Stone Fruit Season in Perth: A Buyer's Guide

Stone fruit season in Western Australia runs roughly from late October through early March. It’s the months that put fruit shops on the map. When nectarines arrive, customers walk in differently. They smell.

This is a guide to what’s coming, when, and what to look for.

The calendar

Roughly. WA growers are weather-dependent and a hot October can shift everything two weeks earlier; a cold November pushes it later.

• Late October to November: First yellow peaches and nectarines (small, intensely flavoured, expensive). White peaches and white nectarines start a few weeks behind. Cherries from Manjimup arrive in late November.
• December: Peak peach and nectarine season. Apricots are at their best, a short window, so eat them now. Cherries continue. Plums begin.
• January: Peak plum month. Black diamond, queen garnet, blood plum. Late peaches and nectarines, often the best of the season because the trees have built up sugar.
• February: Mango month. Stone fruit tapers off but the late nectarines and plums are still excellent. The Carnarvon Kensington Pride mangoes peak.
• March: Last call on stone fruit. Cheap, often softer than peak, perfect for jam or roasting.

Where it comes from

Most of the stone fruit on our bench is WA-grown. The major regions:

• Manjimup: apples, cherries, late peaches and nectarines.
• Pemberton: peaches, nectarines, plums.
• Donnybrook: apples and stone fruit, smaller orchards.
• Carnarvon: mangoes, melons, table grapes.

WA fruit comes first. When the local season tapers off, we’ll bring in eastern-states or imported stone fruit so the bench doesn’t go bare, but the WA tray will always be on first, and we’ll tell you which is which on the price card.

How to tell ripe from unripe

Smell. Ripe stone fruit smells like itself at the stem end. Unripe fruit smells of nothing. This is the single most reliable signal.

Squeeze gently at the shoulder (next to the stem). Ripe fruit gives a few millimetres without effort. Rock-hard means a few days off; squishy means today only.

Colour matters less than people think. A peach can be deep yellow and unripe. A nectarine can be patchy red and perfect. Smell trumps colour every time.

Shape and stem. A clean stem scar (no green ring around it) usually means picked ripe. A fruit with a green collar around the stem was picked early.

How to ripen at home

If you bought them firm: leave them on the bench in a single layer, stem-side down, out of direct sun. Don’t pile them up; they bruise. Check after 24 hours.

The brown-paper-bag trick (apple in the bag, loosely closed) speeds it up. Same trick as mangoes.

Once ripe, eat within two days at room temp or move to the fridge for an extra three. Cold flattens the flavour but stops decay.

What to do with a glut

A 2kg tray of nectarines is delicious until day three, when it becomes a problem. Three answers:

1. Roast them. Halve, pit, sprinkle with a little caster sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract, roast at 180°C for 20 minutes. Eat with yoghurt or vanilla ice cream.
2. Make a quick chutney. Diced stone fruit + onion + ginger + cider vinegar + brown sugar + a pinch of chilli, simmer 30 minutes. Refrigerates two weeks. Goes with cheese, pork, or curry.
3. Freeze them. Halve, pit, lay flat on a tray to freeze, then bag. Use later for smoothies, crumbles, or best of all, a chunky compote heated with a splash of water.

What we recommend buying when

If you’re cooking for guests on a Saturday: phone Friday morning and we’ll set aside the ripest box of whatever’s at peak. Stone fruit is one of the few things where buying a day ahead makes a difference. It gives you control over the ripeness when it lands on the table.

(08) 9364 3417. We’re happy to talk you through what’s good in the back room.