Episode #8 with Dean Kreutzer from Over the Hill Orchards and Winery

Take a Container Gardening Course with Dean: here!

Enjoy a Chef Supper at the Orchard! More information: here!

Check out their website here: https://overthehillorchards.ca/

Dean and Sylvia Kreutzer are the owners of Over the Hill Orchard and Winery. They have always been fruit lovers; Dean’s earliest memories was of picking saskatoons. Sylvia remembers wading through the river to get to the wild blueberry patch up north.

It was quite a revelation when they toured a local nursery for some flowers when they came upon Apricots, Plums, Apples and Pears! They asked the salesperson the question that they now hear most from their customers, “We can grow these here?!”

Although they couldn’t grow peaches like they do in the Okanagan valley in British Columbia, they could grow other delectable fruit, suited for our climate. Growers in B.C. can’t grow Valencia oranges like they do in California, but that didn’t stop them from creating the most popular tourist and fruit production area in the country. Dean and Sylvia believed that they could apply the same principles of fruit growing and tourism, here in Saskatchewan.

It was quite the transformation for Dean; from computer programmer to Certified Organic fruit grower. Many people questioned his decision, but never his enthusiasm. 30 years growing up in the city did nothing to prepare him for the trials of rural life, and unfortunately the learning curve was vertical! While Sylvia had grown up on the farm, growing fruit was a lot different than slopping pigs and herding cattle! At least they had the knowledge that before this dream could become a reality, they would have to do a lot of research.

Dean took horticulture classes via correspondence at the University of Saskatchewan to give him the basics of plant anatomy and fruit production, and learned the art of fruit breeding in hopes to create hardier varieties of fruit that can be grown in our climate. They traveled to many fruit growing regions in North America, to learn from the knowledge that growers have accumulated over the years. Many connections were also made through the internet to growers and fruit breeders around the world; Estonia, Finland, Moscow, Siberia, India, are just a small sample. They soon found out that the challenge was to incorporate and adapt their experience and knowledge to the specific challenges in our climate, but in many cases we were breaking new ground!

February 23, 2021 is Agriculture Day in Canada! We are excited for this week’s podcast to be featuring some amazing local farmers in Saskatchewan. We will be featuring agriculture podcasts all week long that showcase the unique farmers in Saskatchewan working on sustainability in a variety of ways.