CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences has launched an online retail store to sell cheeses, honey and beef jerky made by its students.
For nearly 10 years, students in the dairy program in the Department of Food Science and Technology have sold Beaver Classic cheeses online and at the Corvallis Farmers’ Market. Now they have expanded the Beaver Classic brand with the new online store and the honey and beef jerky, with more products planned soon, such as beer, meats and produce.
“We have long seen the potential of Beaver Classic to represent the diversity of the experiential learning that shapes many students across multiple departments in the college,” said Alan Sams, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. “It is exciting to see the first steps of that vision becoming a reality.”
College of Agricultural Sciences students create the Beaver Classic brand of products under the guidance of Oregon State experts in agricultural sciences and food innovation. Currently, students are primarily focused on production of Beaver Classic products. Soon that will expand to other facets of the business, such as inventory, marketing and distribution to be led by agriculture business students.
“Students are at the heart of this program,” Sams added. “We want our students to have hands-on experience with top faculty and industry leaders that give them the opportunity to step into meaningful careers at graduation – whether that’s in industry or in pursuit of graduate studies.”
The Beaver Classic program started in 2011 with an initial gift from Carl and Kim Casale, who recognized the importance of investing in student success to ensure a future of innovation in Oregon’s densely diverse agricultural economy that is valued at more than $50 billion and represents over 220 agricultural goods.
The new Beaver Classic online store will include three varieties of cheese: cheddar, dill garlic cheddar, and gochu cheddar, with more cheeses being added soon. It will also include unprocessed (raw) honey collected by students in Oregon State’s Honey Bee lab and Hawaiian teriyaki beef jerky made by students from the Clark Meat Center in the Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences.
As the Beaver Classic program evolves, more products and departments across the college will be added, including the potential of Beaver Classic beer from the college’s new, state-of-the-art brewery, a gift from Carlos Alvarez. Additional products on the horizon include meats, produce, nursery and ice cream products.