At Cornell Orchards, beach plums, commonly found on coastal dunes but now one of the newest fruits harvested this year, have become an ambitious Cornell project to turn the unusual plant into a crop.

A thriving cottage industry for jams made from local beach plums demands ever more, but plums remain inaccessible due to small stands, limited access to lands where they grow and government restrictions against “poaching”. Even on Cape Cod where the plants are native, beach plum condiments are gourmet, says Tom Whitlow, associate professor of horticulture and head of the Cornell Beach Plum Project. Last year he distributed puree to several Ithaca area restaurants, which incorporated it into desserts and a sauce for grilled duck.

In the orchards late August and early September, students picked the fruits, then made jams and syrup with food scientists at the processing plant at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva NY, which Cornell Orchard Store then sells.

—Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell Chronicle