Twenty-two years on Cranford Avenue

The Fruit Basket opened on Cranford Avenue in 2004. We’ve been the corner stop ever since. Independently run, open seven days, and still hand-writing the price cards.

A few things have changed in twenty-two years. The bench is wider. The deli case got longer. The kitchen now turns out twenty trays of slow-cooked soups, dahls, curries and pastas a week, all prepared on-site each morning. We added cheese and antipasto, then prosciutto, then the platters.

But most of what we do is the same as it was on day one.

What hasn’t changed

We still buy direct. The mango trays come off the truck from Carnarvon, not from a centralised pack-house. The Manjimup pink ladies come from the same growers most years. The strawberries are from family-run patches in Wanneroo and Gingin, and we go back to the same farm next season if the fruit was honest.

We still pick what we’d feed our own family. Every box of stone fruit gets taste-checked before it hits the bench. Cheese is cut to order. Platters are built before the bell rings.

We still write prices by hand. Yes, even on the imported parmigiano. There’s a fluorescent yellow card under it right now.

What’s new

A few years ago Selvi started bringing in her home-cooked meals: lentil soups, dahls, curries, slow-braised lamb. They sold out the first week. Now they’re a counter on their own. Customers come specifically for the Tuesday dahl.

We also started a proper delivery service across the river-side. Mount Pleasant, Brentwood, Applecross, Booragoon, Bull Creek, Bateman, Winthrop, Shelley: order before 11am and we drop it the same afternoon. Minimum spend is $60, which is most weekly fruit-and-veg shops anyway.

What stays the same

The shop is still on the same corner. Still open at 7am. Still has the same green awning. The boxes still get unpacked onto the front bench by hand because customers like to see what’s just landed.

If you’ve been coming in for twenty years, thank you. If you’re new to Mount Pleasant, welcome. The kettle’s on out the back.

The Fruit Basket