For Robert Hughes, having a stall at the Overland Park Farmers’ Market is just part of the family business.
A longtime vendor selling honey and honey products, he got his start at the farmers market decades ago. At the time, he joined his wife’s family, who had been selling farm-grown produce from the earliest days of the market in downtown Overland Park.
He had a little corner of their table for his honey to start out, but eventually graduated to having his own stall.
Now, in a full circle moment of sorts, he still runs his honey stand called Jordy’s Honey and Hughes Family Farm. But he’s also joined by his own son, who sells his produce from Hughes’ spot at the farmers market regularly.
To this day, Hughes says he feels “very lucky to have been associated with the Overland Park Farmers’ Market, and to have been there for as long as I have.”
And as the next formal farmers market season gets closer, Hughes is preparing for a big season in more ways than one.
“This is going to be a huge season,” he told the Post. “This is going to be off the charts.”
For starters, Jory’s Honey stand will roll out new flavors of creamed and infused honeys, alongside partnerships with other vendors at the farmers market, as well as more beeswax and candles and a wider selection of regular honey.
But beyond that, Hughes and other returning and new vendors are set to be part of a new era of the Overland Park Farmers’ Market as they get ready to move into a new pavilion at Clock Tower Landing later this spring.
“I don’t know if I’d say it’s a dream come true, but that’s about as close as I can get for us because it’s just going to be such a beautiful space for us to be at,” said Andrew Geiser, who sells microgreens, produce and other goods at the TableTop Farms stall. “Just the new atmosphere and the new crowd and all that.”
Clock Tower Landing will officially open in June
The new farmers market space and the surrounding plaza make up what is now called Clock Tower Landing, which is a $34 million project to completely remake this sector at the heart of downtown Overland Park.
All of that was set in motion several years ago as the city looked at ways to reimagine the farmers market pavilion in an effort to ensure it continued to meet the community’s needs into the future while maintaining what has set it apart for so many years.
“Markets just don’t happen; there’s magic in the details,” said Market Manager Kristina Stanley, alluding to all of that planning and ongoing work to prepare for opening day.
Everything is on track to wrap up in a matter of months at this point. Overland Park expects to officially celebrate the completion of the project with a ribbon-cutting on Friday, June 5, which will mark the 44th anniversary of the farmers market.
Then, the first official farmers market in the new space will occur the next day, Saturday, June 6. From there, the weekend farmers market will run year-round with summertime Wednesday markets and special events throughout the year.
(That means the season will start in the temporary farmers market location on Saturday, April 18, in the parking lots surrounding the Matt Ross Community Center, before moving into the new space.)
While the project itself has moved ahead on time and on budget, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. The construction activity — and the related road closures — in downtown Overland Park has left some businesses around the pavilion feeling squeezed.
Plus, with the farmers market temporarily located at the community center this past summer, it cut down on some of the foot traffic some businesses would typically expect to see in the warmer months.
All of that, combined with other pressures in the brewing industry, ultimately led Brew Lab to cease in-house brewing operations and decide to start selling off its brewing equipment. That said, the brewpub is keeping its doors open in downtown Overland Park.
Vendors are getting ready for 2026 farmers market season
In the background of all of this, vendors are also preparing for the season as well; they started receiving notification about their permission to return to the market or their acceptance to the market for the first time in late February.
Stanley said the new space will allow for more vendors as well, opening up opportunities for new types of goods at the farmers market to come alongside popular returning vendors.
“This is obviously a very big project, and there is so much excitement from the vendors,” she said.
Vendors like Kate Barker Sternberg, whose cold-pressed juice business Zen Donkey has had a stall at the farmers market for about five years, feel that excitement for the new season.
“There’s been such a huge effort and energy put behind it that it’s only going to bring good in the end,” she said. “Being part of that, growth, that excitement, that community-driven experience will be awesome.”
“American Dream is still alive and well” at the farmers market
In Hughes’ eyes, when completed, the new space will be like “the Taj Mahal” of farmers markets, and he expects it to draw large crowds of potential customers.
But, for him, it’s always been the people involved who make the farmers market the envy of the region. He said Stanley and her staff always go to great lengths and consider every detail to ensure customers have a good experience and vendors are successful. That is something he’s grateful for.
“We’ve got to have some gratitude for the hard work from the city and the money and the lessons they put in to help us become successful,” Hughes said.
Over the years, he’s watched several vendors launch brick-and-mortar businesses after establishing themselves at the farmers market.
“It’s one of the few places today where the American Dream is still alive and well,” Hughes said. “When folks go there, they have a good product, and they show up like they’re supposed to, you can make a decent living.”
Keep reading: Overland Park farmers market area getting new pavilion — and a new name
