Somewhere in the next several weeks, your farmers market is going to have its last Saturday. And then there is a stretch of about six months where the easy answer disappears and most people quietly go back to buying everything at the grocery store, not because they wanted to but because they did not know where else to go.

The farmers did not leave. The bakers did not leave. They just moved, and they are collectively terrible at telling anyone where. Here is where they went.

1. Winter markets, which almost certainly exist near you

Indoor winter markets are one of the best-kept accidental secrets in local food. They run in church basements, grange halls, school gyms, brewery taprooms, community centers and armories, usually once or twice a month rather than weekly, and they are typically advertised on a single Facebook page and a paper sign.

How to find yours: ask your market manager on the last day of the season, ask two or three of your favorite vendors directly, check your state's farmers market association website, and search "winter market" plus your county rather than your town. Regional beats local here.

2. The vendors' own shops and preorder rounds

Plenty of cottage food vendors and small farms run a weekly or biweekly preorder through the cold months — you order online by Wednesday, they bake or pack Thursday and Friday, and you pick up at a set spot on Saturday. No booth, no tent, no standing in the sleet for either of you.

This is the single highest-value thing to set up before the season ends, and it takes ten seconds: take a card or a shop link from every vendor you like on the last market day. Not a social media follow — a link. Put them all in one note on your phone called "winter." You will use it in December, and you will be very glad it is not a memory test.

3. Winter CSAs and storage shares

Many farms run a winter share, usually every other week from November through March. Expect storage crops and hoop-house greens: potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, winter squash, cabbage, sweet potatoes, garlic, kale and spinach, often with add-ons like eggs, meat, flour, honey or cheese from neighboring farms.

They are less varied than a summer share and considerably cheaper per pound, and they force a kind of cooking — roasting, braising, soup — that is exactly what you want to be doing in January anyway. Sign-ups usually happen in October. If you are deciding between a share and shopping loose, we compared the two in CSA box or farmers market.

4. On-farm stores and self-serve stands

A surprising number of farms sell directly from the property year-round, sometimes from an unstaffed cooler with a cash box or a payment app taped to the lid. Eggs, meat, milk, cheese, potatoes, onions, apples, cider, honey and flour are the usual winter suspects.

Ask your favorite growers whether they sell from the farm and what the winter hours are. Many will say yes and be visibly pleased that someone asked.

5. Holiday markets and craft fairs, which are peak season for makers

November and December are dense with one-day events — holiday bazaars, tree lightings, downtown shopping nights, school and church fundraisers, brewery vendor nights — and they are where the jam, bread, cheese, candles, cookies and gift boxes go. If you do your holiday shopping at three of these instead of online, you will have better gifts and a materially different local economy.

Check your chamber of commerce calendar and your library bulletin board in early November.

6. Co-ops, small grocers and restaurants that name their farms

Food co-ops and independent groceries typically keep buying from the same regional farms through winter, and they label it. So do the restaurants and bakeries that list their sources on the menu — and several of those will sell you bread, stock, pasta or produce directly if you ask, especially midweek.

Reading the label is a real skill here. "Local" on a sign should come with a farm name; if it does not, ask.

7. Your own pantry, stocked in November

The most underrated option is the one you set up before the market closes. Storage vegetables bought in bulk in November — squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, apples — will carry you for weeks to months in a cool dark corner. Add enough jam, honey, apple butter, maple syrup, pickles and frozen berries to get to spring, and a fair share of your winter local eating is already handled.

This is also the cheapest food of the entire year. A twenty-pound bag of storage onions in November is a genuinely absurd value.

The one thing to do on the last market day

If you take nothing else from this: on the last Saturday, walk the whole market and ask every vendor you buy from the same question. Where can I find you this winter?

Then write the answer down. That single lap is the difference between six months of local food and six months of meaning to.

Butter & Sage Market exists partly for this exact gap — a place where the vendor you met in July still has a door open in January, and where you can search by where you actually live. Have a look at who is near you.

Where do you buy local in the winter? Share your spot — winter markets and farm stores survive almost entirely on word of mouth, and yours could use the help.