At first there were four brothers and now there are six: Mark, Chris & Bradley, Dean, Mike & Ryan, and Jason. They represent generations of Tiessens who have been in farming – an example of how a plant grows. The kind of ‘farming’ they do has lured universities from around the world into their sphere, because Dean and his associates are working with companies to develop new species of perennial energy grasses. Universities from Bonn, Illinois, Georgia State University, Guelph, and Toronto are seeking to validate their findings.
It means “Taking one’s business into new directions” Dean said to me to on the day I interviewed him. It happened to be on the same day he was given the Business Innovation Award. Those of you who read the Leamington Post would have found him featured in one of their articles.
“New directions,” Dean said, “means growing specialty greenhouse vegetables – like ‘heirloom tomatoes’- putting ‘a new spin’ on 100 year old tomatoes. The ‘Martha Stewart varieties’ that one presently finds in super markets, have swapped shelf life in favour of colour and flavour.” He uses grafting techniques to produce 30 different varieties such as Cheroke, Amish, Purple Prince from Crimea, and large US tomatoes which are a fat fruit, and were once grown in back yards. Now they are being produced by mass production.
Dean’s tomatoes have recovered old qualities and added new ones. “They have 100-year-old flavour,” he explained. “They have a different colour and their ‘cat faced appearance’ may not be attractive to some people,” he said. In fact, they were not always marketable under current market regulations “The distribution system is very sensitive,” Dean said. He had to get special exemptions to sell his produce from the Canada Food Inspection Agency.
‘New directions’ is where Dean and his partners went four years ago when they entered into the business venture of creating alternate fuels from ‘bio-mass.’ The word means the conversion of biological forms, like wood from demolition waste, or wood from wood chips in lumber yards, into useable fuel. This has become a highly desirable source of energy for power stations and greenhouses. Since we are dealing with waste products, which people want to get rid of, the only cost of procuring this ‘bio-mass fuel’ is freight.
In following his vision of ‘new directions’ Dean has carried the biomass idea a step further by growing his own fuel, in the form of willow trees, poplar trees, and perennial grasses, which he rotated on 250 acres of land. The price of land required to produce natural gas, or gas and oil, or fossil fuels generally, to operate greenhouses is $100,000 per acre. “Growing grass is greener and 280 acres will produce a lot of fuel, Dean said. “Actually it promises to meet all of our fuel needs,” he added.
Many varieties of grass come from China where the grasses are grown from rhizomes – tissue culture. A single plant may be purchased to multiply vegitatively. The species that Dean uses was originally cloned in Europe. Now the United States, Japan, and Russia are growing it themselves. Power companies want it. They bale it and burn it together with coal.
A second generation of biofuels is ethanol, derived from grasses used by the Shell Oil Company and the BP Company. Ethanol is also used in the production of plastics.
Miscanthus is a perennial grass that Dean is focusing on now. It is planted once, and grows for decades producing fuel each year, with little or no input. The high silicate content in its leaves assists in the deterrence of pests. It doesn’t spread like some grasses do even though it propagates through vegetation. The varieties being used are sterile and will not become invasive. A large propagation site has been set up in Tifton Georgia USA. Dean’s company is the only one in North America that produces it. Dean’s company partners with companies in Britain and Germany. As well, he has joint ventures in Southern Ukraine and in Spain.
Dean says that Oma Tiessen and Oma Toews taught him the enjoyment of nature and plants – they provided him with important skills at the time when he was 4 to 5 years of age. He and his Oma would go to Colasanti’s and pick up a cactus plant, or take cuttings of succulents, and annuals, violets, trees, fruits, and vegetables. He had his own spot in the greenhouse. This was when he was 5 or 6 years old. Then he moved into gardening – growing vegetables.
Opa Toews, who started out on Highway 77, was often working in the bush. He had many stories to tell of family history from Russia. Dean says he taught him the value of work. Dean spent a good deal of time in bushes or digging in ditches for crayfish.
His Omas and Opas opened his eyes for opportunity in a country they regarded as one of opportunity. In the telling of stories of the past his Opa Tiessen made a point of saying that employees should always be treated with respect, advice, which Dean said, he has always tried to follow.
As told by Dean Tiessen to Bruno Penner 2010
