Buoyed by consumers' steadily growing interest in eating locally grown food, Pennsylvania's apple growers as a whole are thriving despite a ruinous fire that has threatened the future of one popular Washington County farm.

A trash fire blew out of control last weekend at Apple Crest Orchards in Amwell, near Washington, Pa., sparing most of the trees but destroying tractors and other equipment Audrey and Lee Wagers needed to eke out another year's apple crop.

The Wagerses, both 76, are devastated by the fire and doubt they can continue the business they have run together for nearly five decades. But despite their misfortune, industry experts said most of the state's growers are flourishing as more consumers seek out food that has been grown nearby rather than shipped from thousands of miles away.

Episodes of salmonella and E. coli contamination of tomatoes, spinach and other produce raised in California and Florida have prompted the public to question the safety of mass-produced food, they said, and more customers now want to buy food from farmers they know and trust.

"We have seen our market grow dramatically year after year and it coincides with this wave of interest in buying local," said Steve Dettinger, coordinator of the Main Street Farmers Market in Washington, where Ms. Wagers -- known locally as the "Apple Lady" -- has sold apples for years.

"Customers have discovered there are real advantages to buying from your neighbors."

Even as the number of acres devoted to apple production has shrunk in the past two decades -- about 3,500 acres of apple orchard have been shifted to other uses, according to federal agriculture statistics -- the overall production of Pennsylvania's apple growers has increased slightly, from 450 million pounds a year in 1990 to 467 million pounds in 2007.

The crop, valued at $66.5 million, makes Pennsylvania the nation's fourth-largest apple producer, behind Washington, New York and Michigan.

During those years, apple growers began planting more compact varieties of trees, creating higher-density orchards that produce more fruit on less land, according to Karin Rodriguez, executive director of the Pennsylvania Apple Marketing Board.

About three-quarters of the state's apple crop is sold for processing into cider, apple butter, sliced apples and into applesauce sold by companies such as Musselman's, Lucky Leaf and Mott's, according to Ms. Rodriguez. The remainder is sold as fresh apples.

Along with the marketing board, the state Department of Agriculture has encouraged consumers to buy local produce with its PA Preferred program of identifying locally grown produce in grocery stores, farmers markets and restaurants.

Through its Farmers Market Nutrition Program, the state also offers vouchers to senior citizens and to women participating in the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. Participants can redeem the vouchers with participating farmers to buy locally grown fruit and vegetables.

"Definitely the interest in local foods is helping farmers in Pennsylvania, including the smaller-niche farmers with roadside markets," Ms. Rodriguez said. "That movement is helping them and we are trying to promote that as best we can."

Private groups such as the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture have pushed the campaign further by urging consumers to "buy fresh, buy local," creating searchable databases to help consumers find nearby farms and markets, and organizing dinners, cooking demonstrations and workshops to showcase the quality and variety of local fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and other products.

Judging by attendance at southwestern Pennsylvania's farmers markets, organizers and farmers said, consumers are hearing the message.

Parking lots jam with cars on market days and long lines form at vendors' tables. Regular customers show up every week -- and sometimes multiple times at several different markets during the week -- during the May-to-November market season.

Tom Driscoll, markets manager for Pittsburgh's seven farmers markets, said his staff counted 140,000 customer visits to the markets four years ago. Since then, he said, the number of farmers market customers has increased by as much as 20 percent, with more new customers showing up every season.

Many people have become interested in buying directly from farmers because food scares in recent years spur them to know the people producing and selling their food, Mr. Driscoll said.

Others have discovered that just-picked local produce tastes better and stays fresh longer than fruit and vegetables harvested a week or more earlier, and shipped from California, Florida or overseas, he said.

With the increase in popularity, he said, more farmers are coming to markets.

Where he might have had one or two family farmers looking for a spot at Citiparks markets in past years, a half-dozen new farmers have asked to begin coming to market this year. As at many other markets in the region, most of the available spots for vendors have been taken, he said, with vacancies remaining at just two city markets.

Some farms, such as Trax Farms in Union and Soergel Orchards in Franklin Park, also have succeeded in drawing customers by diversifying crops and offering family-friendly activities such as hay rides, strawberry and pumpkin picking, and gardening and cooking demonstrations.

Others, such as Kermit Taggart, have remained specialized. Mr. Taggart sells other produce at his farm in Canton, near Washington, but raises only apples. But those farmers offer what they say is higher-quality produce because it's picked only when ready.

Mr. Taggart sells about a third of his apple crop to grocery stores at lower wholesale prices, but said he could sell it all at the farm if he had more cold storage.

"Agriculture is always a risky business, but I think there's a demand for local fruit," he said. "We don't pick our apples until they're ripe, so you get a very satisfied customer."

Farmers, such as the Wagerses, who devote themselves to perfecting one crop, can offer specialty items like delicate old-fashioned apples with complex flavors. In addition to modern types, the Wagerses were known for such varieties as July, Northern Spy, Winesap and Pippin apples that need careful handling and can't easily survive shipping to a grocery store.

But they also are more vulnerable to frost, drought, hail and fire, among other risks inherent to farming, because they depend on the success of that crop. Taking their apples to two Washington-area farmers markets helped her and her husband make a living from their farm, Mrs. Wagers said.

But with most of their equipment destroyed in last weekend's fire, the two of them getting older and no clear successor emerging from among their family members, even their popularity at farmers markets might not save the farm now, she said.

"We're asking ourselves, 'Are we going to run this place? Should we even try this year?' " Mrs. Wager said. "It was working fine. Now we don't know what to do."