Seasonal Produce Guide – Spring fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts

Spring is such a wonderful time of year with so many beautiful fruits and vegetables in season to awaken our palettes and brighten our cooking after the dreariness of winter.  Writing today, on this gloriously sunny, warm Melbourne September day, one feels alive and vibrant, just like this wonderful new season’s harvest. So off you go to the market to buy some of this great produce and cook up a storm for the weekend! At Cooking on the Bay – we Cook Real Food and therefore we eat real food!  Read down to see what are the best at the markets now.

Sorrel is one of my favourite spring vegetables or, as some would say herbs; my sorrel has been flourishing in my balcony garden for years now.  In France sorrel grows wild, a bit like you see wild fennel in Sardinia, but in Australia, it can be difficult to source, except as seeds. I think I actually found seedlings for my garden, I can’t remember, it was quite some time ago now.
I cut my sorrel back over winter almost to the ground, so now it is springing back into life, looking fresh and renewed.
One thing to look out for is the snails which particularly love to hide under the sorrel leaves and eat into your plant. I have tried sprinkling ground eggs shells, around the plants and spraying with my chilli spray, a sprinkling coffee grounds in the garden seems to deter them best.
The flavour of sorrel is a particularly piquant, lemony flavour and is a wonderful accompaniment to rich foods such as eggs, ocean trout, salmon and oily fish such as sardines.
Use only the bright, fresh, young sorrel leaves as the older, overgrown leaves can taste quite strong and unpleasant.  In the Flavour Bible, Page and Dornenburg, say to use it fresh as it is a soft-leaved herb,  and will lose its flavour in sauces and soups.  However, along with many other cooks, I love it both ways; so do use it in mixed, green spring salads, as well as shredded in an omelette, to make a sorrel frittata or a tart, to make my favourite sorrel sauce with ocean trout, and also a cold sorrel soup, perfect for the warmer weather coming up.

My new season’s organic sorrel

This guide will help you to select produce in season and to cook accordingly.  Note: Some fruit and vegetable varieties can be grown outside of their usual season by being grown in hothouse or greenhouses. Sometimes flavour can be compromised but they are still available locally, such as tomatoes, eggplants, capsicum, berries and herbs such as basil. Also, some of the fruits and vegetables in this guide may be grown in the season, but maybe sent from interstate, so they are Australian, but not so local.

Your local Framers’ Markets and greengrocers are the best people to consult for what is best in the market right now!

Spring – September to November

Fruits – Apples, avocado, banana, blueberries at start of November, cantaloupe, cherry, cumquat, grapefruit, honeydew, lemon, lime, loquat, lychee, mandarin, mango, mulberries, orange, papaya, pepino, pineapple, rhubarb, strawberries, starfruit, tangelo, watermelon.

Vegetables – Artichokes, Asian greens – bok choy, choy sum, gai laan, wonga bok; asparagus,  green, purple, white; avocadoes, beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Choko, cucumber, daikon(Chinese radish), eggplant, endive, fennel, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, morel, onions – salad, spring; parsnips, peas – green, snow, sugar snap; Peppers – red, yellow and green; pimentos, potatoes – new; pumpkin, radish, shallots, silverbeet, sorrel, Spanish onion, spinach, spring onions, squash, swede, sweet corn, sweet potato, tomato, turnip, watercress, zucchini, zucchini flowers.

Herbs and spices – basil, chervil, chilli, chives, coriander, dill, garlic, ginger, lime – kaffir leaves; lemongrass, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, sorrel, tarragon, thyme.

Seafood – Eel, ling, longfin, lobster – Eastern Rock; mackerel, Moreton Bay bugs; orange roughy, oysters – Pacific; perch- golden sea, pawns – bay, school, tiger, redfish, river garfish, salmon, Australian, snapper – Golden; spanner crabs, trout – Coral; whiting – King George; yabbies – Farmed.

The mint is growing like crazy and ready to be picked for our mint sauce.

Sources: Seasonal Produce Guide – Sustainable Table;  Victorian Farmers’ Markets Association;  Maggie Beer, Maggie’s Harvest. (2005) Lantern, Camberwell. Victoria. Dr Geoff and Leigh Coggins, Dunroe, Hamilton.