Guest: Dean Kreutzer, Over the Hill Orchards

Big Idea:

Dean trained as a computer programmer so he was pretty desk-bound before he turned 33 and started his active new career as an organic farmer. Now he is a plant breeder and zone denier on his cold-climate farm near Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada. He grows fruit and makes wine for sale at a local market and invites people (during non-Covid times) to participate in container classes and fancy dinners on the farm.

I met Dean online about six years ago and he immediately sold me on soil bags plus two kinds of strawberries, Charlotte and Tristar, for my own strawberry flood tray experiments. The rest is history. While I grow in a warmer climate than Dean I have fallen in love with the effectiveness of the root pouches Dean introduced me to and now I sell them on my web page and use them throughout my garden for strawberries and potatoes too! (https://donnabalzer.com/shop/)

In this interview Dean tells us about his farm, his awards and his efforts to reduce the work load and bending as he ages and grows small fruits like strawberries, loganberries and thornless blackberries for market. As he hits his 12th or 13th year on the farm there is one thing Dean says he knows for sure: “I don’t want to be on my knees any more…”

Learn how Dean uses raised beds, float valves and flood trays so he doesn’t have to bend over or stand with a watering wand in his hand. Dean tells us how strawberries and raspberries dislike wet feet, and shares his tips for using alfalfa pellets to fertilize and mulch small plants. Find out about his experiments with soil mixes, breeding better fruit and using organic principals even though he no longer pays to have his farm organically certified.

Website: https://overthehillorchards.ca/