By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

The Farmer’s Market at Toho Square, a downtown Kissimmee Thursday morning and early-afternoon fixture, celebrates its 25th anniversary this summer.

One of the many secrets to its longevity and success has been rolling with and embracing change, and coincidently the market is going through some this summer.

The Thursday fixture will be moving to Tuesday evenings, from 4-8 p.m. on October 9 to take advantage of that season’s more temperate weather.

“Rain is a four-letter word,” Karen Ford, market manager since its 1987 beginnings, said.

The fair will move two blocks from Pleasant Street and Darlington Avenue to the Kissimmee Civic Center, where it has been home off-and-on over time to the collection of local and out-of-state produce and plant brokers and other assorted sellers of baked goods, jewelry, and crafts.

There’s one final change that is tugging at the heartstrings of those associated with the market, Kissimmee Main Street and the Downtown Business Association. Ford is retiring her post, leaving the operation in younger but just as capable hands.

“This is a good time, it’s slow right now in the ebb and flow of winter to summer,” she said. It’s the locals that drive the market right now.”

Ford, 64, and her husband, Vince, who passed away late last year, were driving forces of DBA and the market since throughout a history that she hadn’t even realized reached its silver anniversary.

“I didn’t even realize it until last week, when Kelly (Trace, Kissimmee Main Street director) showed me some old newspaper clippings,” she said.

Ford said her motivation to be near family and remain vibrant is the motivation for her to “retire” to the Daytona Beach area, where she’ll be closer to her grandchildren, ages 5 and 2. She said she plans to remain active in her roles with farmer’s markets in Winter Park and Celebration on the weekends in the short term.

“I wouldn’t be moving if not for [Vince’s passing],” she said. “I didn’t want to feel like I’m living in my car. The travel would be an issue, and frankly, it’s time.

“It will be a change of habit. What will I do on Thursdays? I don’t know what my hobbies are yet. It’s exciting and scary at the same time.”

Management of the market now falls into the hands of someone fully invested in the Kissimmee community. Kayla Burton, a lifelong resident and Osceola High School graduate, will take on the duties as part of her new role as Event Coordinator for Kissimmee Main Street.

“Yes, I have big shoes to fill. Karen’s done a wonderful job,” Burton, 22, who attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, on a volleyball scholarship after a decorated Kowboys career and earned a public relations and marketing degree, said Thursday morning while making the rounds of the market.

She brings unique college experiences — she interned in New York and studied abroad in London — to her new role of collaborating the market’s many facets.

“Deep down I always wanted to come back here, and I’m happy I have a chance to give back to my community. My family is, too,” Burton said. “My job is to sustain the great work she’s done, and see what we can do to make it an even better experience for the customers and the vendors.”

Ford said she feels Burton will lend a fresh set of ideas to the market.

“New and improved is something that can be embraced. Even to this day there’s never a dull moment, and I get asked and ask new questions after all these years,” she said.

Ford said Burton will inherit a handful of concerns.

“The whole area is growing and the demographics are changing,” Ford said. “The number of snowbirds who come for the season is dropping as they pass on. Their children are mostly still working so they only come down for a week or so.

“The concerns are about what to do to keep the money coming in, and get the tourists who stay in the area to come out; they don’t really experience Florida if they stay walled-in at their resort.”

Ford said she’d still be reachable to help when she can and serve as Burton’s lead consultant — and the new manager has already partaken.

“I called her (Tuesday) night,” Burton said.

Trace called the passing of the torch — or tomato, referring to the popular produce product — “very bittersweet.”

“We’re all very sad Karen is leaving, and It’s always a nervous time when you make a change, but we are fully confident in Kayla’s ability to continue the market’s success. This is an important event to the quality of life in the community.”

The market is hosted by Kissimmee Main Street every Thursday from 7am-1pm (until the change in October) offering produce, plants and baked goods.

This past Thursday, Ford took time to observe her successor rounding into the role quickly, and taking the market into its next 25 years.

“Look at Kayla, she’s already working it,” she said. “She has good instincts about the area and working with all the kinds of people involved.”