"Whoops!" said Cook, a vendor and board member of the Carrboro Farmers' Market. She jumped up from her stool and darted after the runaway currency.

"Can't afford to let money blow away," she said as she returned with the errant bill.

This year, more local farmers than ever are chasing the dollars that residents spend on locally produced food and goods at farmers markets. New farmers markets have been sprouting like daffodils this spring as the eat-local movement (which spawned the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year, "locavore," meaning one who eats locally grown foods) has led to an increase in the number of small-scale farms in and around Orange County.

By late spring, at least five farmers markets will be operating in the southern half of Orange County, plus one a bit farther south in Fearrington Village and another to the east in Durham.

"Success breeds success," said Cathy Jones of Perry-winkle Farm as she gathered cut daffodils and pussy willows into bouquets at the Carrboro market last weekend. "What's the word of the year? Locavore, right? So our time has come."

Jones' time came a long time ago, actually; she's been selling flowers and produce at the Carrboro Farmers' Market for 18 years. But she's being joined in the farming business by a number of newer producers, all seeking outlets for their goods.

"More people are starting to get back to agriculture," said Mike Lanier, Orange County's agricultural economic development agent. "More small farms are starting up. There seems to be a big demand for local food. People see the demand for that, and they try to fill it."

Hence the blossoming farmers market trade -- although Lanier said that what appears to be an influx of new markets is due at least in part to the splitting of the Hillsborough market into three separate entities.

A struggle for control of the Hillsborough market arose last year between two groups of vendors with differing visions for the market's structure and growth. After months of dispute, the sides reached a mediated resolution and the breakaway faction coalesced into a new group called the Farmers of Orange, said Ed Vaughn, treasurer of the new group.

Farmers of Orange recently announced plans to open what will be called the South Estes Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings in the parking lot at University Mall in Chapel Hill. The market, sponsored by A Southern Season, will open on April 5.

"We're real excited," said Vaughn, who runs Kaleidoscope Gardens in Cedar Grove. "With the population growth in this area and the growing interest in locally produced foods, I'm positive the area can sustain the new markets. A Southern Season is a great partner, and we're getting a real positive reception from everybody."

The original Hillsborough Farmers Market will continue to operate in the Suntrust Bank parking lot on Churton Street every Saturday morning, starting in April.

The third offshoot, the Orange County Farmer's Market, is operating in the new Public Market House on Margaret Lane in Hillsborough.


Still going strong

The Carrboro Farmers' Market, celebrating its 30th year, is the largest and longest-running local farmers market. It is going as strong as ever -- so strong, in fact, that it recently moved from a seasonal spring-to-fall schedule to a year-round one.

Carrboro vendors, all of whom grow or produce their goods within 50 miles of the market, sell their fare there on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. Another branch of the Carrboro market operates in Southern Village on Thursday afternoons. Jeffry Goodrum, president of Farmers of Orange, said the markets in Carrboro and Durham are mature markets with little room for more vendors.

"A farmers market in Chapel Hill is especially long overdue," he said. "The growing interest in and demand for local farm products is what is pushing the rapid increase in local farmers markets, not only in our area but across the country. We see the rapid growth of local farmers markets as a good thing for both the farming community and the general community. This growth does not produce competition but is a win for everyone."

Over in Carrboro, Cook and Jones both agreed.

"Oh, it's absolutely a good thing for everybody," said Cook, who runs Wild Hare Farm in Cedar Grove. "The upsurge in markets reflects a demand for locally produced food. People want a connection with the food they eat. Orange and Durham counties have a real wealth of small-scale sustainable farms to meet that demand. It's a wonderful thing."

One market that will not be opening anytime soon is the one the Downtown Partnership recently proposed for downtown Chapel Hill. Executive director Liz Parham said the idea for a Friday evening market has been shelved for now, mainly because the location -- the top of the Wallace parking deck -- posed logistical problems.

"There's a one-way alley that runs around the back of the deck," she said. "It's a tight area, and it meant we would only be able to fit five vehicles at a time in there to unload their goods. It was problematic from that standpoint. In addition, we got word of the University Mall market, so we decided to hold off."

Instead, she said, the partnership is working on a broader project, tentatively called Locally Grown, that would feature local music, art, food and other offerings at downtown sites one Friday night per month.

Lanier said the combination of the decline of large-scale farming and the surge of interest in locally produced goods has spurred the growth of small-scale and specialized farms that are joining the longtime vendors in the various farmers' markets.

A new farm-enterprise incubator program in Orange County designed to train people in small-scale, sustainable agricultural practices, recently graduated its first class. In the works is a "value-added shared kitchen facility," a center with equipment to enable local farmers to process raw goods into ready-to-sell products. A grower, for example, could take fresh tomatoes, peppers and cilantro to the facility and turn it into bottled salsa.

The new farming operations find outlets for their goods not only in existing and new farmers' markets but also in grocery stores such as Weaver Street Market and Whole Foods and in local restaurants such as Lantern, where owner and chef Andrea Ruesing is a leader in the local food movement.

In some ways, Lanier said, the system is returning to what it was many decades ago, when much the food people ate was grown or produced in their own communities.

"A lot of small towns used to have own hatcheries, their own dairy processing and meat processing operations," he said. "We're getting back to that now. There are a lot of things going on. There's a lot of energy in this right now."