By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

Norma Voldal recalls the dangers of the Valley City’s Farmers Market’s first location.
It was 1979, and Voldal was one of five people who sold vegetables and fruits to customers near Holiday’s grocery store, now Valley Drug, 239 2nd Ave. N.W.
Police closed off a big section of street just for them. “People parked right on the street,” Voldal says.
But if there was a fire, trucks came rushing through. Voldal says she prefers the locations the Farmers Market has had over the years to that one.
This year is the Farmers Market’s 30th anniversary. Vendors will sell produce at the north end of the Pamida parking lot, 727 15th Ave. S.W., which is another location change. Last year’s location at the Rosebud Visitor Center was deferred because of flooding issues.
The market opens July 13, later than usual due to the late spring. Market members plan to celebrate the anniversary with a festive event later in the season.
In 1979, charter members of the market were Voldal, Becky Huber, Sharon Clancy, Karl Limvre and the late Les Jackson. Voldal, Huber and Clancy are still active with the market.
Another active vendor is Al Schumacher, who began with the market in 1985. He has two greenhouses he’s built on his Valley City property and gets a head start on vegetables such as tomatoes.
Schumacher’s backyard has cabbage family vegetables, radishes, cucumbers and green beans, and he also raises strawberries. He also has a four-acre garden in Linton, N.D., where he says it’s rained more this year than in Valley City. He says his potatoes are really getting to be a nice size.
Still, Schumacher says vegetable gardens are at least two to three weeks behind in average development because of the cold spring. Gardening is a part-time gig for Schumacher, who has taught math at Barnes County North-North Central for 38 years.
Valley City also has a separate Saturday Farmers Market, which started last year and began this year June 20. It’s in Hinschberger Park in Valley City from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
The 30-year-old Farmers Market is from 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays. As in past years, customers may sign up for a weekly drawing.
Anyone wishing to be a part of the Monday and Thursday Farmers Market may call Voldal at (701) 845-4303; or for the Saturday Farmers Market, call Sharon Clancy at (701) 845-0009.