You are learning seasonal shopping: you will read the scene it happens in, take apart the pattern behind them (seasonal vocabulary), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
New York has four distinct seasons and a food culture deeply tied to them. Spring ramps, summer corn and tomatoes, fall apples and squash, winter citrus and root vegetables. Asking about season unlocks the best produce.
Late August at the Greenmarket — the end of summer, the peak of peach season in the Hudson Valley. The peaches from Locust Grove Farm in Milton, NY are famous among Greenmarket regulars: white peaches, yellow peaches, donut peaches, nectarines, all arriving at once for three weeks before the season ends.
"What's in season right now?" the stranger asks.
The farmer — a young woman in her thirties with soil on her boots — gestures at the entire table. "Peaches. This is peak peach season. We have maybe two more weeks."
"Is this the best time to buy?"
"This is the best time of the year. Full stop."
He tastes a white peach. It drips down his chin immediately. "I'll take two pounds of these and two pounds of the yellow. This only comes once a year!"