You may have noticed it hasn't been easy to find tomatoes this week. Stores and restaurants nationwide have been pulling tomatoes because of a Salmonella outbreak.

At the Staunton/Augusta Farmer's Market Saturday, one seller actually saw a rush on her tomatoes.

After concerns about E. coli in spinach in 2006, local tomato sellers are urging customers that their products are OK to buy.

"I'd rather come down here and get all my vegetables. They're home-grown, and you know what you're getting," says Dorita Wharton.

She says she much prefers buying her tomatoes at a stand like the one Robin Ulmer runs. Ulmer sells what are called the Trust variety of tomatoes that are grown in a greenhouse.

She usually sells about 350 pounds of tomatoes in a morning. She brought an extra 50 pounds Saturday and still sold out by 10:30 a.m.

"Yeah, there have been an increase in sales and people looking," says Ulmer.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, 228 cases of Salmonella have been reported in 23 states, including Virginia, since April. The FDA does not believe Virginia was the source of these tomatoes. There have been at least 25 hospitalizations reported in connection with the outbreak.

The strain is called Salmonella Saintpaul. It's a rare type and does not affect cherry tomatoes or vine-ripened tomatoes.

So far, the FDA has not been able to find the source of the outbreak. However, they do say Virginia's tomatoes are on a list that have not been associated with the outbreak.

The FDA says the Salmonella outbreak has been linked to raw red plum, red Roma, round red tomatoes, and products containing those tomatoes.

Merritt Liptrap is getting his tomatoes ready to sell in July. He hopes people have forgotten about the scare.

"They're fresh, vine-ripened, homegrown. So, they're not mass-produced. So, I don't think we have a problem," says Liptrap.

Following the E. coli outbreak in spinach in 2006, this latest scare has tomato experts and the FDA confused.

"I am kind of interested in seeing, 'Well, how did it [happen]?' because that's hard to believe that [the bacteria is] actually in a tomato," says Ulmer. "So, when they come up with the results, I'll be interested to find out."