Spring produce guide: what's in season (and cheap) in Australia right now
Strawberries, asparagus and the pod family are at their best and their cheapest. What to fill the trolley with this spring — and what to cook with it.
The fastest way to cut a grocery bill has nothing to do with tickets or catalogues: buy what's in season. In spring that means strawberries by the punnet-load, asparagus in its brief and glorious window, and the whole pod family — peas, snow peas, broad beans — at their sweetest and cheapest prices of the year.
Fruit: berries take over from citrus
- Strawberries — the spring workhorse; punnets get bigger and cheaper as the season builds.
- Blueberries and raspberries — ramp up through spring, so stop paying winter prices for them.
- Passionfruit and papaya — abundant now and happiest on pavlova or breakfast.
- Bananas, apples and pears — the reliable all-rounders carry through.
- Mangoes, rockmelon and honeydew — late spring brings the first of the summer fruit; prices fall week by week.
Veg: asparagus season is short — don't miss it
- Asparagus — the whole Australian season is roughly September to November; this is the cheapest and sweetest it gets.
- Peas, snow peas, sugar snaps, broad beans — the pod family at its best, raw in salads or barely cooked.
- Salad greens, spring onions, radishes — the salad drawer wakes up as the weather warms.
- New-season potatoes and beetroot — small, sweet and made for salads rather than the soup pot.
- Zucchini and green beans — arrive in force late spring, just in time for barbecue season.
Turning the season into a cheaper week
Seasonal produce is where prices differ most between stores — the majors, and independents like Spudshed, can be dollars apart on the same punnet of strawberries or bunch of asparagus. Plan a few spring dinners — a salad, a stir-fry, the first barbecue — and Mai Pantry builds the shopping list, prices it across Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, IGA and Spudshed, and finds the cheapest way to buy the lot.