What's in season in Perth: spring 2026

On 4 September we put 250g punnets of strawberries out at $2.99 for the weekend. That was a special, not the everyday price, but it shows where the season is. September puts strawberries on the bench alongside asparagus and broad beans, and the stone fruit is still more than a month away.

This note follows our autumn and winter notes from earlier in the year.

September: asparagus, broad beans and the first strawberries

Asparagus is the vegetable that tells you spring has started. It’s on our September calendar and on the Buy West Eat Best spring list. Pick bunches with tight, closed tips and cut ends that still look moist. A dry, woody end means the bunch has been sitting around. At home, stand it upright in a jar with a couple of centimetres of water in the fridge, like flowers, and use it within a few days.

Broad beans are the other September arrival. They take some work: pod them, blanch them for a minute, then slip each bean out of its pale skin. The inside is bright green and sweet, and it’s worth the ten minutes. Smaller pods hold younger beans. The big ones are starchier.

Spring onions and the first soft herbs fill out the rest of the September bench. Everything in this section is on the fruit and veg range.

Strawberries: early fruit now, Wanneroo in October

Our calendar has early strawberries in September and the Wanneroo fruit, grown on Perth’s northern fringe, in October.

Keep strawberries in their punnet in the fridge and don’t wash them until you’re about to eat them, because water on the skin is what turns them soft. Take them out twenty minutes before serving. A cold strawberry tastes of very little.

Strawberries also carry a spring fruit platter. Our platter guide covers what goes on a board this season, and the fruit platters start at $29.99 for the mini fruit platter.

October: snow peas, basil, garlic and loquats

Snow peas should snap cleanly when you bend them. If one folds instead of breaking, it’s old. Pull the string off the straight edge before cooking, and don’t cook them for more than a minute or two, because the crunch is the point.

New-season basil and new-season garlic arrive in October too. Fresh garlic is milder and juicier than the cured bulbs you buy the rest of the year, so you can use more of it.

Loquats are easy to miss. They’re small and orange, with a short season, and Buy West Eat Best lists them among WA’s spring fruit. They bruise easily, so carry them on top of the bag and eat them within a day or two.

Not yet: cherries, apricots and nectarines

The stone fruit season is close, but it hasn’t started. Our calendar puts early cherries, apricots and yellow nectarines in November. Buy West Eat Best says WA cherries run from November through to February and come into their own in December, and that WA apricots are about from November to January. The stone fruit calendar has the full run, variety by variety.

Watermelon reaches its peak on our calendar in November too.

Mangoes: phone first

Mangoes aren’t in our online shop yet, so phone (08) 9364 3417 to check what’s on the bench before you come in. The Australian Mango Industry Association says the national harvest starts in the Northern Territory in July and August, reaches WA growers in September and October, and Queensland in October and November. Our mango guide explains how to pick a good one and ripen a hard one at home.

Getting it home

We’re at 76 Cranford Avenue, Mount Pleasant, open from 7am every day. If you’d rather not come in, order online before 11am for same-day fruit and veg delivery. The minimum spend is $30 before the delivery fee, and delivery is free to Mount Pleasant, Brentwood and Booragoon and $10 to the rest of our listed suburbs.

Stock changes through the week, so phone (08) 9364 3417 if you want to know whether something is in before you make the trip.