Thu Feb 09 2012
Empty nesters Kevin and Kim Hicks say working on the farm helps them keep their minds off their
missing kids.
The duo, married 29 years, raises daylilies and tomatoes on Kim Hicks' father's 100-acre farm in Bridgeport.
This year, their youngest of three sons, Jacob, left for college at the University of Kentucky. Aaron, 26, and Tyler, 22, have both graduated from UK.
"This is the first time in 22 years that we have not had a child playing soccer," Kim Hicks said. "I am very sad about that. We need to stay busy and farming certainly does that."
And while they have been farming on Hobart Hearn's land for many years - mainly tobacco - the combination of their children leaving and the tobacco buyout really catapulted the Hicks into the Farmers Market circuit.
"In the last few years our boys have gotten older and gone off to college," Hicks said. "As they left, we lost our tobacco help, then came the buyout. It was good timing for us to look for something else."
Now the Hicks, who've been vendors at the Franklin County Farmers Market for four years, have around 500 varieties of daylilies and 23 of heirloom tomatoes.
Of the daylilies, Hicks says her obsession with the flowers prompted her to sell them at market.
"I stopped at a yard sale one day and a woman was selling daylilies," Hicks said. "I fell in love with them and started buying them like crazy. After a couple of years I had enough to start taking them to Farmers Market."
It was Kevin Hicks' idea to grow produce.
"After the first year, my husband said, "If you are going to keep going to the market, I think I will start growing some other things for you to take,'" Kim Hicks said.
Along with the heirloom tomatoes, they also grow four varieties of cherry tomatoes.
"I started all the seeds in the house under grow lights, and then moved them to a small greenhouse," she said. "We try a few types every year."
The tomatoes are a huge hit at the market, Kim Hicks says, because while there were tons of tomatoes at the market, there aren't many heirlooms.
"An heirloom means the tomato is open-pollinated, and the seeds have been saved for many years," Hicks said. "They have great flavor, but split and crack easily. That's why you don't find them in the grocery stores."
The family also grows and arranges flower bouquets. It depends on the time of the year, Hicks says, to determine the most popular seller.
"There are always some favorites we grow each year," Kim Hicks said.
The couple has lived in Frankfort since childhood. Kevin Hicks works for the Department of Revenue and Kim Hicks works part-time at Wilson Nurseries.
"After growing up here, we see so many people at the market," Kim Hicks said. "It's like a social gathering every Saturday morning. People bring their children, grandchildren, dogs and just hang around and visit."
As for the future, she thinks their farm and garden will only continue to grow.
"We have slowly added more and more every year," she said. "We will probably do even more next year because all of our boys are gone."
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