Hinckley farm market offers a bounty of summer veggies and more

by Chris Studor

Homegrown green beans that snap with freshness, juicy tomatoes, sweet onions, beets, Patty Pan squash – is your mouth watering yet? If you are yearning for homegrown vs. grocery store produce, make your way to Kaja’s Farmers Market.

If not in the garden tending to her vegetables or feeding her chickens, Kaja Latkovic, the farmstand’s owner, is greeting you at her roadside stand at 2028 Stony Hill Rd. any day of the week.

This is the fifth year for Kaja’s stand, which has grown so much in popularity there’s almost a cult-like following in the community. Kaja’s frequent Facebook posts announce the arrival of different vegetables and fruits, along with the regular supplies of honey and free-range chicken eggs and draw daily followers who, in turn, post their praises of the stand’s selection and quality on social media.

“We had a wonderful opening day in late June and people told me they were just waiting for us to open,” said Kaja. “Right now our tomatoes are the early varieties, including Beefsteak. The Blue Lake and yellow wax beans also are ready, along with beets and candy onions. We have both cucumbers for eating and for pickling and of course the dill for pickling. There’s Patty Pan squash and soon zucchini. To flavor it all up several varieties of garlic are offered. In the cooler, are eggs from my free range chickens.

“We have our own beehives and not only offer fresh honey but also whipped honey along with a variety of creams, lip balms, soaps and health products,” Latkovic continued. “Our bees produced about 1,300 pounds of honey last year.”

Kaja’s husband, Joe, takes on most of the bee-keeping duties. Kaja said her farming methods trail back to her Serbian roots, with her parents teaching her growing methods,  along with pest control and preserving methods. She also noted that her actual first name is Svetlana but because few could pronounce it, she decided to call herself Kaja.

“I was brought up in a world where we grew our own food, canned and did a lot of pickling and baking,” she said. “I have carried on these traditions.”

Before deciding to switch careers, Kaja spent many years as a manager in the business world and operated her farm stand parttime.

“I came to a point where I knew I wanted to turn my passion into my business,” she said. “I spent my youth in the San Francisco Bay farm area where streets were lined with farm stands. Hardly anyone went to a grocery store for produce, only for staples. I wanted to give people here a chance to be able to buy their produce locally rather than at large grocery store.”

Latkovic said she doesn’t use pesticides or chemicals because she is a firm believer in the old saying, “you are what you eat.”

“I use natural insect control such as neem oil, which can be used on anything and baking soda and cayenne pepper on tomatoes – just sprinkle it on and it won’t change the flavor,” she said, noting she also uses a unique pest control called dog dish water – a combination of water from a dog dish, Dawn dishwashing liquid water and baking soda to deter insects.

She not only farms her own Stony Hill property, but the couple owns property and a greenhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio, in the heart of Ohio’s Amish County. Another family manages that farm, but grants her  “first dibs on any additional produce I need.” She said she purchases a few items from farmers in Amish Country that she doesn’t grow herself, such as corn, because the crops are so plentiful in that area.

“All our food products are organic and chickens are free-range,” she said. “I started out with four chickens and now I have 62 chickens of all types. They all have a name. … While the chickens are free range, they are locked up in their coops at night to protect them from raccoons and other egg thieves.”

Consumers can learn to recognize the difference between store-bought eggs and free-range chicken eggs, Latkovic pointed out. “If you look at a picture of both eggs cracked open, the store egg has a pale yellow yolk while the free-range egg has a bright orange yolk.”

She also harvests quail eggs, which she said are not only the highest in protein of all eggs, but have an abundance of health benefits and said are considered a super food. She said the tiny, spotted eggs are able to be stored for weeks without refrigeration.

As far as the bees, Latkovic said the farmstand started out with two beehives and now operates 20.

“The bees stay within a three-mile radius of our hives, which keeps them from flying into areas where pesticides are used,” she said.

As summer progresses, Kaja said she looks forward to two of her personal favorites being ready for picking: watermelon and asparagus.

When summer turns into fall, Kaja’s Farmers Market will be open to sell late-summer produce. Winter months are spent preparing “all types of health products from the bees.”

“Sometimes I’m awake until 2 in the morning [doing that],” she said. ∞

During the summer months, Kaja Latkovic sells an abundance of homegrown produce,
including several varieties of tomatoes and beans, and honey at her Stony Hill Road
farmstand. In the winter, her attention turns to selling a variety of health-related
products made fresh from her backyard beehives. Photos by Chris Studor.

Fresh eggs sold daily at the farm are produced by the farm’s own free-range chickens.

On our cover (photo): Kaja’s Farmers Market, located on Stony Hill Road in Hinckley, has become a year-round destination for locals looking to purchase fresh produce, ranging from tomatoes and beans to cucumbers and beets. The farm also offers cage-free eggs and fresh honey, as well as a line of homemade beeswax products. Photo by Chris Studor.