Tonya Copeland travels 53 miles from her home Spring City, Tenn., to the cannery in Bradley County, Tenn., almost every week to ensure she has high-quality, affordable vegetables until next year.

“I started canning last year with my sister because it started getting expensive (at the grocery store), and so far it’s been a great experience,” Ms. Copeland said.

She cans everything from green beans and tomatoes to peaches and pinto beans, depending on what’s in season, she said.

As food prices go up, more people are shopping at area farmers markets or growing their own produce and canning it to save money, local farmers and residents say.

Veronica French, marketing director with the Downtown Dalton, Ga., Development Authority, has noticed the trend at the Saturday farmers market started there this year.

“The population in Dalton started coming out originally for the produce because there’s this big push to buy local products,” Ms. French said.

But now, “I believe they think it’s healthier, it’s better for the environment, it saves gasoline and there’s a pretty substantial savings in the cost in comparison with the grocery stores,” she said.

The Downtown Dalton Saturday Market has grown from about 10 vendors when it opened in May to about 30 now, selling crafts as well as local produce, Ms. French said.

In Bradley County the cannery and the farmers market are very popular with local residents.

“We’ve overbooked all summer,” said Retha Odom, who manages the cannery. “I think people are struggling with the economy. People are having to learn how to be self-sufficient.”

Mrs. Odom said people are canning things that before “you would throw away; anything that’s salvageable,” such as apples.

She said, though, the county-owned facility is too small to keep up with demand and no more appointments are available this season.

Climbing food costs have been hard to ignore.

A Chattanooga Times Free Press comparison at area grocery stores between Aug. 4 and Sept. 8 noted the price of Nestle Good Start infant formula went from $9.32 to $9.49; Colonial white bread went from $2.49 to $2.87; and Blue Ribbon extra long grain rice went from $2.15 to $2.29.

The increases add up, and rising food prices will continue for the next several years as global demand for American agricultural products increases, according to Dr. John Garrett, UC Foundation professor of economics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Karen L. Bradley, interim market manager of Battlefield Farmers Market in Walker County, Ga., said this year has been the biggest since the seasonal market began four years ago.

“After mid-June we had a lot of inquiries about vendors, and as of this past Saturday we reached our 55th vendor, and everything is grown locally,” she said.

“Tracking all the folks who have come in, we’ve had over 10,000 visit our market alone this year,” she added, referring the Battlefield’s Rock Spring outlet.

Battlefield operated a second market in LaFayette, Ga., three days a week through August. It attracted 2,000 to 2,500 visitors, she said.

Battlefield is one of four farmers markets in Georgia that can accept food stamps, Mrs. Bradley said.

“It offers a different avenue for folks who won’t spend those higher prices in the grocery stores,” Mrs. Bradley said.

She believes the salmonella outbreak from tainted jalapeno peppers and the related tomato scare earlier this year pushed some people away from buying produce at grocery stores.

“I think that really sparked interest in more in folks wanting to buy local, but then when they started to buy local, they started seeing what was actually available to us,” Mrs. Bradley said.

Kim Frady, manager at Bradley County Farmers Market in Cleveland, Tenn., grows his own produce and has managed the market for almost 20 years. He said he has seen interest rise.

“I’ve seen more people growing stuff and more people buying. It goes hand in hand,” he said.

All of the farmers markets require their vendors to grow or make the product they are selling. Some, like Dalton’s, require they live within a 40-mile radius. Battlefield Farmers Market accepts vendors from Walker and surrounding counties.

Most area farmers markets will be open through October or early November.

Staff writer Amy O. Williams contributed to this report.