Welcome back to the Port Pearls Almanac. This is Andy. Today we're joined by Dr. Megan Mielbauer. She's an agricultural agent and assistant

professor at Rutgers, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. As a county agent, Dr. Meelbauer offers

guidance for the development, implementation, and evaluation of educational programming,

and research for commercial tree fruit production management and marketing.

She's found her niche in niche crops, working with commercial small fruits, wine grapes, and related

commodities throughout the county and region. She also spends time researching hops and hazelnuts

in New Jersey as well as hard cider apples and other unique

value crops such as beach plums the subject of today's interview her work with beach plums is

especially noteworthy as this native fruit is gaining popularity for its hardiness erosion control

properties and potential for value-added products like jams, jellies, and even alcoholic beverages.

We talk about working through the challenges of getting this fruit out in the public and what

the feedback has been from people who have had access to it. So take a listen. Let us know what you

think. Megan, thanks so know what you think.

Megan, thanks so much for joining us.

Rutgers is doing a ton of really great research around interesting crops.

I actually had Dr. Thomas Malnar on last year to talk about hazelnuts, which I'm sure you're familiar enough with his work and the Hazelnut research going on there.

So Rutgers is doing a lot of really cool stuff, and I think it's great that someone in the

northeast is because up here in Massachusetts, it doesn't seem to have as much attention.

So please introduce yourself, tell us about what you do at Rutgers.

Great. So my name is Megan Mulebauer.

I work for the Extension Division of Rutgers University,

so Rutgers University Cooperative Extension. I work out of Hunterding County, so I'm in the central part of the state.

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