Seasonal produce to make the most of this November

"I'm definitely excited for more chopped salads with lots of different colours," Phoebe Thorburn says.

Thorburn, a writer and cook in Naarm/Melbourne, says spring produce "is easier to eat closer to its natural form", which also helps with the cooking "mental load".

Josh Ball, co-founder of home delivery grocer Farmers Pick, says shopping seasonally tends to leave you with the freshest, tastiest and cheapest produce.

"Cost of living is a massive consideration and following the seasons is the best way to get the best price," he says.

There's new produce, such as mangoes and cherries, to be excited about and year-round staples too.

While brassicas grow all year, "the more sunshine they get, the faster they grow" and November can see prices drop, Ball says.

What can you look for?

Vegetables:

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Cabbage
• Asparagus
• Broad beans
• Corn
• Zucchini
• Avocado
• Garden peas
• Snow peas
• Fresh garlic

Fruit:

• Mangoes
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Other stone fruit, such as nectarines, peaches and apricots, are expected later this month

Brassicas (those old favourites)

Spring weather often brings on a good supply of brassicas, particularly broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, Ball says.

"If there's some sunny days in a row, they come on really fast," he says, and you can suddenly have a flush of affordable and versatile cauliflowers.

And if you're shopping at smaller or independent grocers, prices can change quickly, he says.

Enjoy asparagus and broad beans (while you can)

Hamish Franklin, the buyer at Georgie's Harvest in South Melbourne Market, says white and green asparagus will be available for the next few weeks.

"When you're buying regular asparagus, you want to find the bigger size [spears], which have got a deeper, richer flavour," he says.

But, Thorburn gets "really excited about the baby asparagus".

"I've been wanting to make, like, a warm, tangy, vinaigrette potato salad with asparagus," they say.

Ball says: "If you like asparagus, you've probably got a few more weeks to really enjoy it and then it'll probably start disappearing."

Broad beans have a "relatively short season" and will be "winding up as well", he says.

Alan Li, from Fruits on Coventry in South Melbourne Market, expects broad beans to be available until the end of the month.

Corn and zucchini

While corn is reasonably priced currently, Li says the price will drop as the volume increases.

The zucchini supply will increase in Australia's south in the next few weeks too, he says.

Zucchini and corn are also among Thorburn's warmer weather favourites, and they recommend charring corn cobs on a griddle pan and using the kernels in salads and salsas or sautéing thinly sliced zucchini "coins" in olive oil and butter as a side.

"Sometimes adding peas in, sometimes asparagus, [and] seasoning it."

Mangoes

Making mango lassis and dicing mango for salads is great, but like a lot of us, Thorburn is most excited for just eating mangoes out in the sun.

The first mangoes came from the Northern Territory in early spring. However, Ball says supplies are now beginning to come from Queensland.

"People can expect to see mangoes coming into that sort of affordable, bingeable territory over the next couple of weeks, which is pretty exciting," Ball says.

Li says the Kensington prides are "Australia's best-eating mangoes" and he recommends the firmer flesh of the R2E2 variety for salads.

Berries, cherries and other stone fruit

Li says a lot of interesting fruit is coming into season this month.

This includes Victorian strawberries, which are becoming less expensive, he says, as well as other berry varieties, such as raspberries, blackberries and mulberries.

Ball is already stocking cherries, which can be "volatile" to grow.

"If there's any poorly timed rain, or hail in particular, the whole crop can be destroyed pretty easily," he says.

You might not have seen other stone fruit on the shelves yet, but Ball says it's on the way, pointing to the Goulburn Valley and northern Victorian growing regions.

So expect nectarines, peaches and apricots later in November.

"And then obviously through summer they're everywhere and they can get pretty cheap if it's a good season," Ball says.