LUMSDEN, Sask. – One year after establishing his organic cherry orchard, Dean Kreutzer found himself waging a war of biblical proportions.
Standing on his 40-acre plot of land, a distraught Kreutzer watched as a plague of grasshoppers descended on his tree seedlings.
“I was out there with a shovel going, ding, ding, ding,” said Kreutzer, making a swinging motion with his hands as he recently recounted the event while sitting around the kitchen table of his Lumsden, Sask., farmhouse.
It was enough to drive the self-described city boy over the edge. His wife Sylvia, who grew up on an Angus cattle ranch near Leoville, Sask., didn’t handle it much better.
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“Trying to be organic with grasshoppers is enough to make you jump off the cliff,” she said, motioning out the window toward the Qu’Appelle Valley below their property.
Eventually the Kreutzers figured out a way to protect their trees from the infestation, placing milk cartons around the fragile plants.
But that led to another problem. The couple lost 100 trees that winter to mice that took up residence in the cozy little cardboard houses.
Dean doesn’t regret giving up his life in Regina as a computer programmer to follow a path where he is at the mercy of Mother Nature.
“I finally understand what farmers go through,” said Kreutzer, who doesn’t look like a typical farmer, sporting a goatee and five diamond-studded earrings.
The old life isn’t entirely in the rear view mirror. Dean still does some programming work on contract in Regina and Sylvia is set to return from maternity leave to her travel consultant job.
But the couple is convinced the farm will soon provide both of them with full-time employment, in addition to being the first home for their two toddlers.
Like many disenchanted city dwellers, the Kreutzers woke up one morning and decided to take a drive in the country to check out an acreage. They immediately fell in love with the stunning view on what they have named Over the Hill Orchards.
Perched atop a peak in the Qu’Appelle Valley, their farm overlooks the scenic Deer Valley Golf Course, about a 20 minute drive north of Regina.
After seeing what they could get for renting out their 25 acres of arable land, the couple decided to farm it themselves by establishing an orchard.
A trip to one of North America’s top cherry breeding programs at the University of Saskatchewan sealed their fate. All it took was a bite of a cherry produced by breeders Bob Bors and Rick Sawatzky to set the Kreutzers along their new path.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘wow, we’ve got to do this,’ ” said Sylvia.
In 2000, the couple planted 150 of the university’s dwarf sour cherry cultivar SK Carmine Jewel. It produces a dark red tart fruit suitable for processing that, unlike the cherries grown in Michigan, needs no extra sugar or colouring when transformed into products like pie filling.
Five years later the orchard has blossomed into 3,000 trees, 200 of which are bearing fruit.
Until recently the couple had been making their lineup of six products out of a church basement in Regina. But this past weekend they opened their own processing plant in Lumsden where they will make ice cream topping, toast spread, tarts, juice, fruit crumble and their signature chocolates all marketed under the Prairie Cherry label.
“I want to be the Sun-Rype of the Prairies,” said Dean.
Their products are sold in a dozen health food stores, organic stores and flower shops in Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Yorkton.
With their first real harvest under their belts, the Kreutzers are busy shipping product to their retailers in time for the Christmas rush.
So far the business has been a drain on their finances. Five years into the new venture they have yet to experience their first break-even year.
But with the trees beginning to bear fruit and a new processing facility opening its doors, Dean figures Over the Hill Orchards will turn the corner next year.
Sales from the current harvest should surpass last year’s revenues. But it will be near impossible to top the 2005 client list.
In addition to making a sale to premier Lorne Calvert, who bought a box of chocolate cherries for his wife on Valentine’s Day, the Kreutzers provided their product to Queen Elizabeth and 670 dignataries attending a dinner for Her Majesty during her visit to the province.
“I said to Sylvia, ‘Where do we go from here? We’ve already given chocolates to the Queen.'”
