September is the month farmers market regulars quietly consider the best one of the year, and they're right.

For about four weeks, two seasons sit on the same table. Summer isn't finished — there are still tomatoes, still peppers, still the last of the melons. And fall has already started showing up — the first apples, the early winter squash, the greens that finally taste sweet again now that the nights are cool. Nowhere else on the calendar do you get that overlap.

It's also the month with the most going-away-forever deadlines. Here's what to buy, what to buy a lot of, and what can wait.

Buy It Now or Wait a Year: Summer's Last Call

Tomatoes. The last three weeks of real tomatoes. Prices often drop as growers try to clear the vines before frost, which makes September the single best month to buy in bulk for sauce, roasting, and freezing. If you've been meaning to learn to can, this is your window.

Peppers — sweet and hot. September is actually peak for peppers, better than August. Sweet peppers turn red and get noticeably sweeter late in the season. Hot peppers hit their full heat. Buy extra and freeze them whole; they need no blanching and they're a gift to yourself in January.

Melons. The last cantaloupe and watermelon, and often the best ones — late melons concentrate their sugar. Buy them heavy for their size and use your nose at the stem end.

Eggplant, summer squash, green beans, corn. All still going, all winding down. Corn in particular is worth grabbing weekly right up until it disappears.

Basil. Basil dies with the first cold night, and it's often the first thing to vanish. If you want pesto in the freezer, buy the big bunch in early September and make it that afternoon.

What's Just Arriving

Apples. The early varieties show up first — Gala, Honeycrisp, Ginger Gold, Zestar. These are eating apples, crisp and bright, and they don't keep as long as the late-season ones. Don't buy a bushel of early apples for storage; buy a bag, eat them, and save the storage buying for October's Fuji and Braeburn.

Winter squash. Delicata, acorn, and butternut start appearing. Look for a hard, dull rind — glossy means it was picked too early — and an intact stem. Properly cured winter squash keeps for months in a cool, dark spot, which makes it one of the best value buys of the entire year.

Pears. Bartletts and Bosc. Buy pears firm; they ripen off the tree and go from perfect to mush in about a day, so check them daily.

Greens, back and better. Spinach, arugula, kale, chard, and lettuces return in September and taste dramatically better than their July versions. Cool nights reduce bitterness. Kale after a cold snap is genuinely sweet.

Broccoli, cauliflower, and root vegetables. Fall carrots and beets are sweeter than spring ones for the same reason.

Cider. Fresh-pressed, showing up alongside the first apples. Freezes well.

What Cottage Food Vendors Bring in September

The prepared-food side of the market shifts too, and it's worth knowing what to look for.

This is peak preserving season, so expect the jam and pickle tables to be at their fullest — late-summer tomato jam, pepper jelly, hot honey, apple butter, chow chow, giardiniera. If a vendor's shelf looks especially full right now, that's the whole year's work sitting there.

Baked goods turn a corner in September. Apple cake, cider donuts, brown butter and maple, the first real spice flavors. Sourdough sales climb every fall as people start wanting to turn the oven on again.

And you'll see the first holiday preorder sign-ups going up. If there's a vendor whose pie you want in November, September is when you get your name on that list. Waiting until the first week of November is how people end up making their own pie crust at midnight.

How to Shop September Well

Split your list into "now" and "store." Buy a week of eating produce like you normally would, then add one bulk item per trip for the pantry or freezer — 15 pounds of paste tomatoes one week, a case of peppers the next, four winter squash after that. Doing it all in one Saturday is how you end up overwhelmed with a full counter and no plan.

Ask what's about to end. Growers know exactly what has two weeks left. "What are you not going to have soon?" is the single most useful question you can ask in September, and it usually gets you a real answer and sometimes a better price.

Bring more bags than you think. Winter squash and bulk tomatoes are heavy. A market haul in September weighs about twice what one in June does.

Go back at the end. Late-season growers would generally rather sell you a flat at a discount than load it back onto the truck. Ask kindly, buy in quantity, and everyone wins.

The Real Reason September Is the Best Month

Because you can put a September tomato and a September apple in the same bag, and that only happens once a year.

Roast the last peppers with the first squash. Make a salad with sweet fall greens and the last of the cherry tomatoes. Buy the corn and the cider. There's a short window where the whole year is on one table, and then it's kale and root vegetables until spring — which is lovely in its own way, but it isn't this.

Find a market near you in our farmers market directory, and go while both seasons are still there.