When Lois and Alan Durick first moved to Staunton, Va., from Fort Washington, Md., seven years ago, they decided to check out the Staunton/Augusta farmers' market with their daughter and son-in-law, who already lived there.

From that day on they were hooked.

"We have the jelly man and our garlic man and the lady who sells the honey. We buy our bread there, and one lady sells beautiful geraniums," Lois Durick says.

"We avoid as much as we can setting foot in a grocery store after the market opens."

Farmers' market regulars swear by the fresh taste of locally grown produce and meat from locally raised livestock.

Greens picked just a few days or less before sale retain more of their flavor than those that spent a week in a refrigerated truck or plane, they say.

"To me, those store-bought tomatoes taste like cardboard compared to the ones grown locally," Durick says.

But customers at the market also echoed a trend that's growing among consumers nationwide: Buying local to reduce the use of petroleum in food transport and to preserve open space by keeping local farms in business.

"I feel like it's very important to support individual growers and small farms," says Verona, Va., resident Karen Wendt, as she picks out some kale.

"The food is fresh, it's real. I like knowing where it's coming from," she says.

In fact, the farmers' market, which began in 1993 as a place for growers to sell produce, recently changed its logo to reflect that new consciousness in food consumption.

"We're a producer-only farmers' market, and we're emphasizing to buy local," says Tom Womack, manager of the Saturday farmers' market operation in Staunton. "We want our customers to realize they're paying for locally grown produce that hasn't been shipped, so it's high quality."

Being "producer only" means any item sold at the market must have been produced by vendors and originate within a 50-mile radius of the market.

Although some of the farmers' market produce and meats may cost more than store-bought, Womack and other vendors emphasize that consumers are paying for quality.

And some prices may be lower because there is no store mark-up.

For example, kale and spinach (shipped in from nonlocal sources) at two area grocery stores were priced at an average of $1.20 and $1.99, respectively.

Bagged kale and spinach, labeled prewashed and ready to serve for sale by a vendor at a Wednesday Staunton/Augusta Farmers' Market in Verona, Va., were $2.50 and $3.50 each.

Many customers and sellers believe that locally bought is healthier, regardless of whether it's certified organic — and there may be some truth to that.

There hasn't been significant research showing that fresh-picked — or even organic food for that matter — is truly healthier.

But food safety may be something to think about, says Stephanie Diehl, nutrition and health agent for the Virginia Cooperative Extension, an outreach of Virginia Tech.

The longer food travels, the greater the risk for contamination, she says.

Fresh produce is more nutrient dense, Diehl says.

"Depending on how long something sits out, it can lose certain vitamins. At farmers' markets, the produce is often picked that day or just a day or two earlier."

If eating organic is important to you, there's no better way to find out how food was grown than by asking the growers directly at the farmers' market.

"You would need to ask the grower if they're certified organic," Diehl says.

Some growers don't seek organic certification because of the cost, but say they nonetheless practice organic farming.