Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter

She isn't afraid of getting her hands dirty! Karen prepares chicken feed for the 350 chickens she has in her coop. - Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

It's about 11 o'clock on a hot Thursday morning in Highgate, St. Mary. Just in front of the giant clock tower, a handful of people are walking around and a few cars are parked at the side of the road. It's not a busy place. About a hundred feet from the clock is a small shopping centre called Peter's Plaza, and a short girl with dark skin and a pleasant face is using a broom to sweep the entrance to a store. Easy Way Fruits and Vegetables is written on a sign over her head.

"Hi! How you doing? Good to meet you!" she said with a bright smile as she spotted a team from The Gleaner approaching her. "Come in man. This is my place."

She doesn't look old enough to be more than maybe a store clerk. But then, Karen Tamasa doesn't seem to realise just how old she is. At 19, she owns and operates a business place, runs a farm, owns her own home, supervises 16 employees and offers free charity work to service clubs.

Entire life

The store is small and there are fruits and vegetables on shelves all around. Karen went behind the counter and wiped her hands.

"Farming is my entire life. Both my parents are farmers, and I grew up watching them. My father is 65 now and he isn't easing up a bit. I was a member of my school's 4-H club too, so this helped a lot," she said.

Karen started running her shop in Highgate while she was still a student at St. Mary Technical High School. She sells fruits and vegetables, packages vegetables for resale to supermarkets and makes natural juices, all at that one location.

"It was difficult and it took a lot of time, but I don't mind because I love to work. I tell people that by age 35, I should be collecting my pension," she said with a hearty laugh.

"I had to be thinking about the business and passing my exams at the same time. But it wasn't that bad, because I knew what I wanted from back then," she said.

New venture

Karen at work on her newest product on the market, seasoned vegetables.

Karen's newest business venture is selling cut and packaged callaloo. "I have a market for them as far away as Kingston. It's in a lot of the supermarkets and shops up there. They've been selling really well, and I can hardly keep up with the demand," she added.

The young farmer, who used to live in a tiny house with her parents and six brothers and sisters in Esher, St. Mary, recently bought a house in Tremolesworth a few miles away and now lives there alone. She operates a six-acre farm nearby with about 500 coconut trees and hundreds of chickens.

"It started out very small, with me just planting a few things on my father's land. Then as it got bigger and I got a bigger market, I leased another piece of land. It's what I love to do, so it doesn't feel like work," she noted.

"My sisters are very much into their nails and hair, but that's not me at all. Hee hee. I just love the bush and the dirt," she laughed. But she isn't just good at growing crops. The outspoken young woman handles all the money that her company makes and all business deals on her own.

"Who else is going to do it? I know how I want my business handled so I have to do it myself. It's not hard though, because I have some really good people working for me," she said.

No employee trouble

"I've never really had trouble with my employees not taking me seriously because of my age or anything. I think they all respect the work that I'm trying to do," Karen added.

Last December, she won the Prime Minister's National Youth Award for Excellence in Agriculture and nobody was happier about this than her parents.

"They were ecstatic! They always tell me that they're proud of me, but that just made them even happier. My mother keeps telling me that I work too hard, and that I should take some time and go watch a play or a movie or something. But that is not for me right now. I get my enjoyment from my work," Karen said with a smile.

Since winning the award, she's become the talk of the small town, especially among the young men. "They keep asking me if I'm ready to get married! But I tell them that I have a plan, and I'm not coming off track. I'll get married when I'm 25. Until then, it's just work, work, work," said Karen.