intended) between Oregon State and the USDA, which has been breeding berry varieties for the Pacific Northwest since 1917. Thanks in part to that collaboration, Oregon now leads the nation in the cultivation of blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries; ranks No. 2 for blueberries; and ranks No. 3 for strawberries and cranberries. All told, the state produces more than 276 million pounds of berries every year.

In her 34 years at OSU, Professor Emerita Bernadine Strik helped the Pacific Northwest become one of the biggest producers of blueberries in the world. Photo by Lynn Ketchum

2. OSU’s “Berry Goddess” revolutionized the blueberry industry.

If Waldo gave Oregon its iconic blackberry and strawberry, decades later it was Professor Emerita Bernadine Strik who made sure blueberries didn’t get left behind. In her 34 years as a berry specialist for Oregon State University Extension Service, she changed the way blueberries are planted and raised, helping turn the Pacific Northwest into one of the biggest producers in the world.

Her landmark 14-year study on organic production found that planting bushes closer together than was the norm boosted yields by 50% in their early years — and that the edge held as bushes matured. She also showed that trellising sped up machine harvesting.

With her insights, the state’s blueberry acreage surged from 1,200 to 15,000 during her tenure alone.

All this earned her a nickname: “At one of the dean’s dinners about five years before I retired, the Dean of the College of Ag Sciences at OSU introduced me as the Berry Goddess,” Strik told Oregon Public Broadcasting in 2022. “And I thought, ‘Man, if you have a nickname, that’s a good one!’”

Today, Oregon and Washington grow more blueberries than any other states, and the United States ranks behind only China. Strik earned the International Society for Horticultural Science’s highest honor for her work. She died in 2023 at age 60, having changed the blueberry industry from the ground up.

Straight Outta OSU

Although the whole nation benefits from Oregon’s bounty, if you’re a gardener — especially one in the Pacific Northwest — chances are, you’ve also planted a vegetable variety that had its start at Oregon State. Jim Myers, OSU’s Baggett-Frazier Vegetable Breeder Professor, shared a sampling of favorites and up-and-comers:

1. Oregon Sugar Pod II

The late Jim Baggett, professor emeritus of horticulture at Oregon State University, developed the most widely grown snow pea variety in the world, the disease-resistant Oregon Sugar Pod II. He’s also responsible for the popular Oregon Giant Sugar, Oregon Sugar Pod and Cascadia.

2. Indigo Rose

Released by Myers in 2011, Indigo Rose was the first antioxidant-rich purple tomato developed by conventional means. Since then, it’s spread worldwide. “I had a nephew who went to a meeting in Sweden, and there was Indigo Rose being sold in the bin of tomatoes,” Myers said. “And I just got a note from a niece who lives in Australia and was buying transplants!”

Oregon Spring

This tomato was developed by Baggett in 1984 to produce early tomatoes in Oregon’s cool, rainy spring, but it’s proved popular across the country. Another OSU tomato, Legend, is a late-blight resistant favorite.

3. Honeyboat Delicata Squash

Honeyboat Delicata is known for its super sweet, flavorful flesh and quick growth. Since Baggett released it in 1990, it’s been embraced by home gardeners and commercial growers alike.

Notta Hotta and Mild Thing

All the flavor with less of the heat. That was Myers’ goal when he bred two new varieties of habanero peppers. Habaneros usually land between 100,000 to 350,000 on the Scoville scale of spiciness, but a crop of these clocks in at only 500 to 1,000. Meyers credits Nikki Guerrero of Portland’s Hot Mama Salsa for the varieties’ sassy names. (Keep an eye out for an upcoming salsa using them.)

3. OSU put the cherry on top.

Corvallis can proudly claim a quirky place in food history: It’s the birthplace of the modern maraschino cherry.

Back in the 1920s, Oregon’s cherry growers had a problem. Their orchards were bursting with big, sweet Royal Ann (aka Queen Anne) cherries, but the fruits collapsed into mush when preserved. Enter Ernest H. Wiegand, a professor of food science at Oregon Agricultural College. (Yes, you guessed it: Wiegand Hall is named after him.) When growers asked him for help, he spent years tinkering in the lab. His breakthrough came in 1925: Add calcium salts to the brine, and the cherries stay plump and firm. The method caught on, and with a little bleaching and bright red food coloring, the modern maraschino was born.

Oregon quickly became the maraschino capital of America, with local processors turning fragile fruit into a durable, sugary icon. So, the next time you spot a maraschino perched on a sundae or garnishing a Shirley Temple, remember that this bright dot of sweetness traces back to OSU.

4. Craft beer wouldn’t be the same without OSU.

Hops are the soul of beer. They cut through malty sweetness with a bite of bitterness and layer on aromas ranging from fruity and floral to spicy and piney. The U.S. is the second largest producer of hops in the world, according to the USDA,  and more than 98% of the crop comes from the Pacific Northwest.

The modern craft beer revolution can be traced straight back to Oregon State. In 1972, the USDA breeding program at OSU released Cascade hops, a variety considered too bold by mainstream beer companies. But OSU Professor Al Haunold saw its potential. When he began working with craft brewers in the 1980s, Cascade became the defining flavor of West Coast pale ales and IPAs, tasted in the likes of Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale, Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale and Deschutes Brewery’s Mirror Pond Ale.

Cascade remained America’s most widely planted hop until 2018, and the innovation continues with varieties like Strata. Bred by Associate Professor Shaun Townsend and released in 2018, its fruit-forward notes and herbal complexity show up in beers like Worthy Brewing’s Worthy Hazy and Sierra Nevada’s Fantastic Haze Imperial IPA.

Still, you also need a place to raise a pint. In 1985, Mike McMenamin, ’73, Brian McMenamin, ’80, and Rob Widmer, ’96, helped overturn a Prohibition-era Oregon law that barred breweries from selling beer on-site. That same year, the McMenamin brothers opened the state’s first modern brewpub, Hillsdale Brewery & Public House, in Southwest Portland.

Today, Oregon’s craft beer industry supports more than 46,000 jobs and generates $8.9 billion in economic output, according to the biennial Beer Serves America report. And at the center of all that is OSU. “Oregon State University is the nation’s leader in brewing research and education,” said Tom Shellhammer, Nor’Wester Professor in Fermentation Science. “We proudly train the next generation of brewmasters.”

In 1954, home economics students watched a demonstration of how to prepare a meal. Photo courtesy of OSU Special Collections & Archives

5. OSU home economists brought science to the state’s kitchens.

Before most Americans thought of food safety or nutrition as science, Oregon State was already teaching it. In 1889, the Oregon Agricultural College created the Department of Household Economy and Hygiene — the first home economics program west of the Rockies and only the fifth at a land-grant college nationwide. Among its central purposes: Improve the safety, health and quality of food in American homes.

The program’s founder, physician Margaret Snell — nicknamed the “Apostle of Fresh Air” — understood that what families ate and how they prepared it had a direct link to public health. In the late 1800s, before refrigeration, pasteurization, reliable canning or food safety laws, everyday meals carried very real risks. Her work laid the foundation for what became the OSU Extension Service, where home economists carried science-based food and nutrition knowledge into communities across Oregon.

From there, Ava Milam, dean of the School of Home Economics from 1917 to 1950, helped shape the field of home economics internationally, established a two-year course for dietitians, and, in 1926, created a campus nursery school, Covell House. Betty Hawthorne, who served as dean from 1965 to 1983, expanded the program’s scope into gerontology and healthcare administration while fighting for nutrition equity and women’s opportunities in science. In 1984, Kinsey Green took the reins of what would soon become the College of Home Economics and Education.

Though “home economics” disappeared from the college’s name in 2002, the food-first mission that defined it remains and is explored through the College of Health’s three schools and four research centers. OSU continues to connect what happens in the kitchen and on the table with the health of families and communities everywhere.

The Food Innovation Center Wall of Fame

The Food Innovation Center — an OSU partnership with the Oregon Department of Agriculture — brings together science and entrepreneurship. Housed in Portland’s Pearl District since 1999, the center has helped hundreds of companies, both starting out and established, refine recipes, develop safe production systems and taste-test products (see the “Yum” feature). From ice cream to global exports, the FIC has made Oregon a tastemaker far beyond the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a small sampling of products that got their start there.

6. Oregon State researchers saved — and are still saving — the hazelnut.

There’s a reason the hazelnut has been Oregon’s state nut since 1989, and it’s not just that the Willamette Valley is a perfect place for it to grow. When the fungal disease Eastern filbert blight nearly collapsed the worldwide hazelnut industry in the 1980s, it was Oregon State scientists who discovered how to fight back. By breeding resistant trees, they revived the crop and reshaped the industry. Hazelnut acreage in Oregon leapt from 29,000 acres in 2009 to roughly 93,000 today. The state now produces 99% of the U.S. hazelnut supply, worth about $120 million, according to the Oregon Hazelnut Commission.

 But nature adapts — and so must scientists and the farmers who depend on them. A new strain of the blight, first detected in 2023 in orchards near Woodburn, Oregon, now threatens trees once considered immune. OSU researchers, led by Oregon Hazelnut Industry Professor Gaurab Bhattarai, are tracking the disease’s spread, advising growers and developing the next generation of trees with resistance. Their internationally recognized work continues the legacy of Professor Emeritus Shawn Mehlenbacher, who built on the pioneering efforts of Professor Emerita Maxine Thompson, who founded OSU’s hazelnut breeding program in 1969. “Through research, we identify new sources of resistance, study their inheritance, develop DNA markers and implement them in the breeding program,” said Bhattarai. “It’s a continuous cycle of discovery and evolution.”

Nellie Oehler, ’64, co-founded the Master Food Preserver program in 1980. Jeanne Brandt, ’82, wrote to tell us no Oregon Stater food issue would be complete without a mention of her — or the teddy bear- and alligator-shaped bread she baked for Master Food Preservers who had reached more than 100 hours of volunteer time. Photo by Stephen Ward

7. OSU Extension has taught generations how to preserve the harvest safely.

When end-of-summer harvest season kicks in, OSU Extension Service’s food safety and preservation helpline gets to work. “Safely preserving and storing foods can be challenging to do well, and potentially dangerous if not done properly,” said Jared Hibbard-Swanson, food security and safety program manager at OSU Extension. “The OSU helpline gives those folks who are canning, drying and freezing foods at home a chance to leave a voicemail with their questions and get a call back from a trained volunteer.”

In 2025, the toll-free hotline, staffed by certified Master Food Preserver volunteers, started taking calls on July 7 and wrapped up on Oct. 10. But even when summer garden beds have been tucked in for the winter, the line remains open at 800-354-7319 and is checked weekly. Resources are also available online here.

Nellie Oehler, ’64, co-founded Oregon’s Master Food Preserver program in 1980 and was one of the original authors of the Master Food Preserver handbook. Until retiring this October, she taught generations of Oregonians to can food and bake bread through OSU Extension, where she began working soon after graduating with a degree in food and nutrition.

Extension continues to be the go-to place for reliable, research-based information, she said. “The internet really changed things, because there’s so much information out there now that’s not right. People say, ‘I did it just like they did on YouTube, and I haven’t died yet,’” she said, laughing. “Well, that’s fine, but you might tomorrow!”

One of Oehler’s favorite things is seeing how much learning about food and food preservation changes volunteers’ lives, and how much they enjoy sharing that knowledge with others. There are now more than 300 Master Food Preservers who complete an eight-week course and volunteer on the helpline and at workshops. Learn how to join them.

The current campus Food Forest was designed and planted by Milo Tisdale, a third-year botany and horticulture student. During the 2025 growing season, he estimates the garden grew about 1,300 pounds of produce and supplied 550 pounds to the Basic Needs Center. Photo by Becca Harmonson, ’25

8. Even the Corvallis campus is now (partially) edible.

From the quiet shade of towering sequoias to the sunny green lawns crisscrossed with walking paths, Oregon State’s Corvallis campus is a thing of beauty. With all their effort to maintain that beauty, university landscaping staff want people to take full advantage of OSU’s outdoor spaces. In fact, if landscape manager Todd Cross had his way, the campus would be “complete, utter chaos,” he said. “Everybody everywhere.” But did you know some of the landscape is as snackable as it is scenic?

Behind Callahan Hall, across from the parking lot on Southwest 15th Street, is the Food Forest managed by University Housing and Dining Services. Anyone can walk through and sample from the pear, fig, mulberry and apple trees. Just pay attention to signage; several plants (like the zucchini) are grown specifically for the Basic Needs Center. There’s also a smaller food forest at the southeast corner of the Student Experience Center with raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries and persimmons. And there are blueberry bushes by the entrance of the Linus Pauling Science Center, and more outside the childcare center on Southwest 11th Street. Cross said landscaping staff never spray harmful chemicals on plants that people might eat, so enjoy to your heart’s content.

Fun fact: OSU is one of the best seed sources for female ginkgo trees in the country. After careful processing to remove the harmful outer layer, ginkgo nuts are edible and popular in East Asian cuisine, but female trees have been nearly eliminated in the U.S. nursery industry because they’re messy (and very, very stinky) when fruiting. OSU happens to have a row of female ginkgo trees by Wiegand Hall, and the university contracts with multiple companies that visit campus a couple times a year to harvest the seeds.

Where else could you pick a pear on your way to class and savor more than a century of food innovation in every mouthful?