[Kyle Haning of rural Delavan, who sells produce at the Lincoln farmers’ market, checks out the baked goods brought by Marilyn Lolling of Hartsburg.]

Kyle Haning of rural Delavan had sold 20 dozen ears of sweet corn and 10 pounds of green beans, and John Justice of Lincoln had only two watermelons left. Richard and Nila Smith of Mason City had half a dozen tomatoes and a truck full of empty boxes.

The farmers’ market in Lincoln has had a long history, with ups and downs, beginning somewhere in the 1960s. At present the trend is up again, according to Vickie Hum. She and her husband, Doug Fink, are information officers for the market. There are half a dozen regular vendors and sometimes as many as five more who bring their baked goods and produce to the park on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7 a.m. until noon.

Adolph Hum, Vickie’s father and the market manager, brings garden produce and fruit, including Southern Illinois peaches, apricots and cherries in season. He raises his own apples and peaches and will be bringing peaches to market this week. Although he now lives in Lincoln, he spends most of every day tending the vegetables and fruit trees on the eight-acre farm his family owns between Lincoln and Mount Pulaski.

[Adolph Hum of Lincoln has been a fixture at the farmers’ market for many years, bringing fruit and vegetables. He is now market manager.]

Clarence Spurgin works a 3½ acre truck farm with the help of his wife, Virginia, and grandson Zack Tibbs, 17. Zack, "a hard worker," according to his grandfather, wasn’t there Saturday because he was detasseling. Spurgin says he will have corn for perhaps two more weeks, potatoes until September, okra in August and zucchini through August, "if we can keep the squash bugs out of the vines." He’ll have apples and pears in September, and onions and cucumbers until frost.

Richard and Nila Smith of Mason City have had their ZeoPonic Greenhouse tomatoes, along with some garden tomatoes, at the market every Saturday. Commercial growers who started their business last August, they have their own greenhouse, where the tomatoes are allowed to ripen on the vine.

"They never get straight water," Nila says. "We feed them with a nutrient solution which contains zeolite, a volcanic ash growing medium." The zeolite was developed by their neighbor Earl Allen while he was doing research for NASA.

"We believe it is the only tomato grown like this in the industry today," Nila said. They have sold tomatoes to Eagle Country Market, Schnucks and stores in Mason City, Havana and Delavan.

Along with his sweet corn and green beans, Haning sells cucumbers, beets, turnips and small flower arrangements. John Justice brings melons, sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans and some unusual varieties of squash. Later he’ll have decorative gourds and baby pumpkins.

[Richard and Nila Smith of Mason City sold out their vine-ripened greenhouse tomatoes at a recent farmers’ market.]

Other vendors may come only a few times in a season, when their particular crops, such as strawberries or sweet corn, are in season. One vendor, Anna Stanfield, sells live plants along with her produce. Krista Ubbenga and her mother of Hartsburg have been bringing baked goods and garden produce for the past few weeks. Krista, who competed in the cake bake-off at the Logan County Fair last year, is trying to decide whether she will make farmers’ market her FFA project next year.

The current resurgence of the market came about five years ago, when Fink and Hum began to organize and publicize the event. Haning, who has come to the market since 1987, when he was in junior high school, also helped with the publicity.

All vendors must have liability insurance and follow Logan County Health Department guidelines, Hum said. Baked goods must be pre-wrapped and the ingredients must be listed on the product or posted where the buyer can see them. The Logan County Board gives permission each year for vendors to use the park. Anyone interested in being a vendor can contact Fink or Hum at 732-6962. Vendors pay a one-time fee to cover advertising.

The first month and a half the market is open only on Saturdays. Vendors have early vegetables such as asparagus, leaf lettuce, green onions, berries and rhubarb. By mid-June other vegetables are ready and vendors begin coming on Wednesdays as well. In the fall, they will bring apples, pumpkins, squash and homemade apple cider.

"We’ll be here until it’s too cold to be out," Hum said.

Approximately150 volunteers help make these blood drives possible throughout the year. They serve as greeters, escorts, recovery help, canteen managers and blood labelers. Greeters assist donors when they sign in. After donors finish giving blood, escorts walk the donors to the refreshment area, where recovery helpers make sure they drink enough water to replace the fluid they lost and offer them refreshments before they leave.

[Blood donor Don Johnson of Lincoln, with phlebotomist Chris Van Duse of Peoria, smiles as he donates blood to the Logan County Red Cross.]

At a recent blood drive at the Lincoln Sports Complex, two greeters, two recovery helpers, two escorts, four canteen workers, one bag labeler and three people who helped with the setup were on hand to make the procedure go smoothly for the donors and for the personnel from the Heart of America Blood Region in Peoria, who actually draw and store the blood.

Many donors turn up regularly. "It’s something I think I ought to do," said Norman Newhouse, who donates four or five times a year. Newhouse has a special property in his blood that makes him able to donate to babies.

Angie DeVilder said she likes knowing blood will be there in case she needs it. The blood collected by the Red Cross is made available free of charge, although hospitals do charge a fee for processing and delivering it.

Don Johnson remembers that his father gave blood – he doesn’t quite know how many gallons – and he wants to keep up the tradition. He also noted that only a small percent of people who can give blood actually do so, and wishes more people would donate.

[Blood donors Don Johnson (right) and Jeff Wunderlin of Lincoln, get refreshments after giving blood. Robin Bye of Normal, an Americorps volunteer, pours water.]

"We’ve had several people who have given 20 or 25 gallons over the years," said Fay Stubblefield, office manager at the Logan County Red Cross. She said the Red Cross is the only organization in the county sponsoring blood drives and collects more than 50 percent of all blood donated nationwide.

A well-organized system gets volunteers to help with the two and sometimes three monthly blood drives. Stubblefield calls volunteers to serve in the canteen area, Joan Behle calls volunteers to be escorts and recovery help, and Marilyn Steiger calls the greeters. Co-chairmen of blood services are LaDonna Alexander and Jean McCue.

McCue, Rosemary Schacht, Jan Berger and Virginia Gleason take turns managing the canteen, while Alexander, Marilyn Kasa, Charlotte Gaither and Joe Gaither label the blood bags. Robert Guy and Betty Moriearty distribute posters, and John Ryman transfers supplies to and from the Red Cross office. The towns of Emden, Mount Pulaski and Atlanta manage their own blood drives and recruit their own volunteers.

A participant can take all three sections of the class or just the section he or she needs. For example, if a day-care worker needs only the first aid class, she can come for 1½ hours the first night and three hours the second.

Classes are limited to six to 10 persons and usually meet in the Red Cross office. Dan Hemenway at Lincoln College teaches American Red Cross life guarding and other water safety classes. All who successfully complete a class receive certificates.

The Red Cross in Logan County offers these and other services even though it is no longer chartered as a separate chapter and has merged with the Sangamon Valley chapter. As is the case with many organizations today, the Red Cross is consolidating offices, so last November the Logan County chapter agreed not to renew its charter. Much of the administrative work once done here is now handled in Springfield. Other counties that have merged with the Sangamon Valley group are Macoupin, Christian and Montgomery.

The local Red Cross still maintains its office at 125 S. Kickapoo, open from noon until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Two former Logan County chapter members are now on the Sangamon board: Shirley Dittus of rural Lincoln and Chris Agee of New Holland. Dittus said that although the merger is relatively new, the arrangement seems to be going very well. She added that the Sangamon Valley chapter has been "very complimentary" about the success of the Logan County blood drives.

[Brandon Piercy of Lincoln, studying to be an EMT, prepares to give CPR to a Red Cross mannequin.]

The traditional services provided by the national organization – getting in touch with servicemen anywhere in the world when there is a family emergency and helping out in disasters – are just as available to Logan County residents as ever, Stubblefield said. Anyone can call the office number – 732-2134 – at any time, and if no one is there the call will be automatically forwarded to Springfield and dispatched to the right person. Dittus said another way to reach the Red Cross, perhaps easier to remember, is to call 1-888-3-HELP NOW.

Logan County volunteers continue their work, whether the chapter headquarters is here or somewhere else.

"The Red Cross is a wonderful organization," said Mary Liesman of Atlanta, a greeter at the recent blood drive. "It helped my brother when he was in service in World War II and it helped my son when he was training to go to Vietnam.

"My father passed away and the Red Cross got my son home for the funeral. My brother was injured and the Red Cross wrote letters home for him. That’s why I volunteer."

City officials, historians and other people interested were among the 25 in attendance at the 7 p.m. meeting. They discussed several topics, including a possible video production, a christening date activity and ideas on how to attract people to historic sites in Lincoln.

After viewing a video from Looking for Lincoln in Decatur, the group discussed at great length creating a video focusing expressly on Abraham Lincoln history in Logan County. They would like to use the video both to draw tourists and to educate visitors once they've come. The group also considered using the video for fund-raising purposes, selling it in highly trafficked places where historic memorabilia is sold, such as at New Salem. Heads nodded as many ideas for the video were put on the floor in the excitement.

Those present continued to brainstorm on ways to bring people into the downtown area. Many of the ideas will be pursued at later dates. The group plans to meet in the future on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m.

For more information on this project, contact Main Street Lincoln at 732-2929.

[Trisha Youngquist]